[mintacular]

1. From a financial standpoint you will save a lot of $ buy buying a large "starter" lot, from there you can have fun cherry picking stars, high #'s, and upgrades

2. Make sure you pinpoint very closely on the grade you are HAPPY with and also the set that really motivates you...I correctly started building '57 but in the beginning ignored centering, and now, I am having to upgrade my o/c cards.

3. I like buying raw card commons as the price of grading fees usually gets rolled in to the sales price and I think it's silly to pay $10-15 for a graded EX-MT common rather than $5 for a raw one, which I like to be able to put into my vinyl sheets/binder anyway. For $100+ cards I like the added security of buying graded.

4. I would go with '56s of the ones you listed due to the background action shot and think it is a step up on the '55s which have a plain background. I personally would be satisfied with just the Koufax and Clemente and don't need the other 200+ cards...Make sure you want to spend money on several hundred commons, or could you be satisfied just buying stars/cards you like from that set? Do you want to pay $20/ea for high # '55s?, etc?

5. I prefer the standard card size of post '56 cards and find the cards fit well into my vinyl sheets. The larger cards go in 8 pocket sheets. In these, I feel like the cards are a bit loose and wiggly around and that is one of many reasons I am not building '52-56 sets