General Question about Set Buying on Ebay

[ALR-bishop]

Kevin--the 59 set was the first one I finished and is a sentimental favorite ,and 67 is also one of my favorites.

There is another current thread here about the advantages from a cost standpoint of buying full sets and upgrading over building them card by card. Fritsch and Kit Young offer some sets for sale via their catalogs and websites but also seem to price on the high side

[hangman62]

Don't know whos the #1 most over-priced dealer - Deans or 707 sportcards ?

[kailes2872]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

Kevin--the 59 set was the first one I finished and is a sentimental favorite ,and 67 is also one of my favorites.

There is another current thread here about the advantages from a cost standpoint of buying full sets and upgrading over building them card by card. Fritsch and Kit Young offer some sets for sale via their catalogs and websites but also seem to price on the high side

Al - thanks for the response. I saw the post about the sets (and the tremendous value in buying the 72 as a full set) and it motivated me to make this post. When I saw the 86% individual value on the 59 vs buying the set as a whole, it made sense why I enjoyed upgrading that one so much and that it didn't break the bank along the way (now, the high number '67s were a different story... )

I have bought some singles from Kit Young and receive the monthly newsletter/offers. Last year, when I bought '63, he had a very nice 63 with a PSA 6 Mantle, PSA 6 Rose, and quite a few others graded for 3800 or best offer. I offered $3,000. He countered at $3200. I had a pretty strict 3k budget on it where I had set the cash aside. Anything additional would require an additional negotiation with the MRS. I also had a $100 special offer from Ebay (which I had not received before). I rejected the offer. Two days later, I went back to look to see if it was still up and he had sold it. I ended up paying $2700 for a raw '63. I sent in my Rose as a 4 and my Mantle as a 3(?). I ended up upgrading both to a 6 but was in for more than the 3200 that I would have paid for the set with Kit Young.

Anyway, I really appreciate the feedback. I started collecting as an 8 year old in 1980. The student helper in our 2nd grade class found out that I collected baseball cards and offered to "trade". She was really nice and ended up just giving me a shoebox full of '71-75's - all of the superstars - Mays, Aaron, Clemente, Gibson, Brett, Yount, you name it, it was in the shoebox. I was 8. All I did was collect baseball cards, but I wanted to go to a card show because I thought that they were worth something. A guy at the show gave me $13 for all of them. I bought a 1980 comeplete set and ended up looking at them so much that the corners wore until the cards were almost circular. I bought a bunch of 80s junk but ended up getting out of them in early '91 so I could buy a big TV in college.

My wife heard my story so many times that she got tired of listening to me moan. In August of '12, she said to me "Why don't you just buy them back and stop complaining about it.". Now, 30+ sets later, I have filled up my safe and continue to buy them up. She reminds me that I only had 71-75 and I can feel free to stop any time!.

Anyway, apologies for going on with that story - just wanted to let you all know that I appreciate the responses and will look to this message board for guidance as I continue my quest!

[ALR-bishop]

Almost ever thing I have is ungraded. Since I have all the Topps and Fleer sets and keep them in binders, a large safe or safety deposit box is not an option. Besides I like easy access to them. Given the volume my main concern is not as much theft as fire or a major weather event