Friday, April 6, 2018

Neglected Hall of Famers custom set

I was recently working out a trade with Matt of Red Cardboard who enticed me with a fat stack of '64 Topps from his aborted setbuild. I procured a sweet Johnny Bench auto for him, but still needed a little something extra to seal the deal. He had mentioned on his blog that he's got a Hall of Fame binder with a card of everyone enshrined, though he had a handful of empty slots of relatively obscure guys from long ago. He was agreeable to the idea of customs to fill the holes in his binder, and so I cranked them out over the course of a couple weekends. (My apologies to Dimebox Dad, whose custom project I put on hold to do these, but I'll finish that one up soon!)

These are mostly old Negro Leaguers and some old owner/manager types elected posthumously by the veterans committee.. guys with few if any real cards readily available out there.


I went with the classic Conlon design. All the photos are black and white, and when I think of b&w baseball cards, Conlon is the first design that pops into my head.


I enjoyed learning about these guys. Many interesting lives featured here. Most of the back write-ups were condensed from their respective Wikipedia pages.


The checklist is Ray Brown, Andy Cooper, Barney Dreyfuss, Bill Foster, Frank Grant, Alex Pompez, Cumberland Posey, Frank Selee, Hilton Smith, Ben Taylor, and J.L. Wilkinson.


Those are the 11 cards in this initial set, though I kinda want to consider this a "living set" like the original Conlon of the early 90s and may add cards to it later. (Open to suggestions for forgotten HOFers with little cardboard presence.)

If anyone is interested in a set, not for sale, but I could be talked into printing additional copies for trading, so check out my wantlist and get in touch. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

10 comments:

  1. I'd be open to a set one day. But it will have to wait until after I work up another custom run/list for my Names Binder that I still need to coax you into.

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    1. I'd also be interested in a a set, but I'm still in the organizing process. I recognize some of the names you ran this time as ones who I've been trying to track down with no success.
      The Conlon style was a great choice!

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  2. I know I sound like a broken record when it comes to your customs... but dude... these are so flippin' awesome! Great job!

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  3. These look really good - great choice with the Conlon design!

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  4. I am interested in one of these sets you created. I am working on putting together a trade package for you.

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  5. Conlon choice is fantastic and these look wonderful. Another B/W option could've been Studio 91 but that wouldn't work with non-studio photos. Anyway if you get around to an Effa Manley card please post about it.

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  6. As a long time fan of the Conlon cards I have to say that these are fantastic and a great concept.

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  7. This set is must-have, and I don't have it.... I may have a few items to consider for a swap if you're willing!

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