New Member, 1956 Topps, 1st Vintage Set

[Anothernicetry]

Hello All!
My name is Charlie and my 17 year old son Corbin and I have decided to pursue our first vintage collection. We settled on 1956 Topps due to the card design, number of cards, and the legends that are in the set (along with cost)

Any advice specific to 1956 or starting a new vintage venture in general is appreciated!
We do our research, but those that know things I don't, are aware of things I am not so we appreciate the knowledge and experience you have.
We are not new to collecting baseball items or cards, we just have a new focus now that my son appreciates the history of the game even more. We still have our favorite modern stars, but this is our new multi year venture together.

I was directed here by friends who used to collect vintage as a great resource and group of people!

Thanks for allowing us into the forum!

[Leon]

Welcome Charlie
There are an infinite number of ways to collect as you might know. For a lot of us on this forum, we are more into the look of the card than the technical grade. Not all but probably a majority.
Unless you have a fairly large sum of money to invest, the registry play for the '56 set could be cost prohibitive. I am sure it can still be fun, if you don't mind being down in the pack (and I haven't checked that set on the registry, I just imagine)... An old saying comes to mind, the hunt is most of the fun, often rings true. Whichever way you go, good luck and happy hunting.
.

[Anothernicetry]

Leon thanks! We are about the card not the grade. Dont get me wrong, I will look for quality cards if I have a choice but am ok with the bike spoke card if we can see the whole picture and it has 4 sides. Honestly, it is about the long chase with my son that we can do even when he is away from my house.
I am positive there will be doubles over time to replace more worn ones. We just love the hobby, not about the money.

[The Detroit Collector]

Welcome Charlie.
1956 is a great set.
Best advice I can give is enjoy the time being spent with your son. Collecting together is a special bond he will remember for the rest of his life.

[Beercan collector]

Originally Posted by Anothernicetry

Leon thanks! We are about the card not the grade. Dont get me wrong, I will look for quality cards if I have a choice but am ok with the bike spoke card if we can see the whole picture and it has 4 sides. Honestly, it is about the long chase with my son that we can do even when he is away from my house.
I am positive there will be doubles over time to replace more worn ones. We just love the hobby, not about the money.

That’s good and ‘56 is a good choice in that regard.
Many of the ‘56 cards came out of the packs with a rough cut and quite a few have factory defects such as scratches and indentations that technically lowers the grade but makes them affordable - You could put together a bright clean set in very good to excellent condition

[Zach Wheat]

Welcome Charlie,

My advice is to decide what card condition you are going after (i.e. all VG, Ex, etc.) and then what factors are most important like centering, sharp corners, registration, etc. It helps to know what variations you are going to go after as well. I have almost always tried to pick up the star cards first and then fill in the set by acquiring lots of commons on auction sites, using the duplicates to trade or re-sell.

You used to be able to use PSA's free application to upload both PSA and non-PSA cards by set so you could catalogue, keep track of costs and view your cards for potential upgrading any time. The application appears to have quit working for me - so not sure if this is permanent or not. PSA has a new application which only handles PSA registered cards, which is less useful for tracking sets.

Old Baseball https://oldbaseball.com/ is a site geared towards completing sets by trading and has a pretty big following. Great group of guys there.

Have fun!

[Fuddjcal]

couldn't have picked a better set. Enjoy the ride with your son and welcome to the Net54

[minibbcards]

Welcome Charlie,

you also might want to check out the 1950-1959 Buy/Sell/Trade Forum here on net54 https://www.net54baseball.com/forumdisplay.php?f=15

a good place to find some of the stars and to put out a wanted to buy list.

[Casey2296]

-
Welcome to the fray Charlie & Son. You can't go wrong with the 56 set, one of my favorite post-war issues. And a card.
-

[Anothernicetry]

Thanks for the tips guys!

Detroit Collector and Fuddjcal - The thing I am looking forward to the most is the journey.

Beercan Collector - Yes, we are chasing that good looking set that pops good when you see it, but the deeper collectors may not keep themselves due to a number of potential flaws.

Zach - Solid advice, thanks. I am using setcollector.com that is free. Someone shared it with me as an alternative for PSA to track the collection. I am not going after many graded cards. I may get the biggest ones for authentication purposes in low grades, but I like the look of these cards outside the graded cases displayed together.
We are making a list of our most important factors and are learning about the balance for vintage.

Casey - Thanks!

Minibbcards - thanks for the link. I am prepping my plan then will journey over there.

[Anothernicetry]

Originally Posted by Zach Wheat

Welcome Charlie,

My advice is to decide what card condition you are going after (i.e. all VG, Ex, etc.) and then what factors are most important like centering, sharp corners, registration, etc. It helps to know what variations you are going to go after as well. I have almost always tried to pick up the star cards first and then fill in the set by acquiring lots of commons on auction sites, using the duplicates to trade or re-sell.

This was something i thought about. Getting the checklists and stars first and buying bulk lots for lower value. I did not think about choosing the grade to chase.

Is it a good idea to get the stars as already graded for authentication purposes?
With the higher value, i assume there are risks for fakes is my thought and starting off new with those cards, I have not learned enough to spot the good fakes. Perfect corners and centering is one thing, good dupes are another.

[Casey2296]

Originally Posted by Anothernicetry

This was something i thought about. Getting the checklists and stars first and buying bulk lots for lower value. I did not think about choosing the grade to chase.

Is it a good idea to get the stars as already graded for authentication purposes?
With the higher value, i assume there are risks for fakes is my thought and starting off new with those cards, I have not learned enough to spot the good fakes. Perfect corners and centering is one thing, good dupes are another.

Personally, I would buy the HOFers already graded. There is a lot of time and expense to get raw cards graded nowadays.

[premiercardcollectors]

Great set. This was the first vintage set we built way back in the 80’s.


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[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

I collected the 1956 set as a kid. Traded for the Mantle for some other vintage cards that I bought for less than $1 at a garage sale, so that worked out great! After that, it was off to the races. Such a beautiful set. Being a kid, I could hardly afford to be picky on condition, so it ended up being a rainbow of varying conditions. It never made me enjoy any of them any less.

I had some of them autographed by the players as well. Not many years after starting the project, I quit collecting unsigned cards altogether and never did complete the set. They are all still here, though, and none of them will ever be slabbed.

[gonefishin]

Hi Charlie and welcome to the forum, Jim here. The 56 is a great set. When completing any set from the 50s, I found the star cards are always easy to find (although expensive). The hardest part of completing the set is chasing the commons - also one of the most enjoyable parts. I think you will find as you move forward completing a set to your satisfaction, you will always - I repeat always - end up with duplicates (especially the commons). These you could use to trade, or sale, to continue funding your chase for set completion. When it gets down to a few cards you can always use sites such as ebay to complete the set.

What part of the country do you live in? I ask because you may find a vintage collector on this forum willing to sell some of their duplicates or trade to get you guys off on the right foot.

I realize you already know what I stated above, so I'll just say welcome and have fun! You two will enjoy the ride together!

[Anothernicetry]

Originally Posted by Casey2296

Personally, I would buy the HOFers already graded. There is a lot of time and expense to get raw cards graded nowadays.

I think we are leaning that route for HOF and eventually checklists.

We are making two chase lists. One for the higher end and one for commons. When we can afford the HOF we want we will get those one at a time.

[Anothernicetry]

Originally Posted by gonefishin

Hi Charlie and welcome to the forum, Jim here. The 56 is a great set. When completing any set from the 50s, I found the star cards are always easy to find (although expensive). The hardest part of completing the set is chasing the commons - also one of the most enjoyable parts. I think you will find as you move forward completing a set to your satisfaction, you will always - I repeat always - end up with duplicates (especially the commons). These you could use to trade, or sale, to continue funding your chase for set completion. When it gets down to a few cards you can always use sites such as ebay to complete the set.

What part of the country do you live in? I ask because you may find a vintage collector on this forum willing to sell some of their duplicates or trade to get you guys off on the right foot.

I realize you already know what I stated above, so I'll just say welcome and have fun! You two will enjoy the ride together!

I appreciate it! Even if I know something, doesn't hurt to hear it reinforced to match what I thought. Learn new things that way instead of shutting people out.

I live in South Texas on the gulf coast. I do travel all over the state with my son playing baseball, camping etc. I am open to meeting people for trades or chats when passing through!

[clydepepper]

Charlie - Welcome. You've find a lot of hobby gurus on Net54 - always glad to help you out.

Thank you for sharing your passion with your son. Very Cool in so many ways!


During COVID, I sold off almost all of my vintage cards...the 1956 set remains as it was my birth year.

Though I personally prefer the design of the '54 & '55 sets, the '56 set is special not only for what I previously mentioned, but it was the last 'non-standard-size' set and includes Jackie's last card.

There are two ways to collect a vintage set: 1) purchase the entire set - and where's the fun in that? - or 2) card by card, as I did and your and your son are starting to do.

Purchasing the entire set all at once would be much cheaper, but, again - where's the fun in that?

Have a Great Time on Your Journey!

[bk400]

I embarked on a similar collecting journey last year. For what it is worth, there's been a huge amount of (non-monetary) value in trying to build a set like that from raw cards that you have to find in person. It might take years, but perhaps that's a feature and not a bug.

[GRock]

I have started and sold off this set a few times, kept most of the HOFers. Might try again some day.

I really like the 53,54,56 Topps sets

[frankbmd]

1956 Topps nickel packs were my first card purchases. Imagine getting a Mantle and five other cards for a nickel. If my memory serves me correctly, single cards were offered in penny packs, but you got an extra card in the nickel packs. Wait seventy years and you could retire. Still my favorite set from the 50s.