What would you do/do you do when....

[Hawaiian BamBam]

What would you do/do you do when you hit a collecting roadblock with ttm/ip autos? my dillema (spelling?) is Im trying to put together a complete run of dodger autos of every single player to play in a game for the brooklyn and la dodgers. theres a total of 1,542 dodger players all time(i got the info from a goggle search and wikipedia) the problem is i have so many dodger autos already(been collecting them since 1982, that Im discovering that many of the dodger players left that i need( many only played 1-2 games with the dodgers) either never had a dodger card made of them or it is almost impossible to find a card of them signed in a dodger uniform. (i have about 300-400 of these players in other uniforms, just not dodgers) so it is just hard to upgrade them to dodger autos, because some simply just dont exist. i cant do customs because alot of them are either deceased, dont sign ttm, or have no address in any database. so my question to you is.
1. when do you resort to getting index cards signed?(i dont like them, but might have to use them as a last resort, because some players dont have a dodger card)

2. when do you resort to collecting ANY auto you can of a player, just to get it checked off the list? (i really would like only dodger cards autographed, but not sure how realistic that is to obtain.

3. would you prefer autographed photos to signed index cards?

any other thoughts, advice, suggestions you have for me would be greatly appreciated. thanks guys.

 

[stlcardtrader]

I am working on the Cardinals in the same fashion. What I do is locate a picture of the player in a Cardinals jersey and create a custom card. If there are no pics available I would consider getting an index card and creating a custom card.

 

[Hawaiian BamBam]

hey friend, nice to hear from you. i didnt forget about you, just trying to fix a broken scanner. i did put all the cardinals autos and topps vintage cardinals i have for you aside, so no worries, we can work something out. i would love for you to get all the cardinals i have.

on my project i was thinking of going after auto cards first, then photos and then if nothing is avail, then index cards. what a task it is going to be to get all 1,500+ dodger autos, but it would be very cool once i do...i have about 700-800 different dodgers already, so im almost there! lets try to get a dodgers/cardinals trade wrapped up this week!

 

[MrMet86]

I do the same, if I can find a player in a Met uniform I create a custom.If not I have a razor signature card someone created for me a while back over on SCF

 

[mrmopar]

I collect cards first, anything else secondary.

If I can't find a Dodger card, I may get a photo or a 3x5, but probably only after I got a card from another team. Some guys don't have cards as you noted, other than the Target set, but if a guy died before 1990, it's custom cuts only if you want a 'Dodger' card of that guy. That is where cuts and 3x5, team sheets and other flat items can be handy. I have never cut up anything to make a custom myself, but have seen some decent ones made by other collectors.

I have 100s of photos and flats signed beyond my cards and those count towards my goal, but any time I can get a card, that is optimal.

I don't have a count of what I have/need, but I just did an informal check from 1950-1990 and only needed about 125. Probably 100+ are of scrubs who played no more than a year or two in the bigs and probably had no cards in many cases. I don't care as much about 91-present, although I will pick them up now and again. Only need 1 deceased player from the 90s. Going back further than 1940, the list gets bigger, faster, and most are deceased, but still are scrubs with a cup of coffee or are from the very early teams of the 1900s-1920s. I have never actively tried to grab up commons from that era and the longer I wait, the harder it will become. At some point, I have to admit that I will never get them all and spending $20-30 per common just isn't worth it for a guy who played 18 games in his career in 1913! Trying to find deceased guys from the 50s back it especially painful and expensive too. It's just not worth it.

I am only missing a handful of star Dodgers, guys like Rabbit Maranville, Ki-Ki Cuyler, Jake Daubert, Wilbert Robinson, Charles Ebbett, Babe Ruth, Walter O'Malley, Branch Rickey and similar next to impossible, highly expensive guys. I should probably add Jackie Robinson to this list, as I have a 56 Topps card, but it may be fake.

As you may have guessed, I go for coaches, managers, owners and executives of significance as well.

 

[Hawaiian BamBam]

thanks guys for your responses, i appreciate it.

mrmet-i do like customs but i think the problem with dodgers in particular, most of the dodgers i need are deceased. i have just about every single living dodger, with some exceptions of course.

mrmopar- thanks brother for your response. i always appreciate your advice, your knowledge of the dodgers is very awesome and I always learn something from you about the dodgers on every post that you do. we both have the same collecting interests and goals with the dodgers, so hopefully we can help each other out. i have a ton of extra dodgers if you need them. thanks again for all your help.

 

[NYMets6986]

I dont see the problems with index cards. I love getting index cards signed!

 

[expos94]

I think it can also depend on what you wanna do with your collection... for instance I'm working on the all-time Expos collection and I wanna display the collection in frames one day (I'm gonna need to win the lottery to get myself a huge Man Cave lol)

here's a mockup of what I have in mind (just a rough mockup)

So in my case, I'm being very picky with size... I want everything to flow great. If the player has an issued card in an Expos uniform I use that.... but if he doesn't, I improvise but I always work something out so that it fits 2.5 x 3.5 inches... this way the "set" is all bubble gum card size.

in the above mockup, I have custom cards I designed like the Andy Fox (2nd card in first row), Marv Staehle (6th card in 1st row), Bill Moore (1st card in 3rd row)..... and even the Joe Gilbert (3rd card in 4th row) which is a custom cut... the original was an index card... So if I have to go the index card route, I always make sure I can crop it down to 2.5 x 3.5 (here's how I made that one: http://www.thebenchtrading.com/thebench/showthread.php?t=349704 )

I've even found harder to find signatures on team issued postcards or photos... and I always make sure that once cropped, it'll fit that 2.5x3.5 standard size I want for the collection, like this example... original postcard on left, cut down to 2.5x3.5 on right:

Anyway, to make a long story longer.... it's your collection, your decision on what the standards are. I've set my own "rules" or standards and I get creative to stay within those guidelines to build the collection. It actually adds a lot of fun to the project, alot of creative problem solving and sometimes as you search for those really tough-to-find autos, it's like a treasure hunt.

 

[metrotheme]

If they played prior to 1990, they're in the Dodgers target set. I would say not to make yourself crazy trying to get "everyone' ... take them as they come. As one might think, the supply of autos aren't drying up anytime soon. Collectors, as they get older will put more of their collections back on to the market to make up for retirement account losses in the past years or to pay for their children / grandchildren's college accounts.