Best Set for Someone On A Budget

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Posted By: ted

One of my buddies is kind of on the fence about getting into vintage cards. He, like me, is young and spent his childhood collecting contemporary cards in the mid-80's to early 90's. Unlike me however, he has not really started any collections. As i have mentioned before, I have completed an Aaron collection with my father and now I myself am concentrating on Koufax/T206/and BlackSox cards while he is into Goudey's and Diamond Stars. Although i know this board is dedicated to cards from a particular era, where do you think i should direct him. He's a big cubbies fan, and seems that he is more interested in collecting pieces that interest him rather than cards in a particular condition. In otherwords, he would much rather have a PSA 1 T206 Evers (50 bucks) than a Gem Mint 10 1956 Walt Dropo (1,500). I don't know that he wants to build an entire set, so maybe low grade t206 is still a good way for him to go, but any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Once again, the focus of the board is on early 1900's, but if you guys think he would do well with 1950's era, i'd like that mentioned. He is a big Cubbies fan, so maybe he's just get into collecting anything Cubs, but i think that is a little to wide open.

Thanks,
BlackSoxFan

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Posted By: David Vargha

Try e95's. It's a small set (25), relatively inexpensive, and has something like 9 or 10 HOF'ers in it.

DavidVargha@hotmail.com

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Posted By: Anonymous

would be the e90-3s, has the cubs and white sox covered. You won't see them come up that often so your friend will have plenty of time to save up for the next card, f-g condition is around $100. Best of luck to your friend, my first cards was a pack of 1989 Donruss and Topps so I know what it's like to collect in those boom time (hey the gum in those packs was well worth it!)

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Posted By: ted

So you guys would definitely stick with turn of the century rather than delving into something from the 30's, 40's or 50's?

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

Id recommend a Cubs only set starting with the Goudeys because the Cubs were a powerhouse in the thirties with Hartnett, Herman, Hack, Klein, Lindstrom, Cuyler, Stephenson, etc. Quite an exciting team at its 20th Century prewar peak.

However, a more advanced collection of Cubbies would be the players who participated on their 1884 team. These Cubs established the team season record for home runs (yes, in 1884) which took the 1927 Yankees to break! You'd have Clarkson, Kelly, Anson, and lots of others.

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Posted By: Paul

1929 R316 Kashin Publications would be an inexpensive set that has great photos & stars.

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Posted By: Jay Miller

I think a set that is underappreciated that is challenging, has great pictures, has alot of HOFers, and is still relatively inexpensive is the M101-6 Sporting News set. I have collected this in the past, although I do not now.

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Posted By: Jeff Britton

Try the 1936 S&S GAme card set .. Small set size(52 cards) Loads of Stars If one is patient you could build a nice NM/MT set for around $3000.

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Posted By: Marc S.

Ted:

Since you brought up the possibility - there are a number of really beautiful sets from the 1950s that can be put together in collector grade for a relatively modest amount of money. 1953 Bowman Color is probably a good example - great pictures, no cards that will break the bank, and as long as he focuses on lower-grade cards, he could probably get some really nice pictures that are technical downgrades [e.g. centering or corners].

~ms

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Posted By: David Vargha

At the risk of going too far from the board's theme, a good 50's set that meets your parameters is 1954 Red Heart. It has 33 cards, 11 of which are HOF'ers. A nice looking set can be acquired for $2-3K and the only expensive cards are Mantle and Musial.

DavidVargha@hotmail.com

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Posted By: warshawlaw

relatively speaking, true bargains. once you get past ruth-gehrig-cobb the regular issue, non-rarity cards rarely cross the $100 mark even in decent shape. postwar cards are readily available at $5-10 each in nice shape.

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Posted By: ted

I was thinking about suggesting the Goudey's b/c he could get decent condition cards for a pretty decent price and really concentrate on Cubbies... the nice thing about that set as well as, let's say a 56 Topps or Bowman, is that the cards are relatively easy to find. If he sticks with unslabbed cards, the prices could be very reasonable. It's a very tough decision for him i'm sure. At the end of the day I can't imagine that he would want to spend more than $1,000 to $2,000 on what he wants. And as he's not as dedicated to collecting as any of us, it might serve him better to stick with something that is fairly easy to find.

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Posted By: Scott Forrest

t206 and '33/'34 Goudeys. The budget-minded can buy these in larger lots and re-sell the ones they don't want, thus keeping costs down.

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Posted By: dan mckee

1987 Topps

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Posted By: Judge Dred

The T201 set has only 50 cards and the cards are relatively inexpensive when compared to the T and E cards. The set is from the early 20th century (around the same time as the T206 set) so it would be from a nice era. Cobb is in the set as well as Johnson and Matty. Too bad Wagner wasn't in there.

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

One advantage of Warshawlaw's suggestion is that the Exhibit cards were issued from the twenties through the sixties - in roughly the same format. So, one could consider these all one set covering 40 years or so, because they all look alike.

No other set offers this.

Yes, some years had color tint variations, but they are all about the same size and design. I think for a few years you could get four players per card.

Goudey is a popular option (and the one I recommended), but the Exhibits are another good choice.

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Posted By: Greg Ecklund

The Exhibit and 1933/34 Goudey suggestions are good ones.

I would also throw the Goudey Wide Pen (R314) and Fine Pen (R313) premiums out there. The cards are cheap - commons often go for under $10 in Vg/Ex condition, with only a couple cards at most in each over $100. Also, there are many cool poses in each set. The Fine Pen set has a card of Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, and Mickey Cochrane together, a pose of Wes and Rick Ferrell, and a great card of Pirates pitcher Jim Weaver with both Waner brothers on his shoulders.

You can have him check Mike Wheat's site for pictures of some of the cards...he has a picture of the Weaver/Waners card as well as a pose of Gabby Hartnett and Lon Warneke.

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Posted By: Adam J. Moraine

1988 Donruss or 1990 Donruss (LOL)

Best Regards,

Adam J. Moraine

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Posted By: Bill Kasel

I've found the E95's to be a good set to start with if you have a limited budget. The Cobb and Wagner will set you back $400+ each for fair examples but the rest (including Matty, Plank, Crawford, Evers, etc.) that are HOF'er are reasonable. The non-stars are very affordable. I only ask that he start once I'm done!

Of course if your buddy is condidtion sensitive, then all bets are off.

Bill

"The beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad, so I had one more for dessert"

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Posted By: Bob C

Tuesday May 3, 06:56 PM

John Paul trading card sells for $8,100

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Of all the athlete trading cards on the U.S. market today, the most valuable is not that of baseball great Barry Bonds or basketball star Shaquille O'Neal but noted skier and outdoorsman Karol Wojtyla -- the late Pope John Paul II.


Beckett Media, whose pricing guides are the acknowledged arbiters of value for collectible trading cards, said on Tuesday a limited-edition Pope John Paul II from the 2005 World Treasures line of card maker Topps has sold for $8,100 (4,280 pounds).


The Topps series includes other historical figures like Czar Paul I and King Frederick the Great, though their cards are trading for around $3,000. All the cards in the series have etchings of the figures' autographs.


In comparison, Beckett said, regular cards depicting Barry Bonds, who is contending for baseball's all-time home run record, have never sold for more than $1,200.


The market for John Paul collectibles heated up dramatically after his early-April death. Thousands of people queued up last week in Vatican City for the last run of euro coins bearing the late pontiff's image.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

1950s-70s Odd Balls has a lot of neat stuff, ranging from the 1954 Red Heart (another's pick but worth seconding) to Topps test issues to the 1970s Kellogs 3-D cards. A lot of these issues have star players' rookie cards and pre-rookie cards, and most issues are rarer than the regular Topps cards.

In fact, it would be a worthy focus to collect odd ball rookie and pre-rookie cards. 1975 Hostess Robin Yount, 1957 Swift Meats Rocky Colavito, 1978 Kelloggs Eddie Murray, 1969 Topps Decal Reggie Jackson. There are similar odd ball rookies of football stars too. Many of the cards would be fairly inexpensive, especially if you're dealing with more modern players, and it might end up to be as fine collection.



Above: Swift Meats Frank Robinson Rookie. Am I the only one who finds it odd that a meat manufacturer would issue baseball cards that are die-cut human body parts?

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Posted By: warshawlaw

isn't that what the old chicken commercial said?

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Posted By: RayB

It may take a lifetime but one can embed themselves in a wave of tabacco card history by just pecking away at low and mid grade T-206's. There is so much ther to love. Even if one is afraid of venturing into this on the raw card end due to issues of altering, trimming and fakery, these cards also look great in slabs.
There is a ton of low and mid grade stuff available graded today so one could make weekly progress.
I would stay with your original thought and think T-206.
RayB

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Posted By: Julie

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Posted By: David Vargha

Those 53 Bowmans were thirty years ahead of their time, so they're not just post-war, they're modern!

DavidVargha@hotmail.com

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Posted By: ted

Thanks everyone for the thoughts...keep em coming
Yeah i guess at this point it's really going to come down to what era he wants ... that will ultimately determine his decision.

TDG

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Posted By: Rob L

T201. Has Cubs HOFers also.

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Posted By: dennis

if he's looking for a 1950's set,i would suggest the 1956 topps set. all the big stars(-musial)are represented.no really high dollar cards,big supply of mid grade raw cards are out there,no high # scarcities,last of the over-sized cards,great stadium scenes and portrait on cards,great backs and you don't need tons of $$$ to complete.

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Posted By: Mark

Collecting's about personal choice. I myself can't decide where to drop my next $6k myself - 1887 Bid McPhee or 2005 Pope John Paul II auto card:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=98015&item=5191001608&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW