Comments: Back in March, 2009 I was still in the initial stages of building up the “Fan Favorites” subset of my collection with cards of players on the verge of making the Hall of Fame whom had not yet been elected.  Some of these guys would never get the call but were beloved by their faithful fans.  Gil Hodges stood at the top of many people’s lists as s a player who accomplished enough in his playing and managerial career to join the other greats.  One of my hobby friends offered up this beautiful portrait and I couldn’t resist.  Sitting in a EX+ 5.5 holder, it was the best example ever graded by SGC (with four PSA 5s, one PSA 6, one PSA 7).  Since the purchase I have not seen the other better examples offered up on any of the major auction sites.  On December 5, 2021 Gil Hodges’ was finally inducted into the Hall of Fame by the Golden Days committee.  Thank you Dan S. for this beautiful Packard-Bell baseball card!

UPDATE: On 11/11/2024, I found a raw example via eBay and ended up purchasing the item off the site for $500. Fast forward two years and I'm sending it off to PSA for grading (09/15/2026). Fingers crossed it's an upgrade. Hopefully, I'll find out before the end of the year ;)