HOF as a “set” collectors - how many of us are out there?

[Belfast1933]

Nice! I can see there are a lot of “us“ out there.

I’d also be interested to hear how each of you decide which card makes your collection for each player.

For me, I prefer the player with the team that I most associate them during their playing days. Then, I look for, what I consider to be the best looking card for that player.

The final step is to group text my family and have a virtual “beauty contest” where they each vote for their fave - it’s become a bit of a fun family affair, actually

Question – how do you all display your collection?

[mawitzi]

I collect 20th century HOF players. I just need 4 more to finish. The 19th century and negro league players are out of my price range. I did not "start" this goal until I realized that i was about 12 cards away. I have always collected HOF players, but originally without the goal of getting them all.

[Misunderestimated]

I'm way into this too... the hardest ones in terms of "career contemporary" status are, as some of the prior posters have alluded, the Negro league players and the 19th Century people. Some of the non-players are also either non-existent in career contemporary cards (Marvin Miller) or very scarce (Umpires McGowan and Evans come to mind). This project can require stretching the definitions of the word "card" in order to find something for certain subjects....

[EGreenwood]

I am doing a version of this for all MLB HOF players and managers that played / managed between 1901 and 2001. I haven't follow baseball too closely for a long time, but love the history of the game.

Erik Greenwood

[brianp-beme]

My version was 1 of each Hall of Famer that had cards issued during their career in sets between 1909 and 1941. I became familiar with the Negro League players too late in the game, so they got left out due to affordability. For HOF managers it was fine if the card was depicting the Hall of Famer as a player or as a manager. In the Executives and Umpires categories I mostly gave my cold, bony shoulder, with notable exceptions of Branch Rickey, Clark Griffith and Charles Comiskey. I just wasn't too interested in having CEO/CFO/QC Supervisor, or General Wanker types on my roster of greats.

The total amount of cards needed with these parameters in place is 120. The Hall of Famers within my subset that have very few (while still being relatively available) card options include Jake Beckley, Elmer Flick, Joe Kelley, George Davis, Jack Chesbro, Charles Comiskey, Branch Rickey, Bill McKechnie, Lou Boudreau, Pee Wee Reese, Phil Rizzuto, Joe Gordon and Enos Slaughter. Thankfully the T206 set exists for some of the earlier players, and the 1941 Double Play set for some of the later players.

Brian

[nat]

Originally Posted by Belfast1933

Nice! I can see there are a lot of “us“ out there.

I’d also be interested to hear how each of you decide which card makes your collection for each player.

For me, I prefer the player with the team that I most associate them during their playing days. Then, I look for, what I consider to be the best looking card for that player.

The final step is to group text my family and have a virtual “beauty contest” where they each vote for their fave - it’s become a bit of a fun family affair, actually

Question – how do you all display your collection?

Choice of card is mostly a matter of price/availability. I'd prefer the team the player is most associated with, and for the Topps era that's no trouble, but for pre-war cards I'm willing to compromise. That Hornsby was not expensive, and for a not expensive Hornsby I'm willing to tolerate the fact that he's on the wrong St. Louis team.

Display: except for graded cards, in a binder. One card per page. I cut down a 3x5 card to use as a backing behind undersized cards so you can't see the card on the next sheet. The idea is for each page to be its own little exhibit featuring that player. Over sized cards I put in a card saver, mount that on a sheet of card stock, and put the whole thing in one of those full-sheet-of-paper plastic pages. (See Speaker below.) I put a full sheet of card stock in a page protector before any over-sized cards, so that the over-sized card isn't visible when looking at the cards in front of it.