Assembling a Vintage Set

[CamaroDMD]

Originally Posted by T's please

Although not aesthetically pleasing to the eyes, my choice would be the 1957 Topps. For me there are several reasons:

1st - It has early golden age of ball team names (NY Giants & Brooklyn Dodgers) before being relocated to California.

2nd - First year of the now standard size baseball card

3rd - Has a good assortment of hall of famers.

4th - Not too terribly expensive to assemble.

5th - That was the year the Milwaukee Braves won their only WS while in Milwaukee.

6th - Warren Spahn, arguably the greatest left-handed pitcher of all time won his only Cy Young award at the tender age of 36.

I too grew up and still to this day a huge Braves fan.

Good luck on your endeavor and have fun with whatever set you select.

r/
Frank

It looks like you might have already made up your mind with that nice 1957 Mantle.

I have been considering the '57 set for all those reasons. I didn't buy the '57 Mantle with the plan of assembling a set...but the fact that I have it already does help. I also really like the fact that there is a Ted Williams in this set. Honestly, the only things that the '57 has against it IMHO are the following 3 things: unaesthetic design, no Roger Maris (off by 1 year) and I don't care for the Hank Aaron error (a real shame in my eyes). To be honest, before I posted this thread it was the set I was leaning more towards.

I was thinking about the 1962 Topps set too...but when I was doing some research I found that many players seem to have multiple varieties for each card...including multiple photos. I was thinking that a "numbers" set would be a reasonable but a true "complete" set would be a whole different challenge. I also don't think the design is "attractive" but it does have a certain 1960s feel. I also like the Babe Ruth series in the set...but then again, there are varieties within that series. I also don't care that they only included a players 1961 stats on the back.

[the 'stache]

Oh man, I never noticed Aaron batting lefty on the '57 card. His MVP season, too. You think somebody at Topps would have noticed that. Still doesn't ruin the card for me, but that's messed up.

[Brianruns10]

How about the '55 set? It's super small, barely over 200 cards, and only has one really stopper, the Clemente rookie (but hey at least it's no '52 Mantle), and it's a damn sight to behold, Topps at it's most brilliant, colorful and saturated. You practically need sunglasses to look at them!

[CamaroDMD]

Originally Posted by Brianruns10

How about the '55 set? It's super small, barely over 200 cards, and only has one really stopper, the Clemente rookie (but hey at least it's no '52 Mantle), and it's a damn sight to behold, Topps at it's most brilliant, colorful and saturated. You practically need sunglasses to look at them!

I think 1955 is the most beautiful set Topps ever did. But, I want a standard sized set I can put in an album. Otherwise, I would be all over the 1955.

[Brianruns10]

The size difference is pretty minimal. I thought album pages could take either the large or the standard size. I've certainly seen album pages that can take the large size Topps cards.

The trick with starting a standard set, is they get really, really huge. The '57 set was the largest since the '52, and they only get bigger and bigger as Topps' monopoly grew stronger in the 60s.

[pawpawdiv9]

if you want a nice Aaron..look at the 55 johnston cookies--NICE
or the 57 spic n span

[vintagetoppsguy]

If you're limiting your choice to '57-'65 Topps because you want to store them in an album, you can get 8 pocket pages that will store '52-'56 Topps. They fit in a standard size ablum.



I like the '56 set for several reasons:

1.) Some of the background action shots are absolutely amazing
2.) Mantle that won't break the bank
3.) Nice 2nd and 3rd year cards of Aaron, Banks, Kaline, Killebrew, Clemente, Koufax - no expensive rookies to buy
4.) Very colorful set
5.) Still a fairly small set compared to '57 and later
6.) No expensive high numbers to fool with
7.) A lot of the player's head shots are the same from previous years

[toledo_mudhen]

55 does it for me.... 8 pocket pages are easily obtainable and they look great in them...just sayin

[Bestdj777]

Just a thought, but have you considered ditching the traditional set idea and instead going for a complete run of Milwakee Braves cards? In the end, I would imagine it will be about the same number of cards as picking a set from any year, and it will allow you to limit your purchases to just your favorite team.