1956
This set has driven me crazy (yet I've still developed a soft spot for it at the same time). When I first started collecting again, I did not feel the same love for it as many do, and it was the least likely for me to end up with.
All I could see was a very similar design to the '55 with many identical pictures, and saw no need to fool with it. Got an ok low grade Mantle early on, and had no interest past that. So going after a '55 + that Mick was going to fit the bill fine for my preferences.
Then I started to really focus on the backgrounds of the '56s. And things changed. Decided "well I need some of these commons anyway cause I love the backgrounds". Then wanted to collect the team cards. Before I knew it, I had those and about half the commons to go with the Mantle, a Jackie R blazer from further back, and a great Yogi.
You know what's going to happen at that point. Been filling the set in ever since, especially since I felt like I had the freedom to use as many low grade cards as I wanted. Now it's 10 commons away from being complete.
Everything about my particular set is all over the place. Figuratively (the condition) and literally (they're the only cards from this run that I don't have all logged by grade or even completely organized yet). A lot of lower grade HOFers, but also some nice ones here and there. The commons vary from low to upper-end midgrade too.
Definitely the redheaded stepchild of my '50s run. But still taken care of the same
330/340 with checklists (unmarked)
Avg grade: approx 3.0
Top 10 cards w/ grade:
135 Mickey Mantle: 2
33 Roberto Clemente: 2
5 Ted Williams: 1
30 Jackie Robinson: 7
79 Sandy Koufax: 1
31 Hank Aaron: 1.5
130 Willie Mays: 1
251 Yankees Team: 3
110 Yogi Berra: 6.5
166 Dodgers Team: 3
