[Chstrite]

Good evening! This week is Brooks' final year in the PSA Master. In 1978 he had 5 cards. This was one of the smaller years featured on a card or item in the Master. First off, you will see the PSA 9 TCMA Stars of the 1960s. This card has 7 peers and 3 graded at the PSA 10 level. This set has 293 cards featuring photos from Mike Aronstein's library of photos. I enjoy the photos from this set and is full of HoF'ers. Next, is the 1978 Orioles Topps Team Card. This PSA 9 is fairly common with 62 peers and 25 graded as PSA 10. The Topps Team Checklist Sheet Hand Cut is tied highest graded with 1 peer. This card is hard to find at this condition. The 1978 Topps Record Breaker Brooks issue is a PSA 10 GEM, which was fairly pricy and very difficult to find for me despite having 14 peers. The 1978 O Pee Chee PSA 9 has 24 peers and one PSA 10. The 1978 Topps Record Breaker card is one of several players featured achieving a significant event in their career. The 1977 campaign for Brooks was his 23d season in uniform with the Orioles establishing a record of longevity with one ballclub. Sadly, this will be my last week featuring a year in the Brooks Master. It was a lot of fun writing for the past 6 months about the PSA Master featuring Brooks His cards are plentiful with many exceptions, especially the lower population cards. I am very partial to the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s and having Brooks in the middle of those years both with Topps and all the oddball cards is very exciting. Several weeks ago, I actually completed the Brooks PSA Master set. The last card needed was the 1975 NST Mr. Baseball Japan Card/Sticker from the Nagashima set featuring Brooks in uniform. The PSA Master Set for Brooks has 272 total items. I did some research on other popular HOF players from that era such as Yaz, Mays, Clemente, Mantle, Aaron, Gibson and others and was surprised to learn that none of them were complete. Many were short a few cards, but again, incomplete. My set has a qualitative score of 7.05. It is ranked number 2 (sad face). The number 1 Brooks set is 96% complete with a qualitative score of 8.07. The difference between my #2 set and the #1 set in terms of grades is significantly different. For example, if I own a card that has a mid value or weight graded as a PSA 5 and find a PSA 10, it will only increase my score by .002. I would likely take me tens of thousands of dollars and 100 increased graded cards to overtake the #1 set. My set has a lot of items that are #1 / highest population (16) and 69 tied for highest grade / population. Within my set there are a number of items that no one else has. I have 6 items at PSA waiting to be added to the Master and another 10 or so at PSA being graded that I hope to add, too. Once PSA opens, I have a handful of items to send for grading and addition (i.e., 1968 Brooks/Franke OPC Champs #1, 1964 Martin Marietta Family Night, 1974 OPC Orioles Team Card and a few 1967/68 Coca Cola / Fanta / Tab / Sprite Soda Caps. Sadly, as you add items with my score, your qualitative score decreases unless you are adding PSA 7 - 10s. Needless to say, my OCD and endless quest to slay new or improved graded Brooks cards is fun while exhausting. The Brooks collection keeps me in the hobby and allows me to meet many people to include as many as 10 folks on this string. Anyway, I hope the weekly posts have been educational and enjoyable. For those of you that do not like PSA, my apologies but hope I have clarified a few things along the way. I will pop in frequently with Brooks items so see you soon. Happy Collecting.