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Posted By: Ryan Christoff

First, let me say that here are no "Negro League" baseball cards. The only cards that feature Negro Leaguers are from foreign countries.

If you see an issue that is purported to be an American one featuring a Negro Leaguer in a Negro League uniform you can be almost certain that it is fake. The only reason I say "almost" instead of "absolutely" is that it is literally impossible to rule out any possibility of what was or wasn't produced as far as a baseball card issue. Let's just say I haven't seen one and I don't expect to see one. And this is EXACTLY what I collect so I'm always on the lookout.

Take, for example, the fake Pop Lloyd card Paul mentioned earlier. Let's put that "card" in the "guaranteed fake" category and remove it from the "possible exception" category right now. The image used is one of the most frequently seen of Lloyd and pictures him as a member of the Brooklyn Royal Giants around 1919. Anyone could easily obtain a copy of it from the HOF in Cooperstown or scan it from one of the countless number of books on the Negro Leagues which it appears in.

When this "card" was listed on ebay a few years ago I received several e-mails from people asking my opinion about it. I said then and still say now, THE CARD IS A FAKE. I was surprised we didn't see more fakes like this turn up after that because some people, in their eternal optimism (or greed-induced gullibility) like to reward these scammers for whatever time it takes to cook up (or soak in tea, or tape to their muffler or whatever else it is they do to "age" something) fake baseball cards. The con who made this one pocketed $1,025 for his time.

I follow this market closely, primarily as a collector, but also as a dealer. I saved the scan of the fake Lloyd when it was on ebay. Here is is:


Pretty good fake. Still fake.

The list of Negro League HOFers on my website is the most accurate and up to date one I know of. There are several "cards" that have been sold by major auction houses that are not on this checklist because the "cards" were actually photographs, not cards, or the issue itself does not exist and was a fraudulent creation to begin with. I encourage anyone to e-mail me if they know of any additions and I will gladly add them to the checklist once I have researched the issue to determine its legitimacy.

I think one of the reasons that the base of collectors is still relatively small for these kinds of cards is that they are almost too rare for their own good. Many have less than 10 known examples of a particular card, some only 1 or 2. As a result, many people are simply unaware that they even exist. This has been slowly changing over the past several years, but is still largely the case.

Most people who are trying to get one card of every HOFer are aware of players like Oscar Charleston or Pop Lloyd, but many don't realize that there were legitimate cards of them issued in the 1920's. Some Negro Leaguers have cards as far back as 1909. These are obviously very rare and often cost 5 figures to purchase. This is one reason some HOF collectors choose to live with commemorative issues produced in the 1980's or 90's or more recent "Greats of the Game" kind of issues made by Fleer, Upper Deck, etc. I'm sure there are other HOF collectors who only have commemorative issues because they assume that is all that exists.

Sorry for rambling.

-Ryan