Advice on Early 70's sets

[skelly]

When I got back into the hobby, I purchased a box of about 1200-1500 cards-
All low number common from 1970-1972. I've since nickle and dimed my way to being about 70-100 cards left for each set. I have some stars, high numbers, really not much rhyme or reason to what I still need. But the question is this, I just have no motivation to buy cards like the 71 Aaron, 70 Banks, basically the star players from the late 50's- 60's that were still in the game. Should I hold the sets and see if I ever get the urge to complete them, or should I just sell ( they are mid-grade, quite a few are off center, etc ) and put the money I get towards other collecting projects?- Thoughts, advice, has this ever happened to you, etc..

[ALR-bishop]

I like these sets, especially the 72. And, along with the73, were the last sets before Topps stopped selling in series. But if they don't grab you as a collector, I would move on since in mid grade they are not an investment.

[steve B]

That's a tough question.
Those are some nice sets, but as Al said aren't good as an investment unless they're in higher grades.(Except maybe 71's, very high grade 71's are fairly tough and that sort of pushes demand into the mid grades) I think they'll do ok, but other stuff will always do better. I wish I'd bought some sets back when I started and they were cheap.

That being said, what are your collecting goals?
And how reachable are those goals for you financially ?

If those sets include cards that fit your goals or may fit your goals then keeping them may be a better way to go. (Like collecting team sets or runs of a few particular players)

But if your goals are running towards registry sets or prewar or just rookie cards then moving some of the 70's stuff will be better.

Persoanlly I like mid grade cards. I don't feel nervous handling them, or letting friends look through them. And a bit of honest wear sometimes adds a bit of charachter. (I'm ok with beaters and really high grade cards too, I just look at them differently)

Steve B

[RobertGT]

I would keep them for now, but not attempt to fill in the holes by card-by-card by haggling with dealers at shows or on ebay, etc. The way 1970s stuff is coming out of the wordwork now, it should be pretty easy to purchase large lots or entire collections and then fill in the holes with one shot from the bulk you have accumulated. After that, sell-off of the excess dups and what you do not want, and fill in the sets basically for free.

Once the sets are complete you can sell them then, as they will bring a much better price.

Good luck!

[betafolio2]

Originally Posted by steve B

That's a tough question.
Personally I like mid grade cards. I don't feel nervous handling them, or letting friends look through them. And a bit of honest wear sometimes adds a bit of character. (I'm ok with beaters and really high grade cards too, I just look at them differently)

Steve B

Funny, but there are probably as many definitions for "mid grade" as there are baseball card collectors. Some would probably consider mid grade to be anything that doesn't warrant a PSA 7 or higher, while others might consider mid grade to mean cards that display obvious corner wear, perhaps a few light creases, some surface wear -- in other words, more like a PSA 4 or 5. I'm convinced that the average meaning of mid grade has tended to slide downward as PSA has created and then continued to feed the artificial appetite for super-high-end cards that qualify for PSA 9 or 10 status. I for one belong to the club of collectors who receive great joy in cracking cards out of their plastic prisons, so I'm obviously not hung up on a PSA number. My chief concern is how nice a card looks to my own eyes -- and how consistent it'll look alongside other cards in my set binders.

[ALR-bishop]

Congratulations, you are a hobbyist and a collector and not an investor

[mintacular]

I would say keep 'em if you think the urge to own/complete the sets will come back...If you sell them now, and wish to get them back, you'd probably be best off financially to plunk down 1K/ea. on the set and that won't be nearly as fun as trying to plug the holes you now have in those sets...That said, if you have zero interest in them and doubt it will come back then you should sell them obviously

[sox1903wschamp]

Originally Posted by betafolio2

My chief concern is how nice a card looks to my own eyes -- and how consistent it'll look alongside other cards in my set binders.

Well put.

[steve B]

Some good points there. For "investment" I suppose I mean anything that isn't exceptionally nice. Investment to me means working most of the potential angles, including the registry crowd.

Personally I consider "mid grade" to be what's usually vg through vg-ex. So no creases but worn corners, and typical early 70's centering. Or maybe sharp corners and typical centering. That pretty much describes my whole collection as far as 70's goes. I know I have some worse and some better, but It's not something I worry about.
I only have a few graded cards, nearly all prewar, and nearly all ones I sent in. The few modern ones are from packs, I think a couple "edge graded" football and maybe one or two random graded baseball that came in a lot.

The grading is something I'm ambivalent about. I typically base my decisions on my own grading scale
Awful - trimmed, missing bits, writing, stains etc.
Not horrible- worn, maybe a couple creases.
Pretty good- no creases but not great corners.
Nice- decent corners and no creasing.
Really nice- sharp corners decent centering.
wow- nearly perfect

And I enjoy some of the written on cards as much as the nearly perfect ones.

I don't worry much about the cards matching the rest of a set either, but I know I'm a bit odd in that. (I did briefly consider trying to complete some set with a wax wrapper stain on each card, but that would take way more focus than I have)

Steve B

Originally Posted by betafolio2

Funny, but there are probably as many definitions for "mid grade" as there are baseball card collectors. Some would probably consider mid grade to be anything that doesn't warrant a PSA 7 or higher, while others might consider mid grade to mean cards that display obvious corner wear, perhaps a few light creases, some surface wear -- in other words, more like a PSA 4 or 5. I'm convinced that the average meaning of mid grade has tended to slide downward as PSA has created and then continued to feed the artificial appetite for super-high-end cards that qualify for PSA 9 or 10 status. I for one belong to the club of collectors who receive great joy in cracking cards out of their plastic prisons, so I'm obviously not hung up on a PSA number. My chief concern is how nice a card looks to my own eyes -- and how consistent it'll look alongside other cards in my set binders.

[theseeker]

why are mid-grade sets from the seventies not considered an investment? The way I see it, it's supply and demand, so if interest drops in these sets, it will be across the board. As a matter of fact, high-grade investors are likely to take the bigger hit. It seems to me, if history is any indicator, there will be proportional price movement, according to grade. All the price guides have a means of pricing sets in various grades. High-grade sets sell for more but, obviously cost more and are more time consumming to obtain. And one more thing to consider, they are less liquid as they tend to take longer to sell.
It's all relative, if you're trying to complete a mid-grade set, then you complete it with mid-grade cards. For bargain hunters, there is greater price fluxuations with mid-grades, so it could be worth the effort to complete the sets. Of course, as the saying goes "time is money."
P.S., why are seventies sets now "coming out of the woodwork?"