[whitehse]

I have been a collector for nearly 50 years although I do not feel that old. Back in the day (now I sound old) my dad and I started buying cards by placing ads in the paper in the late 70's and we bought an awful lot of cards. This was pre-price guide days where we would offer someone a hundred bucks for a shopping bag of 50's cards and they would giggle and take our money and felt they were ripping US off. So needless to say we built many sets and had complete runs of Topps from mostly the 60's and several 1950's sets as well but when the boom hit we cashed in and sold everything. I say this because my goal is no longer to assemble every set that I can but rather assemble sets that represent a wide time frame in which to "tell the tale" of post war baseball through baseball cards. Hopefully I can explain my ask better this way.....


1956 Topps baseball spans the 1930's, 40's and 50's with players who started their careers during this time frame like Feller, Rizzuto and so many more. I am at 80% complete on this set and anticipate having it completed by the end of the year or early next year. I am only missing the Mantle and Mays with the rest being commons.

Gap- this is what I need to fill.

1973 Topps baseball set features players who were near rookies in the 1956 set such as Clemente and Mays but are now represented at the end of their careers. This set also has rookies of players like Schmidt and Evans who would go on to be some of the greatest of the 70's and 1980's. This was the first set I assembled as a kid and this set has great sentimental value which is while I am putting it together.

1982 Topps set features those who were rookies and up and coming stars from the 1973 set who are coming to the end of their careers with stars as well as the next generation of stars and hall of famers like Ripken, Smith and others who would play into the 2000's. I have this set fully complete.

So as you can see I am wanting to put together a set from the 60's that will depict the young guys from the '56 set in their prime and help complete the span of all the decades of the post war years. I plan to do this with mostly raw, mid grade cards with nice eye appeal but am not adverse to buying graded for the stars. The one caveat I have is that I cannot blow tons of money on the building of this set. I need one of the less expensive sets but one that looks attractive. This is where your opinion and ideas matter. I would love to hear your thoughts on which 1960's set I should build and why. I am leaning towards 1960 or 1964 as I like the look but would love to build the 61 set but there is no way I can afford all those high numbers.

I hope this request has not been too confusing and hopefully it will spark some conversations about the sets you assembled and what you feel my next move should be.