How many team set collectors are out there?

[brewing]

Jason, team sets from 1974-1979 are easy to find and cheap (78 may be difficult for you).
You can find team lots for the earlier years. The high#'s will be the biggest stumbling block and those will have to be bought individually.
Condition? How deep are your pockets or how anal you are will answer that.
I highly suggest doing it, it's very rewarding.


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[frankhardy]

Jason,

I agree with Brent. Some of the more modern sets you can find the entire Orioles team set. If you are doing just Topps, you should finish that fairly quickly. But be warned, the bug might just bite and you will start expanding. I recommend going for all of the mainstream issues. I would start with Topps, then go with vintage Bowman. Then, you can go modern Bowman, Fleer, Donruss, Upper Deck, Score. All of those will be fairly easy. Then, you can branch out and start doing some of the harder stuff to find. Just a suggestion.

A great resource is the SCD catalog and teamsets4u.com.

A few great places to buy besides Ebay are sportlots.com and comc.com. Those are great places to buy commons and minor stars.

[Cliff Bowman]

Since no other Cubs collector has had the courage yet to admit to it in this thread, I will be the first. I wonder if there is a "Cubs Anonymous" help program?

[Samsdaddy]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

Since no other Cubs collector has had the courage yet to admit to it in this thread, I will be the first. I wonder if there is a "Cubs Anonymous" help program?

Cliff, Ron Santo and Billy Williams are my two all time favorite players. I try to get all Topps cards (regular, league leaders, all star, inserts) of both players.

Not to stray from the thread here but I would have had Santo in the Hall of Fame before Billy Williams. It is a shame Santo was not alive to see his enshrinement.

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by Samsdaddy

Cliff, Ron Santo and Billy Williams are my two all time favorite players. I try to get all Topps cards (regular, league leaders, all star, inserts) of both players.

Not to stray from the thread here but I would have had Santo in the Hall of Fame before Billy Williams. It is a shame Santo was not alive to see his enshrinement.

I knew another one of us would show up .

[Samsdaddy]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

I knew another one of us would show up .

The Transogram is neat. Great stuff Cliff.

[ALR-bishop]

Cliff---as a Cardinals fan I always tracked all the Cubs players, trying to be sure the Cardinals never violated the Ex Cub Factor

[jasonc]

Originally Posted by frankhardy

Jason,

I agree with Brent. Some of the more modern sets you can find the entire Orioles team set. If you are doing just Topps, you should finish that fairly quickly. But be warned, the bug might just bite and you will start expanding. I recommend going for all of the mainstream issues. I would start with Topps, then go with vintage Bowman. Then, you can go modern Bowman, Fleer, Donruss, Upper Deck, Score. All of those will be fairly easy. Then, you can branch out and start doing some of the harder stuff to find. Just a suggestion.

A great resource is the SCD catalog and teamsets4u.com.

A few great places to buy besides Ebay are sportlots.com and comc.com. Those are great places to buy commons and minor stars.

Thanks for the advice, starting out with Topps first. (I might even just stick with topps) BTW, I am aware of the teamsets4u.com site, excellent site for finding out the players from each set.

Also, from 2001 onward, I am thinking of going with Topps Heritage, I really like the look of those sets, those would go good in a binder with all of the O's by year, plus the challenge of the short prints. I am going to try and tackle the regular Topps first though.

[Jayworld]

Being a huge Padres fan (since 1974), I collect the Padres team sets, with a caveat:
I only collect years in which I don't have complete sets, and I stop at 1985. For me, that was the year that I started following MLB less and less, and once the Padres switched to navy in 1991, I lost a lot of interest in collecting the cards.

So, I collect team sets from 1969-1974 and 1980-1984. I do collect Donruss and Fleer in addition to Topps from 1981-84. I particularly like the 1981 Donruss Padres, as you have a mix of years uniforms (usually, the cards show the previous year's uniforms), so you get a mix of 1978-79-80 on the 1981 Donruss cards, including the rarely seen (and rarely baseball card depicted) yellow Padres jerseys from 1978 (1981 Donruss Broderick Perkins).

[jasonc]

Originally Posted by frankhardy

Jason,

I agree with Brent. Some of the more modern sets you can find the entire Orioles team set. If you are doing just Topps, you should finish that fairly quickly. But be warned, the bug might just bite and you will start expanding. I recommend going for all of the mainstream issues. I would start with Topps, then go with vintage Bowman. Then, you can go modern Bowman, Fleer, Donruss, Upper Deck, Score. All of those will be fairly easy. Then, you can branch out and start doing some of the harder stuff to find. Just a suggestion.

A great resource is the SCD catalog and teamsets4u.com.

A few great places to buy besides Ebay are sportlots.com and comc.com. Those are great places to buy commons and minor stars.

Thought I'd revive a thread and do an update.
Shifting my collecting focus AGAIN, and now focusing on my Orioles sets.

Like what was discussed here, I did acquire the modern Orioles Topps sets, in fact 1974 to present, and I was really happy with the purchase, thought I got a really good deal. Thanks for the suggestion.

Now to the fun part, building 1954 to 1973, at this point I am going about it slowly and concentrating on regular topps only. I would say I have about 30% of 1954 to 1973, most of Brooks and Frank except only a few, so I think I have an awesome start. Already have the Palmer rookie (mind you, probably a VG, but this project is a collection not investment)

Would like to hear other updates on how everybody's team sets are going, anybody else getting into team set collecting?

[frankhardy]

Jason,

Glad to see that you took the plunge on the Topps team sets. You will enjoy it. Have fun with 54 to 73!

Also glad to see another Cardinals collector go at it! Those 62 Jello's are really tough. I have 61 to 63 Post and the 63 Jello, but I only have one 62 Jello.

[mrmopar]

Dodgers collector here. Never a shortage of those for vintage, but they seem to be less popular in present day collecting circles. Fine by me though. I prefer Brooklyn stuff and thankfully grabbed up a fair amount in the early ebay days, because now I don't want to pay the premium for the stuff I don't have.

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by mrmopar

Dodgers collector here. Never a shortage of those for vintage, but they seem to be less popular in present day collecting circles. Fine by me though. I prefer Brooklyn stuff and thankfully grabbed up a fair amount in the early ebay days, because now I don't want to pay the premium for the stuff I don't have.

I would agree woth this. The Brooklyn premium is almost non-existent these days; it used to be a large fraction of the Yankees premium.

[Laxcat]

Easier(?) to do than most of the others. There are some tough issues out there. Luckily I had a very good starting, and quite nearly complete, collection.

[frankhardy]

I joined the datasbyte site for Cardinals collectors. I may build me a list of my collection on the site. Right now, I just have a spreadsheet. I can already see that some cards need to be added to the database. I will do that if I can find the time.

I think Randy (a Cardinals collector) needs to chime in on this.

[vintagebaseballcardguy]

Originally Posted by frankhardy

I joined the datasbyte site for Cardinals collectors. I may build me a list of my collection on the site. Right now, I just have a spreadsheet. I can already see that some cards need to be added to the database. I will do that if I can find the time.

I think Randy (a Cardinals collector) needs to chime in on this.

Reviving a fun old thread to ask does anyone know if datasbyte is gone? I can't get the page to open. I never followed through with my Cardinals project but have circled back around to it. I would love to be able to get back on that site.

[egri]

I'm currently working on a signed Boston Red Sox 1950-52 Bowman run. My favorite is the 1951s, so they've taken center stage while the other two are in a holding pattern for the time being. The two big-ticket ones I still need from that year are Steve O'Neil and Ted Williams.

[BaltOrioles]

I'm a Baltimore Orioles collector from 1954 to present. I've put together most of the team sets, along with many oddball issues, but collect more than just cards.

I really enjoy the Orioles team issued player postcards, team issued 8x10 photos, and programs (regular season, post season, spring training and exhibition games).

My current passion are programs/scorecards from all the Orioles minor league affiliates from 1954-2021. About 90% complete, but some really obscure 1950's programs still to find.

[tschock]

Mostly a set collector here, and it depends whether that is with or without variations. However I also have a few players I collect as well as more of an 'open ended' pursuit on pre-war cards.

I like the Heritage cards, but after the first year of Heritage I wasn't about to pursue a bunch of intentionally short printed cards to complete a set. So I resigned myself to collecting just the Giants cards for each year, which might have just a couple of SPs (to complete the 'base' team set), picking up any parallel or variations whenever without really 'pursuing' them (my 'open ended' approach). Doing a team set for the Heritage cards gives me a flavor of the product without the financial impact, which I can then use to focus more on vintage.

[frankhardy]

I just looked over my original post and it included my want list from back then. I have made some great progress as many of the want list has been filled. I certainly still need some of the more rare cards.

Here is what I have picked up since then from that list.

1955 Topps Hocus Focus - Wally Moon (maybe it wasn't impossible after all)

1967 Topps Discs - Orlando Cepeda

1968 Topps Plaks - Orlando Cepeda

1969 Topps 4-in-1 Stickers - Steve Huntz & Mike Torrez Rookie Stars (with Carl Yastrzemski)

1970 Topps Candy Lids - Richie Allen

1972 Topps Candy Lids - Lou Brock, Bob Gibson

1973 Topps Comics - Joe Torre

1990 Topps Folders / Sport Shots / Portfolio / Duo-Tang Pedro Guerrero

1997 Topps ProShooters Marbles Ron Gant

2001 Topps Retrofractors 146 Fernando Tatis

1967 Fleer Logo Emblems & Cloth Patches (tallboys; test) - Cardinals Logo Emblem (1966 w/l record; save all 19 cards), Cardinals Cloth Patch, Cardinals Trio Cloth Patch

1968-70 Fleer Cloth Patches - Cardinals (orange; blue bordered logo)

1969 Fleer Pennants & Stamps - Cardinals

1970 Fleer Iron Ons - Cardinals

1970 Fleer Team Logo Decals - Cardinals

1973 Fleer Team Logo Decals - Cardinals

1976 Fleer Iron Ons - Cardinals

That's been my progress since 2013, plus keeping up to date with modern (variations and SP's)

[homerunderby]

Yankees collector here, I collect any Yankees (including minor league affiliates) any era, and any set. Have over 51,000 different. Topps team sets back through 1964 (plus 1962) and loads of weird stuff including Yankees cards from 7 countries.

[frankhardy]

Originally Posted by homerunderby

Yankees collector here, I collect any Yankees (including minor league affiliates) any era, and any set. Have over 51,000 different. Topps team sets back through 1964 (plus 1962) and loads of weird stuff including Yankees cards from 7 countries.

Why don't you collect all the way back to 1952 Topps?