[Exhibitman]

1970-1973 cards are common. No denying it. You can pick up a set or assemble a set every day of the week. That said, I don't think you can go wrong with pre-1974 cards--even in lower grades--if you can get in at the right price. Since the supply isn't short enough to create true scarcity-based demand [like for an E107], the whims of collectors will dictate the pricing. I happen to believe that given the rotten economy of the last few years and the uncertainty going forward, that lower grade cards are where a lot of collectors will go when it comes to the 1970s stuff. It is the "safe" way to collect--if everything turns to crap economically, you won't be out a fortune on them. I know I've sold off all of the high grade stuff from the 1950s-1960s and will probably do the same for the 1970s cards, and replaced it with lower grade versions that cost a small fraction of their prices. And I find that I can enjoy them just the same. I have never been a condition bug, though, so a crease or worn corner has never been an issue for me anyway. I collected higher grade cards simply because I had the opportunity to acquire them.

Also wanted to chime in on the 1981 Donruss v. 1989 UD debate, aka old school vs. shiny stuff. One of the things that I most enjoy to this day about busting packs of 1981 Fleer and Donruss is that there are very few 'perfect' cards as compared to more modern product. Although it is really nice for a collector not to get a bunch of o/c cards in every pack, I find the experience of busting pack after pack of 'perfect' cards to be oddly less satisfying. Now that may be the conditioning over the recent decades to think of everything as chase card oriented, but I tend to think that the issue is more that if nearly every card is nearly perfect, there isn't much challenge to finding a better card, except for the asinine gradations that the TPGs try to convince us exist between the 9-10-11.