How have you gone about upgrading your existing collection
 

Have any of you gone back after amassing a collection and decided to upgrade?

I am a player collector, and I’ve got most of the basic and some of the advanced cards for each of my favorite players. I now notice that many of the cards from early in my recent collecting phase are not as nice as I’d like them to be. Many early purchases are off-centered, and some have poor registration or snow. So, mostly I’m upgrading either one or two grades higher, and sometimes within grade if the card has a much better eye appeal.

I’m wondering how others have approached this, and did you find it satisfying after doing a number of upgrades? I’m wondering if it will be rewarding - would love others’ experiences and even before and after pictures if you’re interested in posting

Thanks,

upgrading a player collection
 

I am constantly upgrading my player collection. With the internet & ebay it makes it easier.

I collect sets from the 70s mostly, and I've done one pass through the 71-77 sets. My 1978 Topps set is in excellent to near mint condition. That's the first year I collected cards so I've always put that together in relatively high grade.

I basically got rid of the really nasty beaters, and cards like were some kid had to draw a fu manchu on Joe Coleman. I still have lots of HOFers in low grade form, but with all the commons in decent shape it really helps the eye appeal of the whole set.

PC - Brooks Robinson
 

I’ve been upgrading for a while now, but in no real hurry to do so. When I first started collecting Brooks Robinson it was just a matter of getting the card; I didn’t think much about the aesthetics at the time. Now, I’d like to acquire one in better condition. I don’t need a perfect card, but I’d like it to be centered, decent corners and nice registration w/no print dots if possible. Some of the cards I picked up when I first started collecting are rough (what was I thinking!).

I also started an autographed run of his regular issue cards about a month ago or so and I get in a hurry to complete (I’ll probably have to upgrade these as well).

I keep upgrading and upgrading my 1957 to 1972 sets and as soon as I think I'm finally finished upgrading...NOPE...I start all over again as I find 100 more cards that could/should be in better shape or centered better. Oof!! It really is a ridiculously non-stop cycle that I know will never end.

I collect player sets and am continually upgrading. I remember being very happy when I would start a a player set and was always buying the PSA grade rather than the card. Now I have even sold off some higher end player cards to buy more lower grade but high eye-appeal cards.

Certain player runs I like low-mid grade cards that look great for the grade and I also have a couple of player runs that I look for the highest grade I can find with the eye-appeal that works for me.

I think one thing I have learned for certain is that my goals are always changing over time. Cards I thought I would never part with (because I was so happy to finally acquire it in a certain grade) have been sold to fund other purchases.

Bottom line is upgrading never ever ends and that is what is enjoyable about this hobby.

Very interesting. Also, I note you sold off some of your original purchases rather than keep multiples. Did you use eBay? To this point, I've never sold any cards...

Also, so far, when I have upgraded, I've used "variations" to get a better upgrade (e.g., 1956 white back vs. gray back; 1958 white letter Aaron; or an o-pee-chee version vs. a Topps version).

In my case upgrading is just a constant, regular part of my collecting. I am building the sets of the '70s, and I will pick high end copies regardless of them whether I have them or not, and if it is an upgrade I add it to the set or otherwise keep it as a trader, or in cases of cards/players/teams I specifically like I will add the extras to those collections. I have my '71-'77 collection of the A's that I collected as a kid, but always pick up nice copies of those to add and upgrade. Now that I talk about it, I'm not sure if its upgrading.....or hoarding.

When I started recollecting 1950's sets about forty years ago, the set I worked on first was the 1952 Bowman, simply because that was the deja vu set that I most recalled from childhood and that knocked me out when I saw the cards again at a dealers show I happened to wander into. Unfortunately for me, I became kind of obsessed with trying to get near mint examples of every card in the set, and even though they were relatively inexpensive at the time, it became an onerous task because the set is probably the most notorious of Bowman's issues for its frequency of poor registration. I must have spent a decade constantly upgrading cards that looked to be near mint until I found another example that had slightly better registration. Of course, I ended up with hundreds of duplicates, but I guess it was the kind of pursuit that only an obsessed card collector can appreciate.

Ebay will certainly get more eyes and I have sold most of my cards there but I have had a lot of luck selling on the baseball card forums as well.
O-PEE-CHEE is another beast and I have started collecting those for my Johnny Bench collection and really enjoy adding them. Very hard to find nicely centered OPC cards for my Bench collection so I will certainly be upgrading those for as long as I am alive :)

I really don't upgrade except for a few sets or items, but I do look for cards from my childhood collecting era (1970-1981) at the National. I mostly go through deep discount boxes and grab as many different nice, sharp centered cards as I can find. There are tons of them available so the only trick is finding them clean, sharp and centered enough to satisfy my tastes. These are examples of the stuff I look for and spend a buck each or so:

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...20Maravich.jpg
https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...size/003_1.jpg
https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...ebsize/004.jpg

I don't care about PSA holdering; these go in my albums. Visual appeal is paramount for me so a tiny technical issue is not a consideration. And as long as I'm only spending a buck or two each, I can buy one that's pretty nice, like the 72 Allen, and see if it improves my album or not, and if not, no biggie.

At this point I am down mostly to centering upgrades on the 1970s cards.

I am a Cardinals team set collector. I really only upgrade if it happens naturally... Like if I get some cards in a deal, I will always go through them to see if there are any Cardinals, and I pull them out. Since I always keep duplicate Cardinals cards and sell the rest, I just always put the nice card in my team's set album and put the lower grade card in the duplicate box.

I don't think I have ever upgraded a card on purpose. For instance, I have had my 1948 Bowman Musial rookie for about 14 years. It is low grade with multiple creases, but I am perfectly satisfied with it. If I happen to get a better duplicate sometime in the future, I will upgrade. But for now, it is perfect for me.

There is one other way I have upgraded a card. I also collect Topps regular and traded sets. I have 2016 down to 1965, which I just finished this week. A few months ago I needed a Steve Carlton rookie. I purchased a mid grade one, and I put it in my team set. I took the low grade one from my team set and put it in my complete set since my Cardinals team sets are my first priority.

Interesting reading.

I'm 50 so the cards I collected as a kid (75-79) are EX-NM-. Got entire sets: had a lot of beaters but it was just cheaper and faster to get sets from shows or ebay.

As for the older sets I have now built up, I generally had some of the key cards when I was younger. Some were beat up (62 and 69 Mantle) but I've now have built up VG or VG/EX sets.

My 57 set is a tad nicer since the Robinsons I had were EX/EX-. Have beater checklists though. My 60 set is even better. The key cards are PSA4-7.

It's great to have really nice cards. But I also LOVE my beat up 62 Mantle, which I traded my brother for a Charles Barkley F86 XRC. I LOVE my 69 Reggie with that faint wrinkle that you can only see when you tilt it a certain direction. Eventually I'll upgrade these but I'm into set collecting for the moment.

These are great stories, I really appreciate all the posts.

I am wavering on upgrading because I worry it's just one more step on my way to hoarding, vs. getting truly new, exciting cards. On the other hand, because I've limited my collection to player sets I'm starting to run down on available pickups. I'm wondering about doing what a few have posted about - going back to sets I first collected as a kid (which would be 1979-1983, baseball and football)...

I did take a step since I had a few days off this week - I went through my entire PSA-slabbed collection and made lists of singles to upgrade. It's never a good sign to commit to a want list in excel - with my personality it means I'm likely to get them.

My upgrading has been haphazard at best.

For years I'd buy cards that were not exactly in great shape. Except sometimes I'd get nicer ones. I just wasn't picky, so whatever seemed like a decent deal at the moment was what I bought.

Now I try to get nicer examples, especially of commons. And while I have some checklists/spreadsheets (The spreadsheets are just checklist grids) I don't bring them to shows or flea markets. So I get a few that I already had. I just compare and swap in the nicer ones. Occasionally I can't decide. Perfect centering but with a crease or bad corners - Or the one that has almost no wear but isn't centered. Sometimes I just keep them both.

COMC can be pretty useful in this endeavor. Since they will store your cards until you decide to take ownership of them, and you can resell on their site, I buy/sell cards there.
I'm working on 1952 Topps and Mickey Mantle cards right now. I can buy them from their site, leave them in my inventory, and then if I see one in a better condition for a reasonable price, I can buy it and then relist the first one I bought.

My upgrades involve spreading out my card collection (goal is for most major sets to be represented).


When I've witnessed peoples card collection over the years, I've noticed that they often have a ton of cards from particular sets they like and then literally no representation from some other major sets. I always thought that looked odd, or better yet non symmetrical. So my upgrade is improving my collection to flow better.

Another factor: money. I had a few cards sell recently and splurged on this upgrade:

http://photos.imageevent.com/exhibit...0Composite.jpg

Both Louis variations from the 1948 Leaf set. I had a beater already as a place filler but hated to spend the bux on an upgrade when funds were tighter. I saw the two cards in separate auctions, had the cash, and decided to go for it.

Reminds me....
 

I upgraded a '51 Topps Ringside set a while ago that had been completely satisfactory to me for many years with the key card beater, but could not resist the upgrade, since it included a surprising profit on the beater in a swap.

At some point I need to upgrade my '56 Mantle. It presents VG or better, but technically would probably grade a 1 or an A due to some paper loss on a pressed out corner. That's it's main flaw, but besides that the card is perfectly centered and has killer color, looks better than many 4's I've seen that are not centered as well. I would love to upgrade to a PSA 4 or 5, but with what those go for these days, I would have to save for a while and then likely trade in my current Mantle on it - which I would be loathe to do - despite it's flaws, it's a card I've had since my childhood and there is sentimental attachment to it.

Beyond that one card there is not much in my PC I would care about upgrading. I collect individual singles for HOF'ers and stars, and get mid-grade that I can afford but still feel good about usually to start with. For 1950's cards I don't mind PSA 4's, and for the '60s there are still a lot of good deals to be had on PSA 5's and 6's that, while they may not be considered "high end" - they are still in great shape as far as I'm concerned. My most recent affordable addition there was a '68 Clemente, PSA 7 that is a really nice card.

That is a great 5 of Joe Louis, it looks as good as a lot of 7s. Is there a back wrinkle or something not visible?

Upper right corner ding.

Given how hard it is to find them centered and with proper registration I am very pleased with the pair.