Completing a HOF collection

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Posted By: Mark Tylicki

Hi Paul-

A 1968 Topps Joe Morgan got me started on a HOF collection around fifteen years ago. I liked the mugshot. I didn't know a lick about anything issued prior to 1991 really. But, as I walked around card shows/visited shops, I recorded my favorite portrait card for each member...

1909-11 T206 Ty Cobb
1956 Topps Ted Williams
1957 Topps Yogi Berra
1965 Topps Roberto Clemente

As the list grew, I started dabbling with vintage. And, I learned more and more about card collecting and each player's career. Eventually I researched the gaps and tried to find portrait cards for some of the tougher Baseball Hall of Fame members - including executives and umpires. I realized some didn't have contemporary issues or they were very expensive/rare. I settled on owning tribute cards - Perez-Steele, Callahans, etc.

A few years ago, I reached near completion for Phase 1. I had nearly every HOFer represented by some card - contemporary or tribute - in a portrait form. So, I decided to kick off Phase 2. I had several T205s, T206s, 1953 Topps, and 1933 Goudeys. I guess these were my favorite issues so I had picked cards from these sets for many of the HOFers. I decided to swap them out for new type cards. I had no more than 75-100 different issues represented at that time.

I shifted cards around to maximize the number of types represented while keeping the portrait theme. So, the 1962 Topps Duke Snider became a 1960 Leaf Duke Snider....decided Aparicio was better for 1960 Leaf (Big Head), and purchased a 1953 Bowman Color Duke Snider instead. I had a 1961 Topps Rizzuto MVP, a 1961 Topps Nellie Fox, and a 1961 Topps Musial. They became a 1949 Bowman Rizzuto, a 1953 Wilson Franks Fox, and a 1948 Bowman Musial. Since, I bought the Musial, my 1948 Bowman Mize became a 1947 Bond Bread. Anyway you get the point... today - I have 230 different issues represented in the collection (106 of which are pre war).

As you can see in this thread, there's a lot of different approaches to collecting the HOFers - contemporary and/or tributes, action poses, Rookie Cards, portraits, etc. They'll all keep you very busy and offer lots of fun. You'll learn about history, paper, people, marketing. Good Luck!

Kind Regards,
Mark

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MY COLLECTION: http://www.rustywilly.com/MYCOLLECTION.htm