Is it worth the trouble to build vintage sets?

[KCRfan1]

I am working on my 1973 set, with 130 cards to go.

I'll never do another set. It's takes time and patience, and I am spending too much money on it.

The only reason I am building the set is fond memories as a kid and the first cards I remember actively collecting. That said, I will be glad I did it though.

[CobbSpikedMe]

I can totally understand collecting sets in nicer condition. And many of my key cards are actually nicer examples. But for the hundreds and hundreds of commons...I could care less if they are mint or not. I respect someone putting together a nice high grade set of course, and think they look great. But just not for me.

[tonyo]

Back in aught-9 I put together the 73 topps set from scratch in Raw G-VG condition. it took me about 3 or 4 months if I remember correctly. Not exactly a marathon, but I had a great time doing it !


Started from scratch. Took me 38 auction wins on ebay to do it. Nine of those were single cards, the rest were lots ranging from 2 to 346. Four of them were lots of greater than 300 cards and 3 more were greater than 100 cards.

I waited till I had completed the set, then sold 1381 duplicates in one ebay auction.

Spent $599.86, cleared $279.53 on the duplicates, so net I paid $320.33 to build the set and had a lot of fun doing it!

I prolly won't try that again though because I don't think there is another set that meets the same criteria of: a set I love, plenty of lots on ebay, relative inexpensive. That being said, it was definitely worth the trouble!

[crose]

I’m hopelessly addicted to set building. Started about 4 years ago, built a nice mid grade 54 topps set. Started on a 63 topps set about half way through the 54. Only three cards from finishing the 63 but I’m constantly upgrading. I have roughly 400 of the 576 in a second set. I doubt I stop upgrading it for awhile.

[wdwfan]

Did you do it through buying lots and then trading/selling off extras? Seems that's the way to go about doing it. I've been trading modern for singles and trying to build it slowly instead of just buying a big lot or lots.

So, I've been able to get close to 200 different '62s and have spent a whopping $2 on it. I bought one lot for $42 from Northviewcats and then paid $50 for the Maris. But I traded the Maris for a Baugh RC (which I sold this week for $90) and a Brown 2nd year card.

But just curious if it's better to buy various lots and go through it picking and choosing singles and selling off extras.

Originally Posted by crose

I’m hopelessly addicted to set building. Started about 4 years ago, built a nice mid grade 54 topps set. Started on a 63 topps set about half way through the 54. Only three cards from finishing the 63 but I’m constantly upgrading. I have roughly 400 of the 576 in a second set. I doubt I stop upgrading it for awhile.

[crose]

Originally Posted by wdwfan

Did you do it through buying lots and then trading/selling off extras? Seems that's the way to go about doing it. I've been trading modern for singles and trying to build it slowly instead of just buying a big lot or lots.

So, I've been able to get close to 200 different '62s and have spent a whopping $10 on it. I bought one lot for $50 from Northviewcats and then paid $50 for the Maris. But I traded it for a Baugh RC (which I sold this week for $90) and a Brown 2nd year card.

But just curious if it's better to buy various lots and go through and go through picking and choosing and selling off extras.

I started off with lots on the 63 set, but I’ve been steadily upgrading most of those. I haven’t sold any off yet. That 62 set is gorgeous, I hope you finish it and show it off on here someday.

[Baseballcrazy62]

I have both built and bought complete sets. I remember as a kid the thrill of breaking a wax box and putting together sets that way. Those days of the early 70's are long gone. In today's environment I thinks it's more financially viable to buy complete sets rather than build them. Just my 2 cents.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

I don’t want all that volume. I didn’t care about Sixto Lezcano when his card came out of (every) pack I busted as a kid and I don’t want to collect his cards now just to check off a checklist. I prefer to collect just the cards and players that meant something to me and use the money I’d spend on commons for something else.

Agree 1000 percent. I had an epiphany when I completed my first and only set, 65 Topps, in PSA 8. I spent something like $100 or maybe it was more for the final low pop common (in those days they were really low) and immediately realized how absurd it was. You can keep your Chico Ruizes and Kargers and every common in between. HOFers only for me.

[JLange]

Originally Posted by wdwfan

Here's my question. For those of you putting sets together, do you wait until you have a certain amount of the set before putting them into pages and into a notebook? Or do you even use a notebook? Or do you just sleeve them and put them into a box? I have a friend that puts all of his baseball sets in toploaders and into a filing cabinet. He then puts all of his football sets into pages. I personally prefer to have my cards in pages so I can more easily look through them. But it's harder to price them in pages since you can't put the cards into sleeves and into the pages. I want to put prices on individual cards so my wife would have an idea of where to start should something happen to me.

I’m a big fan of using cardsaver 1’s in 4-pocket pages as mentioned by another poster, especially when condition is important to you. The cards can be priced or identified with labels on the front or back and you can take and move them around with ease if you don’t like leaving holes in your pages as you build. I’ve also had inclinations to re-organize sets by teams or group subsets like rookie all-stars cards or multiplayer cards together at times so it makes a re-org quite easy as well. One drawback is a full album of 4-pocket pages can hold only about 248-252 cards,so you are looking at multiple albums to complete a typical Topps set.

[Exhibitman]

I just quit my one grand set building quest: a complete run of Exhibit boxing cards. I got pretty close to it. I consigned the whole thing to Heritage. Over 1,000 cards. I need the money for my kid to go to medical school.

Other than that the only sets I can see building are the 1972 Kellogg’s ATG and the SPs from the 1968 Atlantic Oil. Both childhood favorite issues. Small and very few common cards. The Kellogg’s has none.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by JLange

I’m a big fan of using cardsaver 1’s in 4-pocket pages as mentioned by another poster, especially when condition is important to you. The cards can be priced or identified with labels on the front or back and you can take and move them around with ease if you don’t like leaving holes in your pages as you build. I’ve also had inclinations to re-organize sets by teams or group subsets like rookie all-stars cards or multiplayer cards together at times so it makes a re-org quite easy as well. One drawback is a full album of 4-pocket pages can hold only about 248-252 cards,so you are looking at multiple albums to complete a typical Topps set.

I do that too but I use Unikeep clamshell binders. They are 1.5” wide and flat ringed and all polyethylene so no metal or rounding. About 120 cards per with double sided mounting . Not ideal for sets but I don’t need set storage. My Exhibit boxing was in 21 albums.

[Vintagevault13]

IMO, there are certain sets that I think justify the extra cost of building one card at a time. These are the sets that are prone to specific issues. A perfect example is the 1975 Topps Baseball Set. I just finished it in EX condition. One of my pet peeves are the “fish eyes” that are quite common on these cards. Personally, I can’t stand them. Many sellers don’t take these into account when determining condition. I probably spent $100 -$150 more than I would have if I bought the complete set or several large lots. I felt it was worth it because probably 50% of the cards would have had the fish eyes and I would have been faced with massive upgrades. I guess it all just depends on personal preference.


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[avalanche2006]

Originally Posted by Vintagevault13

IMO, there are certain sets that I think justify the extra cost of building one card at a time. These are the sets that are prone to specific issues. A perfect example is the 1975 Topps Baseball Set. I just finished it in EX condition. One of my pet peeves are the “fish eyes” that are quite common on these cards. Personally, I can’t stand them. Many sellers don’t take these into account when determining condition. I probably spent $100 -$150 more than I would have if I bought the complete set or several large lots. I felt it was worth it because probably 50% of the cards would have had the fish eyes and I would have been faced with massive upgrades. I guess it all just depends on personal preference.


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That's how I feel about the 3 sets that I am doing.
1958,59, and 60. All known to have centering issues.
All of my sets are perfectly centered with sharp corners.
This took many upgrades to achieve, but it's worth it to look through a set and be satisfied with every card.
That's my goal anyway, being as picky as I am.

[ZiggerZagger]

I suppose it matters how much the thrill of the chase appeals to you. In my case, not very much.

My method has been to buy very nice complete sets to begin with, often waiting for quite a while for one to pop up.
Sadly, I have the centering sickness, so I've tended to wait for collector-assembled sets to pop up where it's been clear they've cared about centering and eye-appeal.
From there, I've probably upgraded 10-30% of the cards for perfect centering and condition, depending on the set.
By the time I get to the last few cards, I'm usually getting a bit frustrated, so the thrill of completing things is really more of a relief to me.

It's worked well for me, though, having just completed the last set in my 1953 - 1979 Topps run recently. Took about 6 years or so. Condition is consistent within a given set, and ranges from EXMT to NM/MT depending on year.
I'm sure that buying complete sets to start has cut the final cost of finishing each set dramatically.

I do really enjoy having those sets to leaf through though, and they look amazing when assembled consistently.

I respect and envy folks who are able to just focus on individual examples of cards without feeling the need to be completist about collecting. I would love to get to that state of mind, and feel like I'm getting closer to it as the years go by.

[PowderedH2O]

I love to collect sets, but my budget won't allow for me to complete sets from Pre-War (for the most part), so I am restricting it to 1948-present. I don't exactly collect like the rest of you. I can't focus on one set at a time. I get annoyed with it. Literally, I can be all in on a set one day, and a day later I don't even want to look at it. So, I set up a plan about 3 years ago. I listed all of the sets I wanted to complete, and decided to do it on a 10 year plan. I would make sure that each year I am at the 10% more mark each year. This year, my goal is to be at 30% or higher for each set by my birthday in August. I am only a few cards away from that goal, so I am right on schedule. I also assign a points value to each set, so I make sure that I am also picking up a fair amount of star cards for each set as well, so I am not stuck at the end with all of the toughies.
Doing it this way seems illogical. But, it keeps me interested and always relaxed and enjoying it. I have also finished quite a few sets in the last three years already, so those no longer are in play. I am not a Mint freak. I just like good looking cards. For the 60's, I am happy with Excellentish cards. For the early 50's cards, vg/vg-ex works just fine. I am working one 1940's set, and one 1930's set. Vg is just fine for those.

[ALR-bishop]

Sounds like a great collecting plan, Sam

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by PowderedH2O

I love to collect sets, but my budget won't allow for me to complete sets from Pre-War (for the most part), so I am restricting it to 1948-present. I don't exactly collect like the rest of you. I can't focus on one set at a time. I get annoyed with it. Literally, I can be all in on a set one day, and a day later I don't even want to look at it. So, I set up a plan about 3 years ago. I listed all of the sets I wanted to complete, and decided to do it on a 10 year plan. I would make sure that each year I am at the 10% more mark each year. This year, my goal is to be at 30% or higher for each set by my birthday in August. I am only a few cards away from that goal, so I am right on schedule. I also assign a points value to each set, so I make sure that I am also picking up a fair amount of star cards for each set as well, so I am not stuck at the end with all of the toughies.
Doing it this way seems illogical. But, it keeps me interested and always relaxed and enjoying it. I have also finished quite a few sets in the last three years already, so those no longer are in play. I am not a Mint freak. I just like good looking cards. For the 60's, I am happy with Excellentish cards. For the early 50's cards, vg/vg-ex works just fine. I am working one 1940's set, and one 1930's set. Vg is just fine for those.

I agree with Al, that seems like a great plan. I need to greatly downsize my collection or I would pick a few sets I have been considering and do it exactly like you described.

[PowderedH2O]

Mine isn't a few sets. I am working on Topps 1953-present, Bowman 1952-55, Hostess 1975-79, Red Man 1952-55, Kelloggs 1970-83, 1941 Double Play, 1936 National Chicle Fine Pens, Topps football 1956-end, Bowman football 1948-55, Leaf football 1948-49, Philadelphia and Fleer football sets, Topps basketball 1969-82, and other assorted sets. Plus, I am trying to get one of every HOF graded from the Pre-war times (I have graded Ruth, Cobb, Gehrig, Johnson, Alexander, and many others). I can't just focus on one, so I just look for great deals on everything at once. Ebay always has something I need at a great price. All of these sets are at a minimum of 30% complete. Many (most of football from 1954 to present is done - maybe need 250 cards more total), so it will eventually just be maybe 10-15 sets to keep track of... I hope.

I'm doing it all on a school teacher's salary, so I have to be very frugal.