Approach to Building Sets

[Matthew80]

Hi all- My name's Matthew, and I'm reintroducing myself into the hobby after a good 20-year absence since I was a kid. After some research, I'm interested in building a set from the early to mid 50's (not '52 Topps), and I think I'm willing to buy graded cards as opposed to raw.

My general, overarching question is this: What are you glad you did with respect to building an old set? Any recommendations for a newbie?

Some thoughts I had include:
Creating a blog with pics (and videos?) of my set as I create it
Not buying huge lots of card, but rather buying one (or several) at a time
Getting all close to within the same grade (EX to EX-MT) by same company
Finding a creative way to display cards instead of a box

Again, any particular strong wish-I-would've-done-this-and-not-that's you're able to share would be greatly appreciated. If it matters, I'm leaning towards '51 Bowman, or Topps' '55 or '56 issue.

Thanks in advance! Any examples anyone can share would be welcomed and appreciated.

[ALR-bishop]

I have all of the Topps 50s sets and all in ungraded form in binders in plastic sheets. In graded form, display is difficult for full sets. I built all of my 50s sets card by card, but many years ago. The 57s, 58s and 59s in large part by packs ( not currently recommended)

[almostdone]

Hello Mathew and let me one of the first to say welcome to the boards. I know that you will find many great people here to help and guide you along the way.

As far as collecting sets you pose some good questions. I think a photo journal would be a good idea but would also recommend writting down where and how much you paid for certain cards. There all always some great stories about odd finds in the strangest places as well as deals that were great along with some that turned out to be not so great. Write them down so you can go back through and relive the entire collecting experience.

As far a display I have often wondered about that. I am not one to just put cards in a book or box without the ability to display some of my favorites. It is very difficult to do a full set but any creative ways would be great to share. There was a thread a while back called "Show off your displays" that might give you some good ideas. There are some amazing ways to display collections in there. Not to brag but a few of the cases I made for display are in there as well. Here is the link: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthr...=show+displays

Stay on the boards and it nice to have you,
Drew

[HaloFan]

I have started quite a few sets, but I have not completed many of them. With the '38 Goudey, and '54-55 Topps Hockey sets I bought the cards one at a time occasionally buying a star when I had extra $$$ as I saw them for sale. Those sets are smaller so you don't see multiple cards offered for sale together very often. The hockey I did in high grade, so I was fairly picky about condition. With the '57 Topps set, I bought a bunch of lots and slowly picked up stars if I saw a good deal. That set I wanted cheap, so I have some beaters in there. The '55 Topps set I started in the 90s when I was still in high school but have had trouble focusing on completing it. I picked it because it was only 206 cards, but that's actually a lot if you want it high grade and have to spend $10-$30 a common. I'm about 70% there, but I don't have the Clemente, Koufax and most of the stars from that set. I probably won't be obtaining them anytime soon due to budget issues. The frustration with the 55s is why I chose to build the '57 in off-condition. I've started the '53s as well focusing on the stars first so I have the Mantle. I'm also doing this set on the cheap. It's a set I'm trying a different approach.
Some of the guys on this board complete the common Topps sets fairly quick, but for me it can take years. With the '57, I took about 2-3 years, the hockey and Goudey took me 13-15 years. At my rate the 55s will take me 30+.

Craig

[Tim Fritz]

Welcome back to collecting and few thoughts from a fellow set collector.

I would agree with buying non-graded in bulk on ebay. I have gotten some great deals over the years this way. If you then want them graded you can always do that yourself. One person above wrote about writing down where you bought cards and what you paid for them. I really wish I would have done more of that.

I normally try to get my sets in VG and above and upgrade the VG from there. Trading away my doubles after upgrading while working on other sets. It's also a great way to meet other collectors that share your passion.

I've never figured out a great way of displaying my collection. I store mine in individual semi-regid and regid sleeves and then in boxes. I like this because if I only have 5-10 minute to thumb through some cards I don't need to pull out a whole binder. If I want to look at everything I just pull out the box, which isn't much larger than a binder.

I also second the '53 Topps set. By far my favorite of the 50s, but to each his own. The biggest drawback from that set is the lack of some HOFs like Ted Williams, Snider, Musial, etc...

[mintacular]

1. From a financial standpoint you will save a lot of $ buy buying a large "starter" lot, from there you can have fun cherry picking stars, high #'s, and upgrades

2. Make sure you pinpoint very closely on the grade you are HAPPY with and also the set that really motivates you...I correctly started building '57 but in the beginning ignored centering, and now, I am having to upgrade my o/c cards.

3. I like buying raw card commons as the price of grading fees usually gets rolled in to the sales price and I think it's silly to pay $10-15 for a graded EX-MT common rather than $5 for a raw one, which I like to be able to put into my vinyl sheets/binder anyway. For $100+ cards I like the added security of buying graded.

4. I would go with '56s of the ones you listed due to the background action shot and think it is a step up on the '55s which have a plain background. I personally would be satisfied with just the Koufax and Clemente and don't need the other 200+ cards...Make sure you want to spend money on several hundred commons, or could you be satisfied just buying stars/cards you like from that set? Do you want to pay $20/ea for high # '55s?, etc?

5. I prefer the standard card size of post '56 cards and find the cards fit well into my vinyl sheets. The larger cards go in 8 pocket sheets. In these, I feel like the cards are a bit loose and wiggly around and that is one of many reasons I am not building '52-56 sets

[jefferyepayne]

Hi Matthew,

I have a lot of complete sets for both football and baseball and can share what I've found to work.

First, I agree with the previous comment that it is pretty difficult to display graded sets. I have a few sets that are mostly graded but they tend to be very small sets. I have them in a binder using 4 per page vinyl sheets. Graded cards fit into these sheets pretty well but the binder is heavy and hard to page through. Not recommended at all. The rest of my sets are mostly raw cards so they fit nicely in binders using 25, 9, 8 per page vinyl sheets depending upon the size of the cards in the set. I like this method a lot as you can easily store your cards and look them over without damaging them. I can even let my kids look at them without worrying that they will transform an EX Ty Cobb into a G with some bite marks. I'm planning to insert reprints/replica's of the cards I have that are graded into the appropriate empty spaces in my albums so there are no empty spots. I haven't gotten to that project yet.

I am thinking about building a display case to house one or more of my sets that are mostly/all graded. See other threads on what some of the display cases people have built look like. Some are awesome! I plan to rotate sets through this display case so I can enjoy them but don't need to fill the house with them (my wife would kill me).

I haven't yet invested the time to build out an on-line album for any of my sets but do plan to do that some rainy ... year. It think it's a great idea for sharing your cards with others but nothing beats being able to flip through your set so both an on-line and physical album are useful. I've heard photobucket.com is pretty good for this.

In terms of acquiring cards, I try to buy common cards in lots as you can get a great deal for them in bulk as most dealers just want to get rid of commons. I buy most of my stars on ebay, other auctions, or from Net54 members. If you are patient, you *will* find great deals out there. I don't start by trying to get every card at a certain grade. Instead, I work to get the set completed with the best I can find for the price and then upgrade the cards that aren't worthy of being included and sell off the ones I've replaced. If you do a good job of picking up deals, you will be able to sell these cards for more than you paid for them and apply that extra $$$ toward the cost of newer, upgraded cards for the set.

If you are going the graded route, getting all of them graded by the same company looks the best from a display purpose. You can also then register the set in one of the grading companies registers which is pretty cool! Don't forget that you can always submit raw cards for grading or switch a graded card from one grading company to another if you wish so you don't have to JUST purchase cards from a particular grading company to ultimately end up with a complete set with grades from one company. You'll also find that purchasing raw cards is way, way cheaper than their corresponding graded versions ... you just have to really watch to make sure you are getting the grade that is stated in the auction ad and not be afraid to send cards back if they don't meet your approval.

I hope this helps.

jeff

P.S. Check out the look of 1953 Topps. I think it is the coolest looking set in the '50s and highly recommend trying to put that set together. I've been working on it for a while and it looks awesome!