Resource(s) for 1962 Jello?

[Promethius88]

Originally Posted by LeftHandedDane

I am a set collector and have completed, or 99% completed, virtually every post-war set (excluding test issues). I think the 1962 Jello set is the most difficult set to complete that I have gone after in all my years of collecting. At this point I have exactly 100 (about 50%) of the set. There are a group of about 50-75 cards or so that are readily available for purchase, but after that it gets tricky. There are another 75 or so that come up periodically (1-2x/year). And the rest are just never even available for sale. I doubt that I will ever complete this set - that is the first time I have ever believed that about any set from the past 90 years or so.

I believe the experts' list of the 21 toughest, and somewhere I read about a second list of maybe 9 more that are next toughest. Given prices overall, I would guess all of these would bring $500 or more each, and several well into 4 figures. Since Beckett and other price guides are completely worthless on this, I manually track sales of these cards to try to understand the relative values.

I have found another 12 cards that I have seen sell for excess of $100 that are not even on either of these lists. These include 31 Brandt, 43 Perry, 44 Held, 59 Buddin, 77 Wagner, 87 Green, 98 Archer, 105 T Davis, 132 Pagan, 161 Warwick, 175 Virdon, and 198 Roberts. (most of these are listed in Beckett as $6-10 cards). And we are not usually talking about anything better than VG condition.

There is still another group of cards that I have never seen up for auction on eBay in the past 4-5 years: 3 Boyer, 4 Kubek, 12 Arroyo, 16 Boros, 28 Breeding, 68 Veal, 96 Posada, 169 Stuart, 177 Face, 195 Demeter, and 199 Mahaffey. So I have no idea of their selling price should they come on the market.

Given the prices the rarer cards are getting (63 Pagliaroni just sold for $1500+), there is clearly more demand than supply - which is why I believe this set is more difficult than any other I've run across (post-war). Even pre-war - I completed 33 and 34 Goudey, Diamond Stars, and Play Ball sets with far less difficulty (albeit some high prices).

Interested in others' perspectives on this set and would love to hear any different input on relative scarcity/value of the named cards - as well as others I may have missed.

I will preface my comments by telling you that I've only been collecting this set for about 5 years now. I believe I am around 15 cards short. Has been very slow going for me for the last couple of years and haven't added many to my set.
There are guys on here that have an incredible amount of knowledge about this obscure set. At this point, I don't think you will find anyone with more background than Ken. His detail has been amazing and I'm sure I'm not the only one that is waiting/hoping he will someday write a book on it. It would be a travesty to see all of that research and knowledge lost.

So here's what I can tell you... there are a few guys that have a lot of the cards you have listed above. Keep in mind, some of these guys have been acquiring these cards for 30+ years. Typically, the super rare sp's only come up for sale if someone that has had them for a long time decides to let one go. Sometimes you will see them passed around in the pretty small circle of guys collecting the set so they won't come up for sale. A lot of times when you see the ultra rare ones, it's because someone has no clue what they have and they just list it on Ebay. There have been a lot of them picked up that way in the last couple of years. In the early stages, I picked up a Stan Williams on a BIN and I had no clue how difficult that card was until Ken educated me

Prices and values... well, that's a whole other ballgame. Cards will full borders are always going to bring a premium because there's just not a ton of them out there for sale. Factor in the rarity of the card and you will have to be prepared to spend a small fortune to try and get one. There were several sp's that sold earlier in the year that were VERY high end examples. A handful brought more than $3k each.

I think that right now, there are several more people chasing the set than when I started 5 years ago. The people I've had the good fortune to get to know in the Jell-O community are great guys. Ken, Wayne and Stew have all been a big help to me and I can't thank them enough. I have expressed my thoughts of giving up on the set a few times with Wayne and he has talked me out of it... whether he knows it or not.

So, in conclusion, it is possibly THE toughest set to complete post-war and has to be close to the top of all-time, in my opinion. Other sets might just be difficult to complete because of the cost of a card or two... but you can typically find the card. 62 Jell-O... doesn't matter how much money you have, certain cards just don't come up for sale.

Best of luck in your pursuit!

Tim