Approach to Building Sets

[mintacular]

I'd be very surprised if you can find decent mid-grade '53s even VGEX ones for $4-5 in graded form, unless you get lucky and buy a huge lot that flies under the radar. Keep in mind that most VGEX-EX-EX+ graded cards cost the seller nearly $10 to get graded and very few are willing to take a lost and sell them at $5/ea.

That said, you can get the very same card in raw form for possibly $5 range...Also, I think it is somewhat silly to be buying mid-grade cards in TPG holders. In general, the point of having a card encased in plastic is that it is in exceptional quality and should be slabbed (for post-war cards anyway) or is a highly counterfeited issue that you simply want verification of its authenticity. OR you see a card in a TPG that has a technical mid-grade card that is actually much better quality (eye appeal) but can be had at the numerical grade average.

In short, I would argue that you should continue to bat around thoughts and opinions of people here, then dive in, and at worse, change later but at least gave it very considered thought before making a final decision.

As for 53s, it's a very strong set. I would say that the high #'s will cost you a pretty penny (they book $100 in NM) so really figure out if those 90 or so cards many of which are commons you are willing to spend say $20 x 90 = nearly $2,000...

[Matthew80]

Originally Posted by mintacular

I'd be very surprised if you can find decent mid-grade '53s even VGEX ones for $4-5 in graded form, unless you get lucky and buy a huge lot that flies under the radar. Keep in mind that most VGEX-EX-EX+ graded cards cost the seller nearly $10 to get graded and very few are willing to take a lost and sell them at $5/ea.

My mistake. I meant '56 cards, not '53 cards, although $4-5 may still be a bit too ambitious for '56 cards.

Originally Posted by mintacular

Also, I think it is somewhat silly to be buying mid-grade cards in TPG holders. In general, the point of having a card encased in plastic is that it is in exceptional quality and should be slabbed (for post-war cards anyway) or is a highly counterfeited issue that you simply want verification of its authenticity. OR you see a card in a TPG that has a technical mid-grade card that is actually much better quality (eye appeal) but can be had at the numerical grade average.

I'm in the latter camp: looking for mid-grades with good centering, no qualifiers, no giant piece of bubble gum stuck on the front...

The prospect of slogging through dozens of $20+ commons is not attractive to me at all. I may go slumming and dip into G to VG for those, if such cards can be eye-appealing.

I will indeed keep thinking this over, and I'll probably buy a card or two from various sets, both raw and slabbed, to see what's I like most.

Sincere thanks for the advice.

[darkhorse9]

Here's my approach (for what it's worth)

I assemble sets by series. Start at series one and finish that before moving on.

I buy cards that look good when displayed. No wiriting, no creases no serious miscut. I can take a softer corner if it's not noticeably discolored. Generally I collect cards that would rate a 5 or better but may go to a 4 for high dollar stars to save some money.

I keep them in 3" binders raw. I only buy raw unless it's a higher dollar card involved (i.e. 1956 Mantle, 1963 Rose etc.). I still crack it, but I save the little paper grade panel and put that in a pocket at the end of the set for reference.

For me this helps to have little victories along the way. I can feel okay if I get all the low numbers of 1961 and put off the high numbers while I start another set. So far this has worked for putting together a set from every year from 1954 to today - excpeting 1957, 1958 and 1959. I haven't started on those.

Again, what it does is allow me goals. I will have the 1956 set finished by next week (only six cards remain), a 1960 set finished by June (25 cards remain) and then I can work on the 1961 high numbers until the end of the year.

next year....getting started on 1957.

[Volod]

If you're sticking with graded exclusively, my two cents isn't needed, but one thing I did when putting together sets came back to haunt me years later. Back in the '80's, picking up most of my cards at dealer shows, I came to strongly dislike the look of cards displayed in albums. I wanted to hold and handle them individually, but also protect them at the same time. I settled for storing sets like NM '53 Topps cards in mylar sleeves, but I stacked them together in boxes with the cards standing on end. After a long period of storage and not looking at them for about a decade due to other issues in my life, I pulled out a box one day and saw to my unhappiness that the cards had developed a noticeable bend from the depredations of gravity. Upshot is that old cards should always be stored lying flat, if possible, or at least on their sides, or if you don't look at them for long periods of time, maybe sell them.

[Matthew80]

Thanks, Volod. I'll make sure mine are flat. I would have never thought of that!

[Big Six]

Originally Posted by Volod

If you're sticking with graded exclusively, my two cents isn't needed, but one thing I did when putting together sets came back to haunt me years later. Back in the '80's, picking up most of my cards at dealer shows, I came to strongly dislike the look of cards displayed in albums. I wanted to hold and handle them individually, but also protect them at the same time. I settled for storing sets like NM '53 Topps cards in mylar sleeves, but I stacked them together in boxes with the cards standing on end. After a long period of storage and not looking at them for about a decade due to other issues in my life, I pulled out a box one day and saw to my unhappiness that the cards had developed a noticeable bend from the depredations of gravity. Upshot is that old cards should always be stored lying flat, if possible, or at least on their sides, or if you don't look at them for long periods of time, maybe sell them.

Does this mean storing cards in albums will lead to bending too? All my albums are stored vertical (like books on a shelf)...

[ALR-bishop]

Matt--I have a full Topps run and they are all in binders through 1994 ( beyond that, with the exception of the Heritage sets, they are still in factory boxes ) I keep the binders vertical and have not had bending issues, but the binders and sheets are fairly packed together on shelves.

[darkhorse9]

I have every one of my sets (1954 - today in 3-inch binders standing vertically. I only have one set that seems included to bend (1963 for some reason.)

The real problem I had was with the smaller sets (i.e. 1954-1956) where there aren't enough pages worth of cards to fill up an entire 3" binder. I didn't want to use 2" because of aesthetics. What I did was create a sort of "pillow" that was the same size as the sheets and that hooks into the three rings and fills the space behind the set. Usually a 3/4 inch filler works. That keeps the cards from slouching in the binders.