Quote:
Originally Posted by Brianruns10
Another bit of advice: stay consistent. The greater challenge of building a set is uniformity of quality. It's the selection process. It's not collecting when you just buy willy nilly to fill holes...that's just accumulating. And I always cringe when I see a set offered for sale on ebay or elsewhere that is just all over the map, ranging from nicely centered, PSA 6-7s, to raw beaters. Or I hate seeing a set that's all PSA 6s, and then has a star card that is a 1 and looks like a 0.
Before you start, you should figure out what grade range is realistic for your budget, and stick to it. Avoid getting cards that fall below it, and (this is harder) avoid cards that fall ABOVE it.
My 52 topps set is a median PSA 6 set. I'll dip to a 5 in the case of a star card or a high number, and for the commons I'll go up to a 7. I have a couple of 7.5s, but that was only because the price was too good. I have only one 8 in the set and that's because I raw card I bought nabbed the grade. I've never bought an 8, not because I couldn't have done it, but because it just wouldn't fit right now with the set I'm building. Eventually I'll start upgrading cards, but for the time being, I'm concerned with building a set of uniform quality, and with an emphasis on centering and original quality - gloss, unfaded colors, sharp color registration.
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I think this is great advice and sort of what I was thinking when I first started thinking about this project. To me "eye appeal" is far more important than grade. I want good centering and nice color. I'm shooting for the 4-6 grade range (but if I find a 7 at the right price I will jump on it though). But, no beaters. I would rather save and search for the right piece. I would rather find a nicely centered 4 than an off center 6. I have picked up a couple commons at this point with this in mind.
Here is an example of one of the commons I have picked up. I think the centering is very nice on this card...and the color is still quite vivid. There are some marks on it...but I think it has a nice look. Definitely some hard hits on the corners, but no wrinkling or creasing into the card itself. This is the kind of card I am looking for or a little better.