Custom HOFer Auto Project!!

In my best attempted nod to Tanner (Mouschi) and his amazing customs work and threads I would like to show off and discuss a project I have been dreaming about for years. It is finally happening and I am beyond excited. It is a long read and hopefully worth your time.

For a while now I have been accumulating a ton of HOFer autographs on every medium from cards to Perez-Steele postcards, HOF placards and multi-signed pieces. I currently have over 1,000 total HOFer autos of almost 200 different players.
One thing I despise about card companies is when they take perfectly good autographed items (such as a Perez-Steele or Yellow HOF placard), chop them up, and put them into a “Cut Signature” card with minimum design elements. It seems like such a shame and a waste to ruin a piece that is already great.

Now don’t get me wrong, the idea of a cut signature card is fine, but I think it should be a way to enhance an already dull presentation of a HOFer signature. Where I think this can be done the best is by using signatures from index cards.

A little history lesson, as acquiring autographs became popular starting with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, many people began writing to their favorite players and requesting their signature on an index card to be returned in the SASE provided. It was fairly easy to find out where to mail the request and that information was shared among autograph hounds. Sometimes players would write elaborate responses, but most of the time it was a simple auto with perhaps an inscription like “Best Wishes” or a personalization “To Tommy, Good Luck.” Almost every HOFer can be found on this medium and for the most part are consistent.

I have hundreds of these bought in huge lots from the auction houses and they were always neat, but kind of boring. What could I do to pep them up? What about creating a unique custom set? What about combining the look and feel of a beloved set from my childhood with autos of players that I could not get on that set? Hmmmm….my mind was flowing with the possibilities.

I began asking several of the amazingly talented guys who create custom cards to give me their thoughts on my ideas. Several guys sent me mockups and design layouts, but nothing really jumped out at me and the cost was prohibitive. Now I am not a complete cheapskate and I am willing to pay for quality work, but keep in mind my ideas for this “set” was to have 100+ customs created and the total cost being quoted to me was enough to buy a Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and Jackie Robinson so naturally I was hesitant. Why would I spend so much to just change an auto I already have instead of using that money to buy new stuff? I really wrestled with this. I also wanted to find a guy who I could really collaborate with during the process. A person who could take all of my thoughs and be the creative genius to make it a reality and have the know how to build a card that would last and not completely ruin the autograph within the card.
So I finally found Mr. Jeffrey. I will let him decide if he wants to reveal himself on this thread, but let me just say that he was amazing to work with and I could not be more proud of the work and effort he put into this. More about him later.
One set that I have always loved was the 1983 Donruss HOF Heroes set. It is a 44 card set with some truly great names in it. If you are unfamiliar with it, the artwork on the cards is done by renowned sports artist Dick Perez. I have long been surprised that it is such a small set. They look like this.




Only 25 cards of the set can be possibly signed and I have been working to get them all. I have a thread about my progress towards that here.

http://www.blowoutcards.com/forums/baseball/838272-1983-donruss-hof-heroes-auto-project.html

Since I love the classic look of this set I tought about expanding it to include any and all HOFers. But the only way to have autographed versions was to make a cut signature card. Jeffrey and I went through several iterations on the card design getting it to look as much like the original design. Two other elements remained; the auto and the player pictures.

First the pictures. As I said before the original HOF Heroes set only has 43 players (there are two cards of Mickey Mantle in the set). And I love the artwork of Dick Perez so….wait!! What if I combine the artwork of the Perez-Steele Postcard set with the HOF Heroes set design? Brilliant!! There are already cards for every HOFer in the Perez-Steele Collection. So that was where I would get my player pictures from.

Now to the signature window. Most players signed the index cards horizontally so creating a vertical card was out of the question. Sorry Jarod. We went with a horizontal window that was large and consistent regardless of the size of the actual auto. Awesome!!

Now that we had a design, I sent Jeffrey the first batch of 20 idex cards for him to begin his magic. He sent me proofs for every card after he carefully adjusted each auto to fit ideally in the window. Once approved, he went onto the building process.

Without further ado, here is the first batch all together…



Here are a couple of the proofs to show the design up close.






I will certainly post each card individually once I get them in hand later this week. Here is a look at one of the backs to give you an idea on them as well.



Again, I cannot tell you how thrilled to have this project working. I have a several more batches to send to Jeffrey to make. I can see the set being well over 100 players.

I want to send tremendous thanks to Jeffrey for his amazing craftsmanship and patience with me through the design process. I also want to thank my card buddy Jarod for encouraging me and being a sounding board as well.

I hope you like them and I would love to hear what you think.

Thanks for reading.

Nice ! Good luck w/ the project

Ryan

Sweet!!! Those look fantastic as a complement to your Donruss set!

As you know Mike I collect HOFer 3x5's and GPC's and have gone the route to get them PSA /DNA slabbed. I did briefly look into the "custom" idea but I do not have any skill to do such a project and I felt I wanted to invest in authentication and protection of my collection.

Will look forward to seeing the project move forward.

Those look awesome!

Incredibly cool. I love that set too and have several autographed. What a great idea making a cut autograph set from them. They look like a spot-on perfect extension of the set. Awesome job!

P.S.: Isn't it great having Josh Hamilton back with the Rangers and doing well?

Austin said:

Incredibly cool. I love that set too and have several autographed. What a great idea making a cut autograph set from them. They look like a spot-on perfect extension of the set. Awesome job!

P.S.: Isn't it great having Josh Hamilton back with the Rangers and doing well?

Click to expand...

Yes, nice story.......but not yesterday

Absolutely love this project! Down the road I would like to do something similar with autographs I have of former Brewers but not on Brewer items. I've searched for custom cut DIY "kits" but may have to pony up or drop a ton on a nice printer and tons of supplies. Great stuff, thanks for sharing!

Thanks guys for the comments. I looked at this as another way to preserve the autos as well since index cards are usually flimsy. Almost all of these autos are JSA or PSA stickered and I will show you how I incorporated that when I get the cards in hand.

I have finally gotten around to scanning the first batch of completed customs. Here they are:










Let me know what you think.

GREAT job and look all around! Very nice to see that every single auto not only fits within the cut window, but you get all of the signature in it (Joe Dimaggio is a great example). My favorite one in your post is the Dizzy Dean, he has such a great auto and the simplicity of the design adds to it quite a bit. Very cool man!

Great project and great cards. I wish I had the patience and time to do something like this.

Fordman

Nice!