A 1952 Topps complete set. Starting "the" ultimate post war project

[irv]

Originally Posted by cardsagain74

Out of the blue....it looks like I have completed my set tonight. Had 21 high numbers left, and a longtime ebay member (and seller of plenty of '52s recently) had just listed a complete high # lot (minus Mantle) for sale, and it was nice stuff priced at fair market value.

He was getting a lot of requests already for individual cards, so between that and my offer to work something out, he decided to take down the listing and break it up, and a deal for my 21 remaining was reached 🙂

The cards range from PSA 1 to PSA 5, but many were centered 4s and 5s. A nice way to finish things off.

Will hold off on final numbers until everything is in hand, but it looks like this journey is complete!

That's a huge 52 Topps accomplishment!

Congrats again, John.

[cardsagain74]

Thanks guys.

Larry, that's just unlucky that yours were lower grade. He had plenty that were nice mid-grade (or 3s with great eye appeal).

Only two of mine were PSA 1s from the order. I'd wanted to avoid any 1s at first, but since I'd still ended up with six high number 1s prior, it didn't really matter at this point. And there are already enough 1.5s and 2s in mine too that it doesn't make much of a difference.

May upgrade those 1s at some point, but with the price craziness at the moment, I was glad to get it finished.

[cardsagain74]

The package with the last 21 highs arrived, so it's officially complete

Also was unexpectedly able to upgrade the set's main weakness, which was the PSA 1 Hoyt Wilhelm. Got a nice deal on a PSA 3.5, which is on its way. Then I'll sell the current one, and eventually the other dozen or so low number doubles that have been acquired along the way.

The only other upgrades I'll probably fool with sometime are the other grade 1s. There are nine lows and six highs, all commons. Even if it's just to get PSA 1.5 highs or raws that'd be fr instead of pr, it'd still be nice to hold on entirely to that standard that I initially hoped for.

The final average condition was 2.7, for both low and high #s. Though the weighted average (and how the set "feels"), is a little nicer than that, since the cadillac cards are 3s, Campy/Reese/Mays/Bart average a 3.5, and most of the top low # HOFers are 4s or 5s.

Every low number common is raw, while most key lows (and all highs, except a handful of commons) are graded, mostly PSA.

It's been fun logging the progress here, and doing so led to completing it faster (and more efficiently) than I ever expected, thanks to the help of some forum members filling some of it in!

407/407

Avg overall condition: 2.7

Avg cond of high # keys: 3.1

Avg cond of low # keys: 4.0

Top 10 cards w/ grade:

311 Mickey Mantle: 3
407 Eddie Mathews (R): 3
312 Jackie Robinson: 3
261 Willie Mays: 3.5
314 Roy Campanella: 4
392 Hoyt Wilhelm (R): 3.5
333 Pee Wee Reese: 4
332 Tony Bartirome: 2.5
1 Andy Pafko: 2.5
400 Bill Dickey: 2

[LincolnVT]

Must feel so good to have all 407. I'm looking forward to it one day.

[Natswin2019]

Originally Posted by cardsagain74

The package with the last 21 highs arrived, so it's officially complete

Big congrats on the achievement!

[bks14sr]

Congrats on your completion! Now you just need errors and variations. Let the hunt begin, again 😁