Thanks Leon. By far, my most precious is the 1965 Topps. As a young kid, I went to a baseball card show in the summer of 1992 in Ocean City, Maryland. Prior to that, I had only been to the numerous baseball card shops in my area and a few smaller shows at the local VFW, Knights of Columbus Halls and local churches. It was an experience I'll never forget, walking around wide eyed as I viewed and held so many cards that I had only seen in magazines. Not everyone was friendly but the vast majority were and my dad tolerated me interrupting his vacation for the better part of 2 hours as I was perusing cards that predate me by decades and have fascinated me and occupied me for decades since. I had saved up about a hundred bucks and was hunting down a 1962 Managers Dream that sadly was not at the show. My dad knew I was disappointed and dipped into his pockets to buy me the 1965. It was in better shape then - I enjoyed holding it a little too much before getting it graded a few years back - but I never worry to much about the grade. I can't afford mint so VG or better is usually the goal and I have continued to buy raw cards because I think that's half the fun is trying to determine the condition of the card for yourself. And to me, grades don't always reflect beauty. For example, I love the eye appeal of my 1953 Topps despite its (very) valid grade of 10/1/poor. The surface is rough, it's got a crease and the lower right corner is fuzzed and damaged but the color is vivid and the centering is awesome and it has 3 reasonably good corners. I think the photo I snapped with my IPad captures its beauty pretty well.
What do you guys think? Are you ruled by grade or eye appeal? Just curious...
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