Quote:
Originally Posted by Matthew80
I think buying them graded would clearly be the more economical way to go, but whether such cards exists is a problem. I was thinking of an '84 Donruss, '87 Topps set, 88 Score, '89 Upper Deck, '90 Leaf or '91 Stadium Club, what I think are the most beautiful and/or personal to me. Some, namely 87 and 88, just don't have enough cards submitted to buy graded ones, though!
Alternatively, one idea I had was buying up random sets or lots to put together a raw Gem Mint-caliber set. Brush up my grading eye/evaluating, and have a true, honest Gem Mint-caliber raw set. It could easily be documented by a photo-hosting program (my taking front/back scans and uploading them there). I could be the new Mr. [Gem] Mint for some given series.
I've also thought of doing a '91 Studio set, the issue with the cool to weird b&w portraits. A ~250 ct set, that's a bit more attainable. I thought about an '84 Fleer Update, '86 Topps Traded, or marquee add on set like that, but I just can't talk myself into it.
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Matthew -- you could very easily be reading my brain with this post. There's a balance of a pile of variables -- set size, availability of already graded cards (but not so many that the set is too easily completed in targeted grade), the right set (I agree with all of those sets -- 1991 Studio is very intriguing), etc., etc.
This is exactly why I haven't landed anywhere myself, and often find myself waffling between some kind of "graded" challenge and funneling that same amount of money into an even larger raw challenge. Oddly, I find poking around population reports, looking at people's collections and researching different sets for such an endeavour interesting and not frustrating (possibly because I have other active collections), so maybe that's also why I haven't jumped yet.
Anyway, whatever you decide, I hope you let us know. I'll be curious where you land.
Cheers,
Richard.