1970 Topps - What should I expect?

[Vintagevault13]

Originally Posted by SOX75

Longtime lurker...finally registered when I saw this thread, so thanks for drawing me out.

I've been working on the 1970 set for the last few months. Most all cards are readily available in all grades. Centering is a real issue with this set.

How are you going to start the set? Buy one, build it, upgrade one?

Here's how I did it FWIW: over the summer I bought a complete VG-EX set from Heritage for $500. Most of the star cards were in pretty good shape (Clemente & Mays) but others were VG (Bench, Ryan). In retrospect I should have probably sold the set for a profit and bought something a little nicer, as I prefer to have my cards in EX-Mint condition. What I did do was go through the set and individually buy cards to upgrade to the condition I wanted. So far I've put over $800 more into the set and I still have to upgrade the Bench and Ryan cards. I've spent more than I wanted but I've built a set I'm pretty proud of with over 90% of the cards having 4 sharp corners.

One thing to take into consideration is the 6th and 7th Series cards (high numbers). They are much more expensive to find in EX grades (min. $4-5 each). If you are trying to assemble the set by hand your cost is going to skyrocket from those cards as well as the Bench, Ryan, Mays & Clemente cards. The Munson Rookie is not too expensive, but some of the league leader, All Star (Rose & Bench) and World Series (Ryan) cards are.

I primarily bought my single cards from Greg Morris on eBay. He is very conservative with his grading; I've never been disappointed. You can bundle a lot of cards and pay one price for shipping as long as you win them within 7 days. He runs 1-2 auctions a week. I've found another seller on ebay who sells high grade, low number cards for only $1. The key is being patient. It might take months to acquire the right card at the right price. I can't tell you how many times I've seen bidders pay $10-15 for a Hoyt Wilhelm or Frank Howard card when they could just pay $2 for the same card from another seller. Being patient has allowed me to pick up some of the high number cards for $2 or less.

My advice would be to try to buy a complete set and pay special attention to the high number cards and Ryan and Bench (both are high numbers). If those cards are good then you'll come out ahead. I've found that prices in private auction houses (Heritage) are more reasonable than eBay (but mind the 20% buyer's premium).

It's a fantastic set, well worth the time and money to collect. Have fun with it.

Great advice. Thanks for sharing your experience. Sounds like you have put together a beautiful set. Just curious, do you keep the set in a binder?

BTW, welcome aboard. Glad I was able to draw you out of the shadows. 😊

[mintacular]

The Rose base card is not cheap, also a few quirky ones like Oscar Gamble and Mickey Lolich if centered are not always cheap. It's a fun set to build but you will probably lose out in the long run if you have to resell as the sum of the parts are not worth the whole.

[SOX75]

Originally Posted by Vintagevault13

Great advice. Thanks for sharing your experience. Sounds like you have put together a beautiful set. Just curious, do you keep the set in a binder?

Yes, I have them in a binder and look at them all the time. There are some interesting cards in the set, especially with the Seattle Pilots team that did not exist in 1970. Card 88 has a rookie pitcher who pitched the last pitch for the Pilots in 1969 and he was murdered in the off-season in Puerto Rico. The managers card, Dave Bristol, #556, shows him in a uniform he never managed a regular season game in.

I'll try to upload some pictures later.

I also did the same thing with the 787 card 1972 set...bought a decent set and upgraded it. It also cost me an arm and leg to upgrade the high number cards. But I love that set too.

[smellthegum]

Another bugaboo is that there are a lot of cards that are commonly found with printer crop/cut lines. While TPGs may not severely penalize cards with this feature IMHO these really detract from the overall appearance. Ron Santo is noteworthy in that he is a high number and usually suffers from one of the following: print line at top, poor centering, tilt, a dark print splotch in the gray in the lower left. Took me a long time to find a nice one.

Another sore spot may be trying to find the all-stars well centered. The borders on these cards are so narrow compared to the rest of the set that many are very tough to find well centered in high grade.

[stlcardsfan]

A big plus on the 1970 issue in my opinion is the backs of the cards. The blue / yellow combo make them very easy to read. Especially in comparison to the next year, 1971.

[Vintagevault13]

Originally Posted by stlcardsfan

A big plus on the 1970 issue in my opinion is the backs of the cards. The blue / yellow combo make them very easy to read. Especially in comparison to the next year, 1971.

Great point. Undoubtedly the best backs of the decade (not a huge feat!) but arguably the best back design among all of Topps’ years.

[55koufax]

]I just registered my 1970 set at over 90% complete in PSA 8+

I have found most of the set obtainable and affordable (compared to other late 60's and early 70's sets) with the usual star power exceptions and some others previously mentioned. That said, the All-Star cards in the 400's are just a bear in high grade. Expensive and rare - rare and Expensive........they are. If anyone wants to donate a Reggie Jackson AS to the cause please mssg. me.......