"Common" question for set builders

[vintagebaseballcardguy]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

Interesting topic, and one I may be looking for similar info. on for 1967 Topps. As someone who has never seriously bought commons for set building purposes (over 30+ years of collecting, I'm usually easily distracted by the shiny objects that are higher mid-grade stars and HOFers...) but who is trying to work on '56 and '67 sets right now. Will have to do some additional homework...

John, I spent more $ than I needed to for quite a while. If any collector on a budget is going to build a large set like I am trying to do with 1958 and you are with 1967 (really large at 609), he had better try and figure out how to get the commons cheap. I am just totally making up numbers here, but let's say you are working on a set and go to your favorite ebay seller and buy a few cards at $2.50 each. That is a small amount of money, but multiply $2.50 × 300 commons, and you've spent $700...on commons. I went at things like this for a while. I never will again. I am looking for lots, shopping on COMC (huge difference maker), and lowering my standards for commons. I, and I suspect most set builders on a budget, can ill afford to sweat each and every common and pay anything approaching the mythical "book value."

Make no mistake about it, I want the sets...every single card, but I want to build them cheaper and faster than I have up to this point and maybe spend a little more on my star cards...or not. There's nothing wrong with solid, mid-grade for the stars with commons that are a little less than perfect.

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