Hi Matthew,
I have a lot of complete sets for both football and baseball and can share what I've found to work.
First, I agree with the previous comment that it is pretty difficult to display graded sets. I have a few sets that are mostly graded but they tend to be very small sets. I have them in a binder using 4 per page vinyl sheets. Graded cards fit into these sheets pretty well but the binder is heavy and hard to page through. Not recommended at all. The rest of my sets are mostly raw cards so they fit nicely in binders using 25, 9, 8 per page vinyl sheets depending upon the size of the cards in the set. I like this method a lot as you can easily store your cards and look them over without damaging them. I can even let my kids look at them without worrying that they will transform an EX Ty Cobb into a G with some bite marks. I'm planning to insert reprints/replica's of the cards I have that are graded into the appropriate empty spaces in my albums so there are no empty spots. I haven't gotten to that project yet.
I am thinking about building a display case to house one or more of my sets that are mostly/all graded. See other threads on what some of the display cases people have built look like. Some are awesome! I plan to rotate sets through this display case so I can enjoy them but don't need to fill the house with them (my wife would kill me).
I haven't yet invested the time to build out an on-line album for any of my sets but do plan to do that some rainy ... year. It think it's a great idea for sharing your cards with others but nothing beats being able to flip through your set so both an on-line and physical album are useful. I've heard photobucket.com is pretty good for this.
In terms of acquiring cards, I try to buy common cards in lots as you can get a great deal for them in bulk as most dealers just want to get rid of commons. I buy most of my stars on ebay, other auctions, or from Net54 members. If you are patient, you *will* find great deals out there. I don't start by trying to get every card at a certain grade. Instead, I work to get the set completed with the best I can find for the price and then upgrade the cards that aren't worthy of being included and sell off the ones I've replaced. If you do a good job of picking up deals, you will be able to sell these cards for more than you paid for them and apply that extra $$$ toward the cost of newer, upgraded cards for the set.
If you are going the graded route, getting all of them graded by the same company looks the best from a display purpose. You can also then register the set in one of the grading companies registers which is pretty cool! Don't forget that you can always submit raw cards for grading or switch a graded card from one grading company to another if you wish so you don't have to JUST purchase cards from a particular grading company to ultimately end up with a complete set with grades from one company. You'll also find that purchasing raw cards is way, way cheaper than their corresponding graded versions ... you just have to really watch to make sure you are getting the grade that is stated in the auction ad and not be afraid to send cards back if they don't meet your approval.
I hope this helps.
jeff
P.S. Check out the look of 1953 Topps. I think it is the coolest looking set in the '50s and highly recommend trying to put that set together. I've been working on it for a while and it looks awesome!
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