1952 Topps Baseball

[Lee17]

Hi everyone,

I am currently collecting low grade 1952 Topps Baseball. Found a lot of deals(or what I think are deals) on commons. I have about 50 cards that range from G-VGEX. Basically I want nice eye appeal and a small wrinkle or crease is ok as long the price is right. My father keeps telling me to fork up the money and buy one or 2 PSA 5s a week instead of buying 3-5 low grade raw cards. I doubt I will ever complete a low grade set...let alone a PSA 5 set.

What I'm asking is this: for investment purposes, a) is my father right and go the PSA 5 route or b) will my raw low grade set (besides getting the big ones graded of course) still hold its value in the future? Right now I am collecting for the enjoyment again that I had as a kid in the late 80s, but I also have in the back of my head how much money I have spent on so far.

Any thoughts are welcome.

[Volod]

Do what the kid says.

[ALR-bishop]

Agree with Volod...collect for fun. I have been collecting since 1957, and it is still just a hobby for me. And, ungraded, they are easier to display and enjoy in a binder as you build it

But if the long term goal is investment/profit, Dad is likely correct

[steve B]

Go with the fun!

If you just want some decent looking cards to enjoy you're on the right track.

If the potential profit is the enjoyment then you might want to go a different route. For a strict investment 5s and 6s might be good. I'd have to look at pricing and see if they'd work though. As long as higher grade cards weren't out of reach, the lower ones won't increase much.
When grading took hold in a big way a lot of nice cards got cheaper.

Steve B

[doug.goodman]

You collect pieces of paper (as do most of us), have FUN with it (as do many of us).

Doug

[Republicaninmass]

I am working ona low graded/raw 52 set and I think these cards will increase in value if centering and eye appeal is there. I understand beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I think you get the drift. Good luck in your quest!

[tonyo]

Personally, I like collecting cards I'm not afraid to hold. Also there is nothing like holding a stack of raw cards and flipping thru them like you did as a kid. Only this time, you can pretend you were a kid in the 50's.

[wolfdogg]

Personally, I like collecting cards I'm not afraid to hold. Also there is nothing like holding a stack of raw cards and flipping thru them like you did as a kid. Only this time, you can pretend you were a kid in the 50's.

True....same with me. When I was working on my '52 set I had them in top loads....they still are. Maybe 5-10 card are graded and I busted out maybe 20-25......Mantle is raw but in a PSA slab that I busted another '52 common out of.....in 4-pocket pages in album by series....

[betafolio2]

Personally, I like collecting cards I'm not afraid to hold. Also there is nothing like holding a stack of raw cards and flipping thru them like you did as a kid. Only this time, you can pretend you were a kid in the 50's.

Tonyo, you really hit the nail on the head for me! Nothing beats glancing at and flipping through a few dozen (or hundreds) of baseball cards while in the process of building or upgrading, say, a late 1970s set. Or opening a fresh pack of 1991 Topps -- yeah, they're kinda worthless, I know, but they're the last Topps cards to be made of REAL, un-plasticoated, dark-stock cardboard, and you can easily push them through your fingers while SIMULTANEOUSLY enjoying the 21-year-old-but-still-sweet bubble gum smell that permeates the cards! Has anyone reading this thread ever noticed how the more recent Topps cards -- take the 2001s as an example -- tend to SERIOUSLY stick together, almost to the point of having to damage their plasticoating to pry them apart, after just a few years in storage? I made that unpleasant discovery among my card boxes last month while organizing some of them. I was opening up a few of the boxes to reminisce, and I couldn't hold any of the '01s in my hand and flip through them like I could when I first opened them. But isn't it funny that you can open a box of, say, 1960s cards that haven't seen the light of day in 20 years and EASILY slide them through your fingers like no time had passed at all. That, to me, is like time travel. Just like Tonyo said, it's like I can pretend I'm a kid again, but in a slightly earlier era.

[wolfdogg]

Tonyo, you really hit the nail on the head for me! Nothing beats glancing at and flipping through a few dozen (or hundreds) of baseball cards while in the process of building or upgrading, say, a late 1970s set. Or opening a fresh pack of 1991 Topps -- yeah, they're kinda worthless, I know, but they're the last Topps cards to be made of REAL, un-plasticoated, dark-stock cardboard, and you can easily push them through your fingers while SIMULTANEOUSLY enjoying the 21-year-old-but-still-sweet bubble gum smell that permeates the cards! Has anyone reading this thread ever noticed how the more recent Topps cards -- take the 2001s as an example -- tend to SERIOUSLY stick together, almost to the point of having to damage their plasticoating to pry them apart, after just a few years in storage? I made that unpleasant discovery among my card boxes last month while organizing some of them. I was opening up a few of the boxes to reminisce, and I couldn't hold any of the '01s in my hand and flip through them like I could when I first opened them. But isn't it funny that you can open a box of, say, 1960s cards that haven't seen the light of day in 20 years and EASILY slide them through your fingers like no time had passed at all. That, to me, is like time travel. Just like Tonyo said, it's like I can pretend I'm a kid again, but in a slightly earlier era.


We need a "LIKE" button...........

[Volod]

"We need a "LIKE" button..........."
Ah, I prefer the good old keyboard - it's more time-consuming, but gives greater satisfaction. So call me a relic of another era.
Just my view, but holding raw, or even sleeved, cards in your hands is the real essence of collecting. It's what drew most of us to them as kids in the first place. Once they become "objects d'art," or encased in heavy plastic and held in an investment portfolio, they are really something else - belonging to the material realm.