A Strategy Change?

[cardsagain74]

Originally Posted by wdwfan

Great post. I'm kind of in between too.

I've built some older sets, but I wound up selling them off. It was frustrating to build because a couple took more than a year to build. But I built it card by card starting with 1 single pick up. And I regret selling them off now.

When I think about set building, I don't want to spend a year chasing down cards for the set. Especially if they're commons. Also, are complete sets going to be worth anything really down the road? I mean are people going to want to be stuck with useless commons? I know stars/HOFers will be worth and will continue to go up in value. But what about commons?

What I am thinking about doing is maybe picking one or two of my all time favorite sets and building those in really nice shape. In my case, it'd be 1957 Topps and then either 1961 Topps, 1962 Topps or 1975 Topps (my birth year).

Then with the rest of my money/time/effort/energy buying up mid grade HOFer vintage, HOFer RCs and pre-war stuff. I think those will retain value moreso than complete sets, especially if they're graded. That means I'd actually have to start dealing in graded, which I'm not keen on doing. But I would do it if it means it'd be easier for my loved ones to move once I am gone.

Or am I mistaken?

The market for post ww2 to 1975 complete sets still seems fine to me; I doubt their popularity will ever go out of style (plenty of people will always love the thought of looking through every card of something). Especially in those binders I loathe. Anyway.....

Set building vs just buying it complete can be such a catch 22 for that era. Despite the fun of building one, naturally it usually ends up being the more expensive option. First the high demand for the superstar cards (especially Mays/Jackie Rob/Mantle) makes it a challenge to get all those reasonably. Then even the cost of '50s and '60s commons/minor stars will add up more than you expect, cause before long you just can't get those discounted large lots of commons for a particular set (after you get one of those, too many duplicates will start happening), and then you have to find the rest of the commons one by one and pay 40-60% of BV for the grade that way.

BUT if you buy the set, you know how it often goes with the cadillac cards. The more key they are, the more likely that early Mantle or Aaron rookie happens to be 1.5-2 grades less than everything else.

It's picking your poison. I try to wait for the rare complete set opp where you can have your cake and eat it too (managed to find that with my '55 Topps), but those don't come along too often