have you seen these before?

I hadn't until about a week ago. check them out:

Names we all know very well. Not even due to Topps shoving them at us really hard for the past few years but all three are first class Hall of Famers. You know, the legendary first class of 1936. The other two members of said class were Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb. All five are arguably the best players ever to take the field of their respective positions. Yes, I know there are two pitchers there making that last statement void. Regardless they were great players. Anyway, this set was made in 1961 by Golden Press. Upon further research, I found that all 33 cards came in a book and were perforated for removal. See the sides of the cards and you'll see what I mean. All 33 cards were all the current members of the Hall of Fame up to that point. I really like the pictures on these. They are all done in this format, there are no photos. Although I know I've seen that Johnson picture before... The backs have career stats and a small bio. I haven't decided if I want to go for just those first five Hofers or the whole 33 card set. I may do the set if I can find the rest for a good price like these were. A nice oddball set here.

random vintage double-header #2

Today's random vintage comes from two companies who no longer produce cards, and subsequently two companies that were both were owned by Upper deck at some point. The shorter card on the left is Play Ball circa 1939. It is Myril Hoag of the St. Louis Browns. I like cards depicting teams that don't exist anymore. Well, they do technically but you know what I mean. The taller card on the right is from Fleer's 1961 Baseball Greats set. According to the back of the card, Howard "Earl" Averill played for Cleveland, Detroit and Boston. His son, Earl Averill was an active player for the "new" Los Angeles Angels in 1961. The Fleer set was the standard card size we know today, while the Play Ball is the same width, but shorter than the standard. The Play Ball's also look like they might be old photographs at a quick glance. This is the only Play Ball in my collection right now but I do plan on getting some more of the different years they produced which were 1939 through 1941.