New Hall of Famers for 2026

I have a loose card project for Hall of Famers and each year as a chance to add new cards to the mix - where I end up picking one random card per player / subject to induct into my collection.

With Jeff Kent being elected through a committee at the end of 2025, maybe it was a validation for a player who may not have been a well loved guy - but the slugging numbers as a second baseman couldn't be denied.

Kent has had a bunch of cards from the tail end of the junk wax era onward - I grabbed his 1999 Topps #330 as the card to add to my Hall of Fame collection, but the 1997 Bowman #65 sort of ends up a color match with the black borders.

Maybe Carlos Beltran was on shaky ground for a little bit as he got exposed as the supposed ringleader in the Houston Astros cheating scandal - but despite any sort of resistance from the peanut gallery now, his playing career has him a Hall of Fame legend.

Maybe I had the 1999 Upper Deck SP Top Prospects #15 in-hand as the card for my HOF project - but the 2006 Bazooka Blue Fortune #150 parallel kind of pops [even for a more basic, non-glossy, non-foil card] and has a one-time teammate [and Hall of Famer] Jeff Bagwell as a star-on-star bonus.

I did not think Andruw Jones would ever get enough support to be a Hall of Famer, where I was still looking at how his career fell off after leaving the Atlanta Braves - in my mind, he was destined to languish in the hall of very good at best

Maybe I still feel like he could have finished the last portion of his career better - but the momentum really built up where the numbers guys really did their work to shift the narrative, where Jones may have been one of the best all-around centerfielders of all time, rather just another guy who played the position and has some good years.

Maybe the Jones card on the left ends up my pick to click as far as being added to my HOF collection - though I wanted to show off a Japanese era card I dug up from a card shop bulk bin while I was in Japan last November, where he was someone I recognized as a foreign player and a one-time MLB star.

Some discombobulated card show digging

What I've noticed is that I don't have an idea what is going to catch my eye at one table - where there is a certain lack of focus when it comes going through rows and rows of cards.

This doesn't mean there isn't satisfaction in my keepers - but perhaps I wonder if my purchases mean anything after the fact or any of number of cards jumbled together end of being misfit toys in my collection?

I kind of feel like I'm in my own little world when it comes to standing at a table and seeing what cards may have enough eye appeal - so I feel like there is plan and I'm just seeing what may compel me to flag cards I entertain taking home.

If nothing else, I like a more old school vibe, so I try to salvage loose cards that may not be the latest and greatest - but binder material that may add some diversity to the types of cards I may have in plastic pages.

Harold Baines gets unfairly panned as an undeserving Hall of Famer, but I wanted his 1981 Topps rookie card as a centerpiece to the loose cards I plan to display in a binder - it maybe a case where I actually still have to give him his proper due and make page for him.

I found a 1992 Donruss The Rookies Phenoms Tim Salmon insert card I'm sort of familiar with, but never really had in-hand - go figure it's been at least 30 years, but it's still fun finding the occasional prospect / rookie era cards for the Angels franchise Hall of Famer.

A rookie year parallel of Roy Halladay and another minor league card of Orel Hershiser are keepers as a little more different than the typical cards I'd end up with - while neither might be top tier guys in my book, they are decade stars, so I do collect them to a certain extent.

I'm indifferent to slabbed cards because it's $$$ impractical to send in cards myself, but generally prefer graded singles compared to raw cards when available - I already had a graded 1986 Donruss Jose Canseco rookie card in my collection, so I was only picking up a 1992 Fleer Update Jeff Kent rookie card, along with the loose cards.

I presented my cards to the seller without the Canseco and after getting a half off discount [for at least the loose cards] and $5 off the sticker price on the graded Kent rookie - I figured why not add the Canseco as well, where it was a totally junk wax era thing to covet that card at one point.

Even if the era is ancient history, there maybe something about coming back from a card show - knowing I brought back the rookie card of one of the brightest, controversial superstars of the times.

I don't know if a Jeff Kent rookie is particular unique, but I may have seen an ungraded copy in a random box and passed over it during a card show trip last year - it sort of became a scratch the itch card and I wanted to pick up one just because it's from a seemingly mythical junk wax era release.

Even if it's not really the case after the fact, I associate the Fleer Update set as being harder to find - a set I never got to see ever, though I was able to pick up a copy of the key rookie [Mike Piazza] years ago after Piazza retired but before the Hall of Fame called.

Kent has a Hall of Fame case but he wasn't the friendliest guy and is probably seen as strictly an accumulator who hit all these home runs as a second baseman - rather than be seen as generally this all-around talent who was a star from day one.