Monday, May 2, 2016

Phil Dixon's Negro League Set Part 1

Way back in the fall I spent a little bit of time searching for some cards of former St. Louis Stars player Willie Wells.  Wells was one of the superstars of the Negro Leagues back in the 1920s and also spent time playing in Cuba where his play is also legendary.  I found a Perez-Steele postcard of Wells, but several of his other cards were really difficult to find.

One of the best sets of Negro League cards were produced by author, and speaker, Phil Dixon.  He has a few books out, like Wilber "Bullet" Rogan and the Kansas City Monarchs, and you can find some of his public appearances around the internet.  I have found single cards from the set floating around on sites like COMC and Ebay, but I have never been able to track down certain singles.  Most of the single cards that I have been able to find have run north of $5, especially on COMC, and I had never really tried to find the set.

Well, after letting the Willie Wells card slip down my list, I did a little looking a week or two ago and was able to land the entire 45 card set including a Willie Wells card.  Here's a look at my newest card of the St. Louis Stars Hall of Famer....


The cards are on white postcard quality card stock.  The Dixon cards are a quarter inch wider than the standard card and an inch taller.  The pictures are all black and white photographs.  Really simple design, but I like the look of these cards.  The backs of the cards feature a short biography.


I am not sure that I want to cram 45 cards into one post.  After all, I am sitting here trying to complete sets, show off the sets as I finish them, and take a little time to display my accomplishments.  Sure, I just bought all 45 cards, but it's still a completed set and you're not going to see many blog posts about Negro League cards.  So, I am going to split the set up and display a few at a time over the next two or three weeks.  We've done Willie Wells, here are four more including the bios on the backs of the cards.  The scans are aligned top and bottom.



2 comments:

  1. These are exceptionally awesome; I've never heard of this set at all. The Sam Hairston is an especially welcome sight -it's just great to see such oft ignored subjects properly spotlighted.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for sharing, I had never seen this set either. Let the search begin!

    ReplyDelete

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