Mike D's 1977 Topps Binder Project

[Mike D.]

As my 1976 Topps Binder Project is approaching completion (set complete, 20 upgrade candidates as of this posting), I'm ready to take on another set.

My 1976 thread has surpassed 10,000 views, so hopefully you all are enjoying following along in my quest!

To review:

What is a binder set? It's got non-high end, non-graded cards, perfect for flipping through without risking any major investments.

To add to the fun, I'll likely pick up graded copies of some of the more interesting stars from the set. If I get a graded copy of a card, I'll still get a non-graded for the binder, but may allow for lower grade there to help keep costs in check.

Depending on what I get for duplicates, I may even dabble in some TTM autograph chasing.

From a condition perspective, I aimed for EX for my '76 set, but quickly realized I'm a bit of a stickler for condition, so I expect this one will be more like EXMT+. Centering isn't going to be perfect by any means, but I'll try to avoid badly dinged corners and the like.

The 1977 Topps set consists of 660 cards. Here is the checklist.

The key rookies are are Andre Dawson (#473), Dale Murphy (#476) and Bruce Sutter (#144). The set also includes cards of roughly 20 other Hall of Famers of the era.

Great to have another project ahead of me!

[Mike D.]

The first rule of building a binder set is that you're gonna need a binder.

1 BCW 3" Black Baseball Card Storage D-Ring Album Binder & 50 Pages 9 Pocket - $23.28 delivered



25 Ultra PRO Platinum 9-Pocket Hologram Card Album Pages/Binder Sheets - $7.92 delivered



Total spent on binder set: $31.20

[Mike D.]

1977 Topps PSA Graded Cards

Going into the project, I have the following PSA graded cards:



I'll target PSA graded cards only, PSA 7 and above, with no qualifiers.

For most, I'll probably target PSA 8, with the exception being for those that 8's get a big pricey.

[Mike D.]

Starting to Acquire Cards - eBay

Starting to pick up cards:

1977 Topps Baseball Starter Set (410 Different) BV $294 Avg Ex/Mt to Nm Palmer - $57.01 delivered



LOT OF 50: 1977 TOPPS COMMON CARDS - $5.91 delivered



1977 TOPPS BASEBALL - 100 CARD LOT - ALL DIFFERENT SEE LIST - EX-NM - $15.94 delivered



Total spent on binder set: $110.06

[Mike D.]

Starting to Acquire Cards - Net54

I made some deals with a couple of Net54 users to help get the project kick-started.

300 card lot EX-EXMT - all different - $45 delivered

600 card lot - VG-NM - some lower grade than I'm targeting, and some dups, but great start and good fun - $30 delivered


Total spent on binder set: $185.06

[Mike D.]

Let's get started!

Cards 1-9 include the "Leaders" subset.

1 Batting Leaders
2 Home Run Leaders
3 RBI Leaders
4 Stolen Base Leaders
5 Victory Leaders
6 Strikeout Leaders
7 ERA Leaders
8 Leading Firemen
9 Doug Rader

Missing: #2 Home Run Leaders, #6 Strikeout Leaders, and #8 Leading Firemen.



The dups:

[Mike D.]

BTW, for page 1, cards #1 and #3 are upgrade candidates.

Not the best start, but with 1,460 cards to draw from, I'm hopeful most pages are a lot more complete and upgrade-free than this one!

[Mike D.]

The next lot:

10 Reggie Jackson
11 Rob Dressler
12 Larry Haney
13 Luis Gomez
14 Tommy Smith
15 Don Gullett
16 Bob Jones RC
17 Steve Stone
18 Frank Robinson

Missing are card #15, Don Gullett, and card #18, Frank Robinson.

No obvious upgrade candidates in this lot.



The dups:

[Mike D.]

Batch #3:

19 John D'Acquisto
20 Graig Nettles
21 Ken Forsch
22 Bill Freehan
23 Dan Driessen
24 Carl Morton
25 Dwight Evans
26 Ray Sadecki
27 Bill Buckner

All 9 are here, and no obvious upgrade candidates! I like it!

The cards:



The dups:

[Mike D.]

The next batch:

28 Woodie Fryman
29 Bucky Dent
30 Greg Luzinski
31 Jim Todd
32 Checklist 1-132
33 Wayne Garland
34 Norm Sherry
35 Rennie Stennett
36 John Ellis

Card #32, the checklist, is missing. I think back in those days, an awful lot of checklists actually got used as checklists!

And look....Bucky Dent, before he got his colorful middle name (at least here in Red Sox country)!

The rest of the lot looks good...no obvious upgrade candidates.

The cards:



The dups:

[Mike D.]

Up next:

37 Steve Hargan
38 Craig Kusick
39 Tom Griffin
40 Bobby Murcer
41 Jim Kern
42 Jose Cruz
43 Ray Bare
44 Bud Harrelson
45 Rawly Eastwick

#45, Rawly Eastwick, is an upgrade candidate. Other than that, all here and no other upgrade candidates.



The dups:

[Mike D.]

The next 9:

46 Buck Martinez
47 Lynn McGlothen
48 Tom Paciorek
49 Grant Jackson
50 Ron Cey
51 Alex Grammas
52 Ellis Valentine
53 Paul Mitchell
54 Sandy Alomar

All the cards are here. #50, Ron Cey, is an upgrade candidate.

The cards:



The dups:

[Mike D.]

Up next:

55 Jeff Burroughs
56 Rudy May
57 Marc Hill
58 Chet Lemon
59 Larry Christenson
60 Jim Rice
61 Manny Sanguillen
62 Eric Raich
63 Tito Fuentes

All cards are here. The Rice (#60) could use an upgrade.

The cards:



The dups:

[Mike D.]

The next nine:

64 Larry Biittner
65 Skip Lockwood
66 Roy Smalley
67 Joaquin Andujar RC
68 Bruce Bochte
69 Jim Crawford
70 Johnny Bench
71 Dock Ellis
72 Mike Anderson

The cards are all here. The Johnny Bench (#70) is an upgrade candidate.

The cards:



The dups:

[Mike D.]

The next group:

73 Charlie Williams
74 Oakland Athletics CL
75 Dennis Leonar
76 Tim Foli
77 Dyar Miller
78 Bob Davis
79 Don Money
80 Andy Messersmith
81 Juan Beniquez

All 9 are here and no major upgrade candidates!


The cards:



The dups:

[Mike D.]

9 to get us to 90:

82 Jim Rooker
83 Kevin Bell RC
84 Ollie Brown
85 Duane Kuiper
86 Pat Zachry
87 Glenn Borgmann
88 Stan Wall
89 Butch Hobson RC
90 Cesar Cedeno

9 more that are all present and accounted for, and no obvious upgrade candidates.

The cards:



The dups:

[Mike D.]

The next batch:

91 John Verhoeven
92 Dave Rosello
93 Tom Poquette
94 Craig Swan
95 Keith Hernandez
96 Lou Piniella
97 Dave Heaverlo
98 Milt May
99 Tom Hausman

The lot is all here. Keith Hernandez (#95) is an upgrade candidate.

The cards:



The dups:

[Mike D.]

Passing 100:

100 Joe Morgan
101 Dick Bosman
102 Jose Morales
103 Mike Bacsik
104 Omar Moreno RC
105 Steve Yeager
106 Mike Flanagan
107 Bill Melton
108 Alan Foster

All here, and no upgrade candidates. The Morgan is real nice!

The cards:



The dups:

[Mike D.]

Up next:

109 Jorge Orta
110 Steve Carlton
111 Rico Petrocelli
112 Bill Greif
113 Toronto Blue Jays CL
114 Bruce Dal Canton
115 Rich Manning
116 Joe Niekro
117 Frank White

This batch is all here. 111 Rico Petrocelli and 113 Toronto Blue Jays CL are both upgrade candidates.

The cards:



The dups:

[Mike D.]

Next:

118 Rick Jones RC
119 John Stearns
120 Rod Carew
121 Gary Nolan
122 Ben Oglivie
123 Fred Stanley
124 George Mitterwald
125 Bill Travers
126 Rod Gilbreath

All here! 119 John Stearns and 123 Fred Stanley are upgrade candidates.

The cards:



The dups:

[Bigdaddy]

Good luck with the set. I was 11 in 1977 and these are the first wax packs that I can remember opening. Always excited to find an 'All-Star' logo on a card when opening up a pack.

[Mike D.]

Originally Posted by Bigdaddy

Good luck with the set. I was 11 in 1977 and these are the first wax packs that I can remember opening. Always excited to find an 'All-Star' logo on a card when opening up a pack.

Thank you! I was 11 when I started collecting 10 years later, in 1987.

My 8 year old son, "inspired" by my binder projects, has started a 1987 Topps binder project of his own.

Pretty funny watching him bust packs of the first set I ever bought!

[Mark70Z]

Man, you picked up a pretty good amount up front. Really like the look of this set and looking forward to viewing it all. While I’m not really a set collector I really like viewing all the different cards and this is one of the last years I really was picking up a ton of cards. I did get some ‘78’s, but that was it for quite a number of years.

Love that your son is getting into it as well. Be cool to see some pics with his cards!

[Mike D.]

Originally Posted by Mark70Z

Man, you picked up a pretty good amount up front. Really like the look of this set and looking forward to viewing it all. While I’m not really a set collector I really like viewing all the different cards and this is one of the last years I really was picking up a ton of cards. I did get some ‘78’s, but that was it for quite a number of years.

Love that your son is getting into it as well. Be cool to see some pics with his cards!

Yes, I did start with quite a pile! I was noticing that when doing the initial sort by 100's to get started.

I blame two factors for this: 1) the relative affordability of lots from this year and 2) the Net54 community, who provided some great lots that I couldn't say "no" to.

I wasn't a set collector until I started my 1976 project, but it's fun. Glad folks are enjoying the posts...it makes it a lot more fun and interesting to share the journey.

I think I may hit '78 Topps next. It's funny, but being a young collector in the late 80's and early 90's, that set seemed like an unattainable big money "vintage" set. Molitor/Trammel RC?! Eddie Murray RC?! Might as well have been Ruth and Gehrig to a kid scratching together $16 to buy a box of 1990 Donruss.

My son made ME sort the cards down into 100's, and he then sorted cards 1-100 down by 10's. He's got up to number 20 in the binder...so he's taking the slow approach. Ah, to be 8...

[Mike D.]

The next few:

127 Ron Fairly
128 Tommy John Dodgers
129 Mike Sadek
130 Al Oliver
131 Orlando Ramirez RC
132 Chip Lang
133 Ralph Garr
134 San Diego Padres CL
135 Mark Belanger

All are here and no upgrade candidates!

The cards;



The dups:

[Mike D.]

Two Hall of Famers:

136 Jerry Mumphrey RC
137 Jeff Terpko RC
138 Bob Stinson
139 Fred Norman
140 Mike Schmidt
141 Mark Littell
142 Steve Dillard RC
143 Ed Herrmann
144 Bruce Sutter RC

All here and the Sutter is pretty nice. But a number of upgrade candidates: 139,140, and 142.

The cards:



The dups:

[Mike D.]

Passing 150:

145 Tom Veryzer
146 Dusty Baker
147 Jackie Brown
148 Fran Healy
149 Mike Cubbage
150 Tom Seaver
151 Johnnie LeMaster
152 Gaylord Perry
153 Ron Jackson RC

#146 Dusty Baker is missing. #149 Mike Cubbage could use an upgrade.

The cards:



The dups:

[Mike D.]

The next batch:

154 Dave Giusti
155 Joe Rudi
156 Pete Mackanin
157 Ken Brett
158 Ted Kubiak
159 Bernie Carbo
160 Will McEnaney
161 Garry Templeton RC
162 Mike Cuellar

#160 Wil McEnaney is missing. No upgrade candidates.

I know Topps usually put a "star" on the 0's...what happened here?

The cards:



The dups:

[Mike D.]

Up next:

163 Dave Hilton
164 Tug McGraw
165 Jim Wynn
166 Bill Campbell
167 Rich Hebner
168 Charlie Spikes
169 Darold Knowles
170 Thurman Munson
171 Ken Sanders

All here and no obvious upgrade candidates.

The cards:



The dups:

[steve B]

Originally Posted by Mike D.

As my 1976 Topps Binder Project is approaching completion (set complete, 20 upgrade candidates as of this posting), I'm ready to take on another set.

Darnit!

"Working" on it since 76..... still something like 9 cards short.....

[Mike D.]

Originally Posted by steve B

Darnit!

"Working" on it since 76..... still something like 9 cards short.....

The good news is that it's a LOT easier these days to find the last few cards you need than it was back then!

[Mike D.]

Up next:

172 John Milner
173 Chuck Scrivener RC
174 Nelson Briles
175 Butch Wynegar RC
176 Bob Robertson
177 Bart Johnson
178 Bombo Rivera RC
179 Paul Hartzell RC
180 Dave Lopes

All here and no obvious upgrade candidates.

The cards:



The dups:

[Mike D.]

The next batch:

181 Ken McMullen
182 Dan Spillner
183 St. Louis Cardinals CL
184 Bo McLaughlin RC
185 Sixto Lezcano
186 Doug Flynn
187 Dick Pole
188 Bob Tolan
189 Rick Dempsey

183 St. Louis Cardinals CL is missing. Everything else looks good.

The cards:

[Mike D.]

The next group:

190 Ray Burris
191 Doug Griffin
192 Clarence Gaston
193 Larry Gura
194 Gary Matthews
195 Ed Figueroa
196 Len Randle
197 Ed Ott
198 Wilbur Wood

All here and no obvious upgrade candidates.

The cards:



The dups:

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by Mike D.

#160 Wil McEnaney is missing. No upgrade candidates.

I know Topps usually put a "star" on the 0's...what happened here?

That’s a good question, I knew McEnaney had one very good year and thought maybe it was 1976 but when I looked him up on Baseball Reference I saw that it was 1975 and that 1976 was a bad year, even though he got a ring both years. He was out of the major leagues two years after his 1977 card came out. ETA, he did have an excellent World Series in 1976 pitching 4 2/3 scoreless innings with two saves, and for the second straight year he threw the last pitch to win the World Series.

[Mike D.]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

That’s a good question, I knew McEnaney had one very good year and thought maybe it was 1976 but when I looked him up on Baseball Reference I saw that it was 1975 and that 1976 was a bad year, even though he got a ring both years. He was out of the major leagues two years after his 1977 card came out. ETA, he did have an excellent World Series in 1976 pitching 4 2/3 scoreless innings with two saves, and for the second straight year he threw the last pitch to win the World Series.

Yeah, I'm guessing it was his WS contributions and his being part of the "Big Red Machine" that got him the "0" honor.

Still, interesting when you get to a "0" and you're like "who?!"

[Mike D.]

Passing 200:

199 Pepe Frias
200 Frank Tanana
201 Ed Kranepool
202 Tom Johnson
203 Ed Armbrister
204 Jeff Newman RC
205 Pete Falcone
206 Boog Powell
207 Glenn Abbott

All are here and accounted for, with no upgrade candidates.

The cards:



The dups:

[Mike D.]

Up next:

208 Checklist 133-264
209 Rob Andrews
210 Fred Lynn
211 San Francisco Giants CL
212 Jim Mason
213 Maximino Leon
214 Darrell Porter
215 Butch Metzger
216 Doug DeCinces

Card #208 (Checklist 133-264) is missing. 215 Butch Metzger could use an upgrade.

The cards:



The dups:

[Mike D.]

The next batch:

217 Tom Underwood
218 John Wathan RC
219 Joe Coleman
220 Chris Chambliss
221 Bob Bailey
222 Francisco Barrios
223 Earl Williams
224 Rusty Torres
225 Bob Apodaca

All 9 are here. 220 Chris Chambliss could use an upgrade.

The cards:



The dups:

[Mike D.]

Next up:

226 Leroy Stanton
227 Joe Sambito RC
228 Minnesota Twins CL
229 Don Kessinger
230 Vida Blue
231 George Brett RB
232 Minnie Minoso RB
233 Jose Morales RB
234 Nolan Ryan RB

Missing are 228 Minnesota Twins CL and 234 Nolan Ryan RB (darn). No obvious upgrade candidates.

The cards:



The dups:

[Mike D.]

The next group:

235 Cecil Cooper
236 Tom Buskey
237 Gene Clines
238 Tippy Martinez
239 Bill Plummer
240 Ron LeFlore
241 Dave Tomlin
242 Ken Henderson
243 Ron Reed

All here and no obvious upgrade candidates!

The cards:



The dups:

[Mike D.]

The cards:

244 John Mayberry
245 Rick Rhoden
246 Mike Vail
247 Chris Knapp
248 Wilbur Howard
249 Pete Redfern
250 Bill Madlock
251 Tony Muser
252 Dale Murray

All cards are here. 248 Wilbur Howard is an upgrade candidate.

The cards:



The dups:

[Mike D.]

Next batch:

253 John Hale
254 Doyle Alexander
255 George Scott
256 Joe Hoerner
257 Mike Miley
258 Luis Tiant
259 New York Mets CL
260 J.R. Richard
261 Phil Garner

All 9 are present. 260 J.R. Richard is an upgrade candidate.

The cards:



The dups:

[Mike D.]

The next group:

262 Al Cowens
263 Mike Marshall
264 Tom Hutton
265 Mark Fidrych RC
266 Derrel Thomas
267 Ray Fosse
268 Rick Sawyer RC
269 Joe Lis
270 Dave Parker

265 Mark Fidrych RC is missing. 264 Tom Hutton could use an upgrade.

The cards:



The dups:

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by Mike D.

The next batch:

91 John Verhoeven
92 Dave Rosello
93 Tom Poquette
94 Craig Swan
95 Keith Hernandez
96 Lou Piniella
97 Dave Heaverlo
98 Milt May
99 Tom Hausman

I'm happy to see that you finally have a print error/variation in one of your sets . The 1977 Topps Dave Heaverlo can be found with a square green area in his glove at the bottom of the card that I'm guessing was caused by a piece of clear tape on the printing sheet. The print error is less common than the corrected card but is by no means rare.

[Mike D.]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

I'm happy to see that you finally have a print error/variation in one of your sets . The 1977 Topps Dave Heaverlo can be found with a square green area in his glove at the bottom of the card that I'm guessing was caused by a piece of clear tape on the printing sheet. The print error is less common than the corrected card but is by no means rare.

That's pretty cool! I've never been big into "print variations", but it's always interesting to hear about them. Of course, I could have said that about "set collecting" a few short months ago, so who knows what my collecting future holds!

Sorry to hear mine isn't super rare and isn't going to make me rich (otherwise we could go straight from '77 Topps to '52 Topps).

[Rickyy]

Nice progress! Lots of nice clean cards!

Ricky Y

[Mike D.]

Originally Posted by Rickyy

Nice progress! Lots of nice clean cards!

Ricky Y

Thank you! The card stock on the 77's is pretty thin...these are tougher than I expected.

[Mike D.]

The next batch:

271 Terry Forster
272 Lee Lacy
273 Eric Soderholm
274 Don Stanhouse
275 Mike Hargrove
276 A.L. Championship
277 N.L. Championship
278 Danny Frisella
279 Joe Wallis

276 A.L. Championship & 277 N.L. Championship are missing. 278 Danny Frisella could use an upgrade.

The cards:



The dups:

[Mike D.]

The next few:

280 Jim Hunter
281 Roy Staiger
282 Sid Monge
283 Jerry DaVanon
284 Mike Norris
285 Brooks Robinson
286 Johnny Grubb
287 Cincinnati Reds CL
288 Bob Montgomery

280 Jim Hunter and 287 Cincinnati Reds CL are missing. No upgrade candidates.

The cards:



The dups: