Approach to Building Sets

[mintacular]

I'd be very surprised if you can find decent mid-grade '53s even VGEX ones for $4-5 in graded form, unless you get lucky and buy a huge lot that flies under the radar. Keep in mind that most VGEX-EX-EX+ graded cards cost the seller nearly $10 to get graded and very few are willing to take a lost and sell them at $5/ea.

That said, you can get the very same card in raw form for possibly $5 range...Also, I think it is somewhat silly to be buying mid-grade cards in TPG holders. In general, the point of having a card encased in plastic is that it is in exceptional quality and should be slabbed (for post-war cards anyway) or is a highly counterfeited issue that you simply want verification of its authenticity. OR you see a card in a TPG that has a technical mid-grade card that is actually much better quality (eye appeal) but can be had at the numerical grade average.

In short, I would argue that you should continue to bat around thoughts and opinions of people here, then dive in, and at worse, change later but at least gave it very considered thought before making a final decision.

As for 53s, it's a very strong set. I would say that the high #'s will cost you a pretty penny (they book $100 in NM) so really figure out if those 90 or so cards many of which are commons you are willing to spend say $20 x 90 = nearly $2,000...