Is it worth the trouble to build vintage sets?

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Well don't discount bulk purchases to cherry pick the ones you want and resell the ones you don't. I once put together a 1971 Topps baseball this way for under $200 net dollars in EX/MT. You can't be in a rush, but it can be very cost effective!

[wdwfan]

This is the most frustrating thing about putting sets together. I am the type that wants this to be a spring and not a marathon, but I don't have the money to nor do I want to buy a set. I want to put them together piece by piece. But by buying a few lots, it gives me very few cards to trade. Plus, no one seems to want to trade around here with me.

I've got about 50 different from 1963, 1959 and 1961, so kicking around the idea of starting those sets. But I've got about 625 different '74s, 400+ different '71s and nearly 200 different '62s. So that would be 6 sets in progress if I decide to add 3 more. I have completely sold out of my modern stuff since moving into vintage in August. But I sure do love the vintage stuff.

Here's my question. For those of you putting sets together, do you wait until you have a certain amount of the set before putting them into pages and into a notebook? Or do you even use a notebook? Or do you just sleeve them and put them into a box? I have a friend that puts all of his baseball sets in toploaders and into a filing cabinet. He then puts all of his football sets into pages. I personally prefer to have my cards in pages so I can more easily look through them. But it's harder to price them in pages since you can't put the cards into sleeves and into the pages. I want to put prices on individual cards so my wife would have an idea of where to start should something happen to me.

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

You can't be in a rush, but it can be very cost effective!

[vintagebaseballcardguy]

Originally Posted by wdwfan

This is the most frustrating thing about putting sets together. I am the type that wants this to be a spring and not a marathon, but I don't have the money to nor do I want to buy a set. I want to put them together piece by piece. But by buying a few lots, it gives me very few cards to trade. Plus, no one seems to want to trade around here with me.

I've got about 50 different from 1963, 1959 and 1961, so kicking around the idea of starting those sets. But I've got about 625 different '74s, 400+ different '71s and nearly 200 different '62s. So that would be 6 sets in progress if I decide to add 3 more. I have completely sold out of my modern stuff since moving into vintage in August. But I sure do love the vintage stuff.

Here's my question. For those of you putting sets together, do you wait until you have a certain amount of the set before putting them into pages and into a notebook? Or do you even use a notebook? Or do you just sleeve them and put them into a box? I have a friend that puts all of his baseball sets in toploaders and into a filing cabinet. He then puts all of his football sets into pages. I personally prefer to have my cards in pages so I can more easily look through them. But it's harder to price them in pages since you can't put the cards into sleeves and into the pages. I want to put prices on individual cards so my wife would have an idea of where to start should something happen to me.

Well, I can relate to some of what you are saying. I really wouldn't want to buy a set in most cases. I have before, but it is more fun to build one. Besides, like you, I couldn't afford one most of the time anyway, so that takes the pressure off. I tend to end up trying to build them piece by piece. Partly this is because it is easier for me financially to bite a little off at a time, and also because I just tend to like doing it that way. Inevitably, I lose interest and start on something else. What I have improved upon, however, is that I no longer sell off what I started on and then stopped. I just put it up and then eventually come back to it when my interest swings back that way. This "formula" has actually been working for me.

As to your question about cards and pages, if you want to have a little extra protection and/or the ability to price/display them in binders, toploaderbinder.com makes a good product. These allow you to place the card in the toploader and into the binder. They are somewhat pricey, but do a decent job. You can also buy some unikeep enclosed binders (3 for $20 I think) and some 4 pocket ultra pro pages and put your cards in toploaders or cardsavers or whatever and organize them that way, too. Neither is a perfect system but might help you. Good luck!

[JLange]

Originally Posted by wdwfan

Here's my question. For those of you putting sets together, do you wait until you have a certain amount of the set before putting them into pages and into a notebook? Or do you even use a notebook? Or do you just sleeve them and put them into a box? I have a friend that puts all of his baseball sets in toploaders and into a filing cabinet. He then puts all of his football sets into pages. I personally prefer to have my cards in pages so I can more easily look through them. But it's harder to price them in pages since you can't put the cards into sleeves and into the pages. I want to put prices on individual cards so my wife would have an idea of where to start should something happen to me.

I’m a big fan of using cardsaver 1’s in 4-pocket pages as mentioned by another poster, especially when condition is important to you. The cards can be priced or identified with labels on the front or back and you can take and move them around with ease if you don’t like leaving holes in your pages as you build. I’ve also had inclinations to re-organize sets by teams or group subsets like rookie all-stars cards or multiplayer cards together at times so it makes a re-org quite easy as well. One drawback is a full album of 4-pocket pages can hold only about 248-252 cards,so you are looking at multiple albums to complete a typical Topps set.

[Exhibitman]

I just quit my one grand set building quest: a complete run of Exhibit boxing cards. I got pretty close to it. I consigned the whole thing to Heritage. Over 1,000 cards. I need the money for my kid to go to medical school.

Other than that the only sets I can see building are the 1972 Kellogg’s ATG and the SPs from the 1968 Atlantic Oil. Both childhood favorite issues. Small and very few common cards. The Kellogg’s has none.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by JLange

I’m a big fan of using cardsaver 1’s in 4-pocket pages as mentioned by another poster, especially when condition is important to you. The cards can be priced or identified with labels on the front or back and you can take and move them around with ease if you don’t like leaving holes in your pages as you build. I’ve also had inclinations to re-organize sets by teams or group subsets like rookie all-stars cards or multiplayer cards together at times so it makes a re-org quite easy as well. One drawback is a full album of 4-pocket pages can hold only about 248-252 cards,so you are looking at multiple albums to complete a typical Topps set.

I do that too but I use Unikeep clamshell binders. They are 1.5” wide and flat ringed and all polyethylene so no metal or rounding. About 120 cards per with double sided mounting . Not ideal for sets but I don’t need set storage. My Exhibit boxing was in 21 albums.

[vintagebaseballcardguy]

Originally Posted by Aquarian Sports Cards

Well don't discount bulk purchases to cherry pick the ones you want and resell the ones you don't. I once put together a 1971 Topps baseball this way for under $200 net dollars in EX/MT. You can't be in a rush, but it can be very cost effective!

You care to elaborate a little on this? Not sure I am understanding everything here...