General Forum

To anyone who has a focus on collecting HOF players, do you differentiate between collecting cards from their actual playing years from modern cards that include them in the base set?  Just wondering if you would actually consider the newer cards from Archives, Allen and Ginter etc as being part of that collection. 

I do. More out of the shear fact that trying to get a card from the old-schoolers (pre-60s) isn't exactly the easiest thing. I love the Conlon (baseball) run from 91-95 for example. A good thing about modern takes is you can get more varied photography from other sources to include the occasional action shot. Look at some of the Stadium Club photos used for legends. I do try to avoid the recycling of the same photos. 

Ditto what Jim said. I've added a few of those those legends sets to my Wants, particularly those with a retro look (not necessarily Archives).

I have all my cards in my collection all together in boxes in set order.  For years I have thought about separating some of them based on certain criteria but I’ve never actually done it.  Kind of thinking non stars, all star cards, and then my “pc” of my teams, inserts/rookies of all stars, and hall of famers.  But not sure whether or not to have it all HOF or just from active years.  I’m trying to make that “pc” not be too large so I can have those easily accessible to look through.  And I guess instead of PC it would be more of a showcase as really all my cards are in my PC. Just always trying to come up with a way I can look through my cards easier and more often than how they are now stacked in 3200 count boxes. Maybe keeping the non stars in 3200 and moving the other cards to smaller boxes to grab easier.  

Just to add I think I am leaning towards all the HOF cards.  It’s just that sets like Bunt and Donruss and Fire from the past few years seem to have so many.  

Bunt and Fire never really interested me so easier to bypass those. I'd much rather focus on a card that is about the player in his element than about whatever computer generated design they can come up with.

I only collect cards for a HOF player's playing days. I like the idea of holding a card that a person who opened a pack at the time might have gotten, with the card's lack of slickness, limited stats and curious trivia printed on the back. I know this approach bumps out a lot of 50s/60s cards given their priciness, but there's still plenty of recent and future HOF players that make the collection large enough. Plus, when I get a late Willie Mays or Hank Aaron card it means that much more to me because it may be the only one I'll be financially willing to get. 

I also feel that with the card companies producing mass quantities as they are (and aren't likely to stop anytime soon), getting all the new cards of retired players would just be that much more of a chore. I'm looking at you, Panini.

For those that mentioned Conlon, Steel City Collectibles has boxes of 1991 "on sale" for $20.  No idea if that's a good price for it, just wanted to mention.

I collect Baseball HOFers. I don't care what card it is of a HOF player, I'll add it to the collection. I have added Major Release base set cards (for the most part) to my want list. I keep track in a spreadsheet the complete loist of HOFers, whether I have anything for them, whether they were inducted as a player or not, and if they were inducted as a player, if I have cards from their playing days. My ultimate goal is 1 card from each HOF player from their playing days. A goal I seriously doubt I'll ever reach (especially for those earlier players). So, in the meantime, I'll take what I can get of Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Cy Young, and Walter Johnson (etc.), and be happy, without being too overly concerned whether it's from their playing days.

1950s and 60s cards have been mentioned as expensive. Don't overlook the fact that there are HOFers who played their whole career in the 1800s.  I actually search out modern cards of players like that.  I have no interest in spending the money required to get original cards of them.