How have you gone about upgrading your existing collection

[mybestbretts]

I am constantly upgrading my player collection. With the internet & ebay it makes it easier.

[Robs70sCards]

I collect sets from the 70s mostly, and I've done one pass through the 71-77 sets. My 1978 Topps set is in excellent to near mint condition. That's the first year I collected cards so I've always put that together in relatively high grade.

I basically got rid of the really nasty beaters, and cards like were some kid had to draw a fu manchu on Joe Coleman. I still have lots of HOFers in low grade form, but with all the commons in decent shape it really helps the eye appeal of the whole set.

[Mark70Z]

I’ve been upgrading for a while now, but in no real hurry to do so. When I first started collecting Brooks Robinson it was just a matter of getting the card; I didn’t think much about the aesthetics at the time. Now, I’d like to acquire one in better condition. I don’t need a perfect card, but I’d like it to be centered, decent corners and nice registration w/no print dots if possible. Some of the cards I picked up when I first started collecting are rough (what was I thinking!).

I also started an autographed run of his regular issue cards about a month ago or so and I get in a hurry to complete (I’ll probably have to upgrade these as well).

[JollyElm]

I keep upgrading and upgrading my 1957 to 1972 sets and as soon as I think I'm finally finished upgrading...NOPE...I start all over again as I find 100 more cards that could/should be in better shape or centered better. Oof!! It really is a ridiculously non-stop cycle that I know will never end.

[jb67]

I collect player sets and am continually upgrading. I remember being very happy when I would start a a player set and was always buying the PSA grade rather than the card. Now I have even sold off some higher end player cards to buy more lower grade but high eye-appeal cards.

Certain player runs I like low-mid grade cards that look great for the grade and I also have a couple of player runs that I look for the highest grade I can find with the eye-appeal that works for me.

I think one thing I have learned for certain is that my goals are always changing over time. Cards I thought I would never part with (because I was so happy to finally acquire it in a certain grade) have been sold to fund other purchases.

Bottom line is upgrading never ever ends and that is what is enjoyable about this hobby.

[MCoxon]

Originally Posted by jb67

I collect player sets and am continually upgrading. I remember being very happy when I would start a a player set and was always buying the PSA grade rather than the card. Now I have even sold off some higher end player cards to buy more lower grade but high eye-appeal cards.

Certain player runs I like low-mid grade cards that look great for the grade and I also have a couple of player runs that I look for the highest grade I can find with the eye-appeal that works for me.

I think one thing I have learned for certain is that my goals are always changing over time. Cards I thought I would never part with (because I was so happy to finally acquire it in a certain grade) have been sold to fund other purchases.

Bottom line is upgrading never ever ends and that is what is enjoyable about this hobby.

Very interesting. Also, I note you sold off some of your original purchases rather than keep multiples. Did you use eBay? To this point, I've never sold any cards...

Also, so far, when I have upgraded, I've used "variations" to get a better upgrade (e.g., 1956 white back vs. gray back; 1958 white letter Aaron; or an o-pee-chee version vs. a Topps version).

[Kurri17]

In my case upgrading is just a constant, regular part of my collecting. I am building the sets of the '70s, and I will pick high end copies regardless of them whether I have them or not, and if it is an upgrade I add it to the set or otherwise keep it as a trader, or in cases of cards/players/teams I specifically like I will add the extras to those collections. I have my '71-'77 collection of the A's that I collected as a kid, but always pick up nice copies of those to add and upgrade. Now that I talk about it, I'm not sure if its upgrading.....or hoarding.

[Volod]

When I started recollecting 1950's sets about forty years ago, the set I worked on first was the 1952 Bowman, simply because that was the deja vu set that I most recalled from childhood and that knocked me out when I saw the cards again at a dealers show I happened to wander into. Unfortunately for me, I became kind of obsessed with trying to get near mint examples of every card in the set, and even though they were relatively inexpensive at the time, it became an onerous task because the set is probably the most notorious of Bowman's issues for its frequency of poor registration. I must have spent a decade constantly upgrading cards that looked to be near mint until I found another example that had slightly better registration. Of course, I ended up with hundreds of duplicates, but I guess it was the kind of pursuit that only an obsessed card collector can appreciate.

[jb67]

Originally Posted by MCoxon

Very interesting. Also, I note you sold off some of your original purchases rather than keep multiples. Did you use eBay? To this point, I've never sold any cards...

Also, so far, when I have upgraded, I've used "variations" to get a better upgrade (e.g., 1956 white back vs. gray back; 1958 white letter Aaron; or an o-pee-chee version vs. a Topps version).

Ebay will certainly get more eyes and I have sold most of my cards there but I have had a lot of luck selling on the baseball card forums as well.
O-PEE-CHEE is another beast and I have started collecting those for my Johnny Bench collection and really enjoy adding them. Very hard to find nicely centered OPC cards for my Bench collection so I will certainly be upgrading those for as long as I am alive

[Exhibitman]

I really don't upgrade except for a few sets or items, but I do look for cards from my childhood collecting era (1970-1981) at the National. I mostly go through deep discount boxes and grab as many different nice, sharp centered cards as I can find. There are tons of them available so the only trick is finding them clean, sharp and centered enough to satisfy my tastes. These are examples of the stuff I look for and spend a buck each or so:





I don't care about PSA holdering; these go in my albums. Visual appeal is paramount for me so a tiny technical issue is not a consideration. And as long as I'm only spending a buck or two each, I can buy one that's pretty nice, like the 72 Allen, and see if it improves my album or not, and if not, no biggie.

At this point I am down mostly to centering upgrades on the 1970s cards.