Favorite/best and least fav/worst '53 to '79 vintage complete sets?

[jgannon]

I can never definitively ever name anything as "best" or "favorite", but I do have "favorites". And if I'm naming a favorite set, I'm not taking into account anything about it's resale or breakup value, or how many rookie cards or stars the set has. And over the years, my favorites have actually changed.

What follows are just MY opinions. It's great that we all see things differently and feel differently about the cards. Having these discussion help make the world go 'round! We don't have to agree!


For the 50's:

Favorites:

1952 and 1956 Topps - (Baseball cards as art. The 1955s' are regal and majestic but I just like the 56's better, with the more involved background pictures. There's been a lot of great discussion about them here on the forum.)

1952 and 1953 (color) Bowman


Least Favorite:

1951 Topps - (I actually like them, but I've never felt drawn to them in any big way. Still nice...)


For the 60's

Favorites:

1960, 1967, 1969 Topps (It's funny, I never used to be drawn to the 1960 set. But as I've gotten older, I just started to dig them more. Great photos and design on the front. I love the season highlights and the cartoons on the backs. And with the 1969 set, it started to dawn on me what an amazing design that is. Great pictures, everything.)


Least Favorite:

1962 Topps - (NEVER liked that set. That wood paneling for me, was just a downer. I never got an uplifting feeling looking at those cards. The only vintage set I really just don't like.)



For the 70's:

1970 Topps - (For me, the LAST classic set. I've grown to like the 1971's over the years, but for me, baseball cards just went downhill after that. The 1973 was the beginning of the that constant white border thing. I know the 1975's were different. I like the 1973 card, but after that they all seemed a bit of a variation of that for awhile. They just didn't do it for me.)


There's something great really about ALL of the sets (with the exception of those 1962's, lol. I know that some people really might like that set, so my apologies.)

I would like to say something about the 1968 Topps though. That was the first year I really began to collect. It was so exciting getting the cards, learning about the players, and understanding for the first time what baseball cards were all about. When listing my favorites above, I was approaching things from an aesthetic angle. But I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the 1968's. I like how they look. They have a whole different feel than any other set, and I never looked at the border as "burlap". There is actually a two-tone color to the borders that burlap doesn't have. They were great cards, in my opinion. And I would say that even if they weren't the first set I collected.