1990-1999 Page

Ben Hogan Cards 1990 thru 1999

(19 individual cards - one 4 card set - one 18 card set in this decade) = 41 cards

1990 2 card

1990 Ben Hogan Company
Ben Hogan Promotional Card

#NNO 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"

This is another of the Ben Hogan cards that is fairly difficult to add to your collection. It is thought that these were promotional cards that were to be given out by the salesmen whenever they sold a set of Ben Hogan irons to the golf professionals. However, this concept either never was very successful or never even got off the ground. Some of the cards, however, ended up finding their way out of the Hogan club manufacturing plant and have ended up in Hogan collections.

1990 Official PGA Pro Set Card
Ben Hogan PSA/DNA Certified Auto

NNO

1991 No cards

1992 8 cards

1992 Pro Set, Inc
Hologram

# of 5,000 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"

This card was one of the “chase” cards in the last set of golf cards issued by Pro Set, Inc. in 1992. Each of the cards was to be hand numbered up to 5000. Since this was right in the middle of the craze of golf card collecting, these cards went for a premium price at the time of their release. Today, however, they seem to be everywhere. On top of that, if you are worried about their value, a tremendous number have been turning up that have not been numbered on the back. The theory is that these “escaped” from the manufacturing site or where just distributed at a later date by Pro Set. None-the-less, the value has dropped greatly since the first release.

An unusual feature about some of these cards has also been found. Some have a different back orientation. If you come across these you can see this by placing both cards face up in front of you. Then just turn both cards over to the left. You will see that the backs are facing different directions. No one has been able to locate anyone from Pro Set to give a reason for this.
Here is the Pro Set Box and Packs that the Hologram card could be found in. They are still available today.

The 1992 Pro Set Box and Packs:

1992 Mueller Enterprises, Inc
Golf's Greatest

#11 Regular Set Card 3 1/2" x 5 1/2"

#11 Promo Set Card Not #'d of 10,000

In 1992, longtime dealer and hobbyist, Todd Mueller produced Golf’s Greatest Card set. It was limited to 10,000 hand numbered sets with 30 cards in each set. The artwork, on the front of each card, was done by renowned artist Bart Forbes. Forbes is best known for his paintings of PGA tournaments, the 1988 Korean Olympics, and designing more than 20 postage stamps for the U.S. Postal Service, along with many notable features for Sports Illustrated. The backs of each card have a short biography of each golfer or subject of the card.

There were actually two issues of this set. The first was very short lived because two of the cards had to be re-done due to editing of text and final terms were never reached with four other golfers. These six cards from this set are difficult to find. Most of the cards can be found autographed, but watch out for fakes. There were also “promotional” cards distributed to advertise the set and are stamped as such on the back. There were also 100 uncut sheets issued.

When you find an autographed copy of this card, Mr. Hogan almost always signed it with either a silver or gold sharpie due to the dark color of his sweater.

Part of an Uncut Sheet:

1992 B.J.B. Cards (Canada)
Famous Golfer's of the 40's and 50's

#24 2 1/2" x 3"

1992 B.J.B. Cards (Canada) ERROR SET CARD
Famous Golfer's of the 40's and 50's

#24 2 1/2" x 3" Blank Back

This set features sepia photos of all included golfers. There are many non-common household names in this set such as: Ky Laffoon, Al Waltrous, Vic Ghezzi, Denny Shute, and Johny Bulla.

The "plain back error set", with Ben Hogan swinging left handed and Mike Souchak printed instead of Julius Boros, is tremendously difficult to find. If you run across one, grab it.

There were three "promo" cards issued of #9 Billy Joe Patton, #16 Jack Burke Jr., and #22 Ed "Porky" Oliver.

Unopened Mint Set Error uncut Sheet Set

1992 Champions Collector Cards (Canada)
Custom Made -- Vintage Serie

#39 2 3/16 x 3 5/16"

This is the first of many custom-made cards of Ben Hogan to appear for sale. The picture, on the front of the card, is the exact picture that is often seen of a younger Ben Hogan. It is the photo that is on the 1995 DVD “In Pursuit of Perfection” which is the 8mm video taken in 1967 of a Ben Hogan practice round at Augusta.

On the back of the card is information of his birth and death, along with a few milestones of his life.
Mr. Hogan’s custom-made cards do not carry much monetary value and are not even collected by some true Hogan collectors.

As you can see on the front of the card, the card is made to try to make it appear as the Old Judge Gypsy Queen Cigarette cards from the late 1800’s.

1992 Ritchie & Company (Wales)
Fairways Favourites

#9 1 7/16" x 2 7/8"

The following information is from a newspaper article from Wales concerning the Ritchie "Chartered Accountant" back cards:
A big THANK YOU to Kyle from golfcardguy.com for supplying me with this information and also to Bill at the now defunct site of copcards.co.uk for getting this information to Kyle.

WELSH accountant John Ritchie was looking for business cards with a difference and came up with a novel sporting idea.
The cards he now send out with income tax returns, business letters, wage records and certified accounts each carry a coloured drawing of one of 25 "fairways favourites" - golfing heroes from the present and past - depicted by Dorrien, the WESTERN MALL cartoonist.
Mr. Ritchie, whose office is in Station Road, Lianishen, Cardiff, reckons the cards are bound to be popular with golfers and collectors of sporting ephemera.
He also recognized the interest that youngsters would show towards collecting the series of 25 pictures and has donated 50 sets to the South Wales Police at Rumney who will be putting their own logo on the reverse of the cards.
The card sets will be presented to schools and youth clubs as prizes in a "Crime Fighters" competition to be arranged by the police. The plan is to get the youngsters to write essays on how best to prevent thefts of cars and their contents.
Mr. Ritchie said, "I am always happy to help the local police in their fight against crime - if just one less car is stolen or broken into, it will have been worthwhile."
He promised that another series with a different sporting theme would appear on his business cards later in the year.

**See the next card and article to find out about these other sets**

Here are some other golfers in this set:

1992 South Wales Constabulary (Wales)
Fairways Favourites

#9 1 7/16" x 2 7/8"

The South Wales set has exactly the same golfers as the Ritchie set with the same numbered cards. The only difference you will find is the back which states “With Compliments of RUMNEY’S DIVISION Of The South Wales Constabulary”

These cards are very hard to come by. Part of the reason being many of these cards were probably confiscated and used as evidence in the court case mentioned below. If you have not read the newspaper article from above, please go back and do so. Once again - Thank You to Kyle from golfcardguy.com for supplying me with this information and also to Bill at copcards.co.uk for getting this information to Kyle.

A Police superintendent used the signatures of boxers Lennox Lewis and Frank Bruno to defraud his force of charity cash, a court herd yesterday.
Newport Crown Court was told that Michael Hurn, 55, allegedly set up a collectible cards business without the knowledge or permission of his bosses at South Wales Police.
The Cardiff East divisional commander and accountant John Ritchie are accused of falsely claiming that profits from collectible cards would go to charity when they were allegedly pocketing most of the money. They are also accused of selling other cards as limited editions when they were not. Hurn is also alleged to have printed the insignia of South Wales Police on the back of some of the picture cards without any authorisation. (My words: Thus the South Wales Constabulary cards).

The article goes on to talk about issues with the Boxing cards that were produced with the Signatures of Lewis and Bruno. It also discussed how the Police were defrauded even more in believing the sets of cards were very "Limited Editions" and paying a outrageous price, when in fact, there were well over 2,000 sets recovered along with the the printing plates still intact.

Bill also told Kyle: "Initially it would seem that the original Golfer cards were legitimate but all later printings were not. I think it would be difficult to be able to argue that they weren't "manufactured fraudulently" I'm afraid. The only sets that were not fraudulent would have been the 50 uncut sheets given to schools as prizes."
Bill also said that eventually John Ritchie was sentenced to one year imprisonment and Mike Hurn to two years in prison.

1993 7 cards

1993 Fax Pax Ltd (England)
Famous Golfers

#30 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"

There were two sets of Fax Pax issued that contained just golfers. The first in 1987 consisted of 36 cards that were not numbered. This set did not contain a Ben Hogan card.

The second set consisted of 40 cards, all numbered, and contained a Ben Hogan card numbered 30. This set was issued as a complete boxed set or you could find them in packs of 5 cards and try to put you own set together.

The 1993 set consisted of players, past and present to date, from both sides of the Atlantic. Today this would be known as the European Tour and the PGA Tour.

P.S. You can see the mistake on the back of the card with Mr. Hogan’s middle name.

Here are pictures of a boxed set and the box that housed the 5 card packs:

1993 Gameplan Leisure Limited (England)
Open Champions

#12 2 1/2" x 3 1/8"

Artist: Graham Burdick

Card fronts feature full-color caricatures and card backs feature descriptive text. In my opinion, the caricatures do not always do the golfers justice, but the artwork is superb. The text on the back is well written and give some very good information about each Open winner.

With only 25 cards in the set, naturally not all Open winners are represented.

Here is the entire 1993 Gameplan set:

1993-98 Grand Slam Ventures
Champions of Golf -- The Masters Collection
2 1/2" x 4 3/4"

1951

1953

"The Champions of Golf - The Masters Collection", issued by Grand Slam Ventures, is a collectible card series featuring all of the Masters Tournament Champions thru 1998. This series of cards was first issued in 1993. Each card features authentic Masters photography from each golfer's victory. Through 1964, the photos are black and white. Starting in 1965 the photos are all color. There are exciting stories of each champion's triumph on the back of each card.

The back also shows the top ten finishers for that year's tournament. All of the cards in the 1993 set, naturally, have a 1993 copyright date. All of these cards are identical in the later sets, still with the 1993 copyright date. The only cards with a different copyright date are the 1994-1998 winners: Olazabal, Crenshaw, Faldo, Woods, O'Meara. These sets were issued just shrink wrapped or in special binders. Then in 1997 they could be also be found in a black box and the 1998 issue in a gold box. There were also uncut sheets of the entire set issued each year.

The only card worth more than a few dollars from this set is the 1997 Tiger Woods card. Many claim this to be his "Rookie" card and it can sell for close to $100 graded Mint 10. However, his big money rookie card still is his "Sports Illustrated for Kids" card from 1996.

Here is a Sealed Set, the sought after 1997 Black Box, the Final Issue Gold Box, and an Uncut Sheet:

1993-98 Grand Slam Ventures (Gold Foil Borders)
Champions of Golf -- The Masters Collection
2 1/2" x 4 3/4"

1951 GOLD FOIL

1953 GOLD FOIL

The same Grand Slam Venture cards discussed earlier can also be found with a Gold Foil Border around the picture on the front of each card. The way that you can differentiate between the cards is that the Golf Foil Borders are not as wide, they are very shiny, and they flake very easily. You have to take extra care with these cards These can be found in a special binders that have one card per page.

Binder with gold border cards

1993 Old St. Andrews Ltd (England & Scotland)
Open Champions 1921 - 1959

#NNO 6 1/4" x 2 1/2"

These are not the regular type of cards that are normally issued. They are cut from the boxes of Old St. Andrews Scotch Whiskey Miniature Golf Ball shaped bottles. SEE BELOW.

The following is information taken from the 1995 “The World Golf Card Catalogue” compiled by Bruce Berdock concerning this 1993 Old St. Andrews Ltd set:

Unnumbered. Inscribed on side panel "Illustrated by David Joy."
Package design on "Golf Ball Miniatures"issued in boxes of 12 which were inscribed :OPEN CHSMPIONSHIP WINNERS" with pictures of same. "MINIATURES" were also issued in boxes of "6 SHOTS of FINE BLENDED SCHOTCH WHISKY." The box of a6 was a replica of a box of 1 dozen golf balls. On the back of the box was a map fo the original OLD COURSE with the story of :The Origin of Golf." This wa a limited production.

There have been three sets issued.
A “set” of 12 Open winners from 1860-1914 issued in 1987.
Another “set” of 12 winners from 1921 -1959 (with the Hogan card) issued in 1993.
A third "set" with winners from 1960 to 1988.

Some golfers could also be found in more than one style of box and bottle as can be seen with the Tom Weiskopf boxes below. There were at least 5 different types and some golfers can be found on two or three box/bottle types. Ben Hogan has only one type.

Here are examples of other types of boxes from other sets:

1994 (22 cards) -- 4 card set and 18 card set

1994 Annonymous
Greats From the States
4 card set

Base card #3 (with three card subset #1, #2, #3) 1 3/8" x 2 5/8"

#3 Base Card

#1 Subset Card

#2 Subset Card

#3 Subset Card

There are 10 golfers in this set, each with a base card (Hogan's is #3) and then three subset cards numbered 1, 2, and 3.

The story I initially heard was that these cards were to be used with some sort of game, but I have never found any further details about the game.

These cards can be found in Uncut Sheets as well as the 40 Card Set:

1994 Scot's Sports Ltd (Troon)
Legends of Golf Series 1
18 card set
2 1/2" x 3 1/2"

#1 thru #18 Front

#1 thru #18 Back

Each set was hand numbered on the back up to 2500 issued sets. Each card front features an actual photograph of Mr. Hogan or a picture of a magazine cover that he was featured on. The backs give information as to tournaments won or other important events in his live such as marriage or his car accident.

There was also "Promotional" sets issued as you can see below.
Each promo card has a "P" for Promotional and the number of the "Promotional" set:

1995 thru 1996 No cards

1997 1 card

1997 Grolier
Life In America

#77-11 6 1/8" x 4 3/8"

The Grolier cards are much like the Sportscaster cards, both in size and how you originally obtained them. These Grolier cards were a monthly subscription only during the years 1994 thru 2001. They could not be purchased at a retail store during that time period. There were a total of 130 decks (sets) issued with 20 cards per deck. This came to 2600 total cards.

All types of subjects were found in the many subsets of these cards: Story of America, Life in America, Notable People, The Melting Pot, Important Events, America at War, Arts & Entertainment, and several others.

All golfers in the Grolier set: 11-12 Early Days of Golf, 28-12 Jack Nicklaus, 35-12 Bobby Jones, 61-07 Arnold Palmer, 61-10 Miniature Golf, 71-17 Nancy Lopez, 72-09 The Masters Tournament with Nicklaus/Palmer, 77-11 Ben Hogan, E-16 Tiger Woods, 117-12 Tiger Woods Win the Masters, 119-09 Davis Love III Wins the PGA Championship, 121-08 Europe Wins the 1997 Ryder Cup (w/Tiger Woods), 124-11 Golfer Casey Martin vs the PGA, 126-15 Mark O'Meara (w/Tiger Woods), 127-15 Erik Compton, 128-18 David Duval, 131-06 Payne Stewart, 133-06 Juli Inkster, 136-14 Tiger Woods Reigns Supreme

Examples of other Grolier golf cards: