1974 Laughlin Old-Time Black Stars - A Set Ahead of its Time

[laughlinfan]

Nice catch on the variation - I'll have to check my sets and see what I have. My guess would be that the 1974 tagline was the first printing, and the other would have been the second or third run. Bob did a similar thing with his 1967 WS set - the original print run has his address on the bottom of the back, while subsequent runs didn't. He talked about making subsequent runs obvious, but this is the first time I have seen that he may have done that with the 74 set.

[laughlinfan]

I could only get my hands on two of my 74 sets, pretty sure I have one or two more (someplace!) - one had the Copyright line on the Williams card and one didn't. Not much help there. My set I picked up in probably 75 or so did not have it. The other set I got (from Bob's personal collection a few years back) did have the tag line. I know he was really proud of the set - I am guessing he kept a set from his first print run - so I will stick with the guess that the first print run had it and subsequent didn't. But that's just a guess!!

Happy collecting!

[paleocards]

My first raw set I won in an eBay auction from bbcexchange in April, 2010. I graded all of the HOFers from that set at that summer's National in Baltimore and was thrilled when 5 cards came back Pop 1's (with none higher). One of these was the 1st PSA 10 (#29 Martin Dihigo) ever graded from the set out of a total population of 335 at that time. I subsequently graded most of the rest of the cards from that raw set pulling a few more "highest graded." I upgraded periodically over the next year buying graded cards online when they became available, but in February of this year another raw set appeared on eBay and I was lucky to see it first. B-e-collectibles was selling it for $99 and they immediately accepted my Best Offer of $89. When the cards arrived I was stoked, they were even sharper than they looked online. I submitted the entire set on the $5.25 February Special and 49 (business) days later the grades popped and I knew I now had the highest-graded set. It has a GPA of 8.542 with 27/36 of the highest graded and 17 of those are Pop 1's.

Here's the break-down from that submission: 1 PSA 4 (the only wrinkled card in the bunch), 3 PSA 7s, 2 PSA 7.5s, 14 PSA 8s, 12 PSA 8.5s, 3 PSA 9s and my second PSA 10 (#27 Biz Mackey). Thirteen of them represented upgrades and seven were now the highest graded examples; here's the sub:

NEAR MINT 7 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 1 SMOKY JOE WILLIAMS Card
NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 2 RAP DIXON Card
NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 3 OLIVER MARCELLE Card
NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 4 BINGO DeMOSS Card
NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 5 WILLIE FOSTER Card
NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 6 JOHN BECKWITH Card
NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 7 FLOYD GARDNER Card
NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 8 JOSH GIBSON Card
NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 9 JOE MENDEZ Card
VERY GOOD-EXCELLENT 4 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 10 PETE HILL Card
NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 11 BUCK LEONARD Card
NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 12 JUD WILSON Card
NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 13 WILLIE WELLS Card
NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 14 JIMMIE LYONS Card
NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 15 SATCHEL PAIGE Card
MINT 9 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 16 LOUIS SANTOP Card
NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 17 FRANK GRANT Card
NEAR MINT+ 7.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 18 CHRISTOBEL TORRIENTI Card
NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 19 BULLET ROGAN Card
NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 20 DAVE MALARCHER Card
MINT 9 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 21 SPOT POLES Card
NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 22 HOME RUN JOHNSON Card
NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 23 CHARLIE GRANT Card
NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 24 COOL PAPA BELL Card
NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 25 CANNONBALL REDDING Card
MINT 9 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 26 RAY DANDRIDGE Card
GEM MINT 10 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 27 BIZ MACKEY Card
NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 28 FATS JENKINS Card
NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 29 MARTIN DIHIGO Card
NEAR MINT 7 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 30 MULE SUTTLES Card
NEAR MINT-MINT+ 8.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 31 BILL MONROE Card
NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 32 DAN McCLELLAN Card
NEAR MINT 7 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 33 JOHN HENRY LLOYD Card
NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 34 OSCAR CHARLESTON Card
NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 35 RUBE FOSTER Card
NEAR MINT+ 7.5 1974 LAUGHLIN OLD-TIME BLACK STARS 36 JUDY JOHNSON Card

Date Received: 2/27/2012
Date Shipped: 5/4/2012
Order Status: Shipped

I also now have a second complete graded set (GPA 7.792) that I 'd like to sell. Any ideas how best to do so? Consign it to PWCC? Sell it myself on eBay either as a complete set or individually? Thanks for any input.

[laughlinfan]

Very nice! The brown borders on this set are very challenging for condition sensitve collectors to be sure. I would think, and your submission would follow, that getting the first and last card in a PSA 8.5 or better might be very hard, since they almost always distributed in decks of 36 with those two getting the brunt of the handling.

Are you going for the 1978 set next?

[paleocards]

Thanks Marty, no current plans to go after the '78s -- the lack of stars in that set reduces my interest. Any suggestions on how best to maximize my return on my second graded-set of '74s?

[laughlinfan]

I'm sure there are differing opinions, but I would think that you would probably do better selling them individually - the HOFers, especially in high grade, might do well for you. I'm not much of a seller, so I'm not sure about the best venues to move them - maybe others will have some good guidance. Good luck!

[bcbgcbrcb]

IMHO since the entire set is PSA graded, I think that the complete set consigned to one of the auction houses such as Hake's, which has done quite well with Negro League cards and memorabilia lately, might realize the best prices for you, especially if it is the 2nd or 3rd best set on the registry.