Some Hall of Famer Cards You Don’t See Every Day
graygator
Posts: 485 ✭✭✭✭
The grades just came in on my first submission in seven years. I sent in 35 cards of Hall of Famers, mostly pre-war, mostly low population, and mostly low grade. Some are rookies. All are playing days cards and will go toward my Hall of Fame Player, Manager, and Executive playing days set, which to me is more important than the grade. But there are a few to come that are now the highest graded for the issue.
I will post them over the next couple of days with the PSA population for context. I hope you enjoy.
First up is a 1906 Fan Craze Joe “Iron Man” McGinnity. Total population for the card of 38, with 29 higher. This is the 5th five.
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The next 6 cards are all managers or executives. For them, I use the earliest card available in the capacity they were elected to the HOF, even if they have an earlier card as a player.
1976 Bill Veeck. Total Population of 47. With 26 higher, this is the first 8.5.
1969 Bowie Kuhn. Total population of 34 with 29 higher.
1949 Ford Frick. Pop 26, 24 higher. I obviously don’t know how to grade a stamp.
1936 Casey Stengel. Pop 35, with 32 higher. I think I may have missed something here. Wasn’t expecting a 1 on this one.
1939 Durocher. Total population of 284 with many of those being higher.
1913 Miller Huggins. Total population 59 with 42 higher.
How was that one issued???
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Topps produced some limited number, supposedly 200, and gave them directly to Kuhn. They have filtered out over the years but are very hard to find.
Next up are three rookies from 1916.
This Eppa Rixey is the first 4.5. Very happy with this grade. Total pop of 11 with 6 of those higher.
Very cool batch of cards, graygator, well done!
Urban Faber. Total population of 6. This is the only 2, with the other 5 cards higher graded.
And here’s an incredible one. 1916 Standard Biscuit Red Faber. Only 79 Standard Biscuits of any player have been graded by PSA, and this is the first Faber graded.
This is only the 4th of this 1931 Bill Dickey rookie that PSA has graded. It’s the lowest graded of the 4.
Crooked just like the subject it portrays.
It's the singer not the song - Peter Townshend (1972)
This card is the only one to feature JL Wilkinson. Though I think there is still some debate whether it is really Wilkinson. Total population of 6, with only 1 of those higher.
Great stuff, Michael. Keep 'em coming!
That card is gorgeous. Never seen this set before.
This strip card is the rookie card of Ross Youngs, even though it says Pep Young. Very confusingly, because there is another player named Pep Young, but Ross was also sometimes called Pep, and the “s” was often omitted unintentionally by card companies. But Pep Young played after Ross retired and never played for the Giants. So this is definitely Ross Youngs.
Total population of 37, with 7 higher than this one.
Here’s an early card of the great Lefty Grove. Total population of 52, with 22 higher.
There are some more strip cards to come, but if I’m being honest they are my least favorite part of this submission, so let’s take a look at some cards from the Exhibit Supply Company.
I was surprised by the grade on this 1921 Jesse Haines. Oh well. This is the 42d on these to be graded.
And this is the 29th 1921 Burleigh Grimes to be graded by PSA.
One of the top 5 cards in the submission for me, only 12 of this Al Simmons rookie have been graded, with 5 higher than this one.
Here are 2 more strip cards rookies. Total population of 9 (Covaleski) and 7 (Kelly).
The last of the strip cards. These w590 are total population 18 (Harris), 15 (Jackson), and 4 (Lindstrom).
Five more posts to go. Here are two more rare Exhibit rookies, with a total population of 8 (Terry) and 9 (Cuyler)
This Chuck Klein rookie is relatively plentiful by comparison, with a total population of 32.
Three 1929 Kashin cards are next, with the Manush and Ott being rookies.
Chuck Hafey has a total population of 28.
Heinie Manush also has a total population of 28. The only three “higher” are 8s with a qualification, and this straight 6 is the highest without qualification.
And Mel Ott has a population of 41.
Several years ago I bought a complete set in the original box of the 1941 St. Louis Cardinals team issue. This has an Enos Slaughter rookie, and early Johnny Mize, I think the first card of Branch Rickey as an executive, but anr least an early one, and the first card of Billy Southworth as a manager.
Mize is total pop of 24 with 2 higher.
Rickey is total pop 28 with 4 higher.
Slaughter is total pop of 28 with this being the only 8.5 and the highest grade ever for the card!
And Southworth is total pop 20 with only 3 higher.
Finally are three caramel card rookies.
This Gabby Hartnett is a total population of 30.
This Joe Sewell is a total population of 6.
And for the grand finale we have a Waite Hoyt rookie with a total population of 8 ever having been graded by PSA and none graded higher!
Hope you enjoyed seeing some more rare cards that aren’t usually posted. And Happy Holidays to everyone!
These are so cool, and it's just amazing things this rare survived at all for as long as they did.
Any cool stories about how they came to you or how they were passed along? It's so great you got them and had them slabbed so they hopefully are around for years to come.
Thanks for the kind words. I wish I had some cool stories, but mostly it’s been about identifying the cards I wanted, being patient, and then not hesitating when I see them.
Great post. I love the obscure hard to find cards of hall of famers. Here are some that I have acquired over the years.
Now this is a tough act to follow- very enjoyable to look at all that has been shared here. Well played
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
Tremendous, Michael! I don't even know where to start. So many rare HOF rookies. The Hoyt and Simmons are outstanding. And a Slaughter 8.5??? Wowzers. Congrats!
Thanks, Andy. It means a lot, because I know that you know just how hard some of these are to come by. I had a great time putting these together and posting about them here.