Set Collectors - Report in your progress!

[Kutcher55]

I have been grinding pretty hard on a 75 topps mini set. I have it completed and close to a second set as well. The goal has been to get every card in NMT or better and it is tougher than I thought it would be. Even pack fresh minis seem to have issues, most notably Diamond cuts, centering in general, print issues such as fish eyes but also smudging, registration, and color problems. There are also surface challenges with bubbles or the type of veining that must give TPGs fits. Anyway my set is pretty awesome but it still got a ways to go. Not cheap either and high quality mini cards are not easy. I can’t even imagine the top registry guys with their 9s and 10s.

I will say it is fun to buy a huge lot of nice ones and compare them to my existing set to sub out what I can. It leads to a lot of agonizing decisions such as should I take the mint off center card of one that is in great shape with good centering but has a touched corner or two.

[ALR-bishop]

Jason---congrats on your 75 Mini assemblage. When I was building my set years ago it seemed like there was a time when they were very hard to find and then suddenly they were more plentiful for a time. Some find, can't recall ?

Topps apparently was looking at reviving the Minis in 85 but stopped with a partial unreleased set, some with regular 85 backs and some blank backed. Pretty tough to build that 85 set now. I think the 85s are a smidge bigger than the 75s

[Kutcher55]

That’s interesting Al. When I was growing up the Minis were considered tougher than the regular set. I still believe that to be the case but I think you’re right that something happened to make them more accessible. For me there’s no contest in terms of the set I want to have. The 75 minis are so unique and there has to be fewer of them out there because they were regional issues. The pop reports support that as well.

Still there’s no premium over the regular set. In fact last I checked, the Brett full size tended to go for more $. I don’t totally get it although I do know some collectors refuse to collect the minis and want nothing to do with them so there’s that…

[ALR-bishop]

There was a very passionate group of 75 Mini collectors on the PSA forum board at one time. Do not know if they are still active. But there was a long thread there with a lot of good info on the set. Here is a link

https://forums.collectors.com/discus...-thread#latest

[G1911]

I'm building the mini set too, down to only a few cards now. Here in California, they are everywhere. Some of the regions that got this test issue seem have gotten them in vastly different proportions. Can't trip over a dealer box at a show without finding a stack of Mini's in the Bay Area. Makes them pretty cheap to build here because they are available in such huge quantity.

My father collected them in 1975 in the San Francisco area, and reported he knew at the time that they were a regional issue and not so easy to get elsewhere. He got several boxes he kept unopened and says they were easier to find in his city than the regular size cards. Unfortunately, Dad forgot to do the part where he saved all his cards for his future son and he sold them all to purchase a stereo a few years later. Oops. He did keep some 1970 Topps Posters, but when we started to rebuild the 50's-70's sets in ~1999 together, we had to start over from scratch.

[Kutcher55]

That’s amazing that even 47 years later that sort of regionality still exists.

[Elberson]

Getting super close to finishing off 1967 Topps 3rd set……only 6 more to go!!!