A 1952 Topps complete set. Starting "the" ultimate post war project

[BradW]

This is my first post on the forum, so hopefully I did it correctly. First of all, thanks to everyone on this forum for sharing your knowledge. I am newly re-interested in collecting baseball cards. I grew up in the 80’s and collected my entire childhood (wish I still had my old collection). Collecting sure has changed since then. I have learned so much just reading through the historical posts on this forum.

Like many others, I think the epidemic has given me more time to reflect on the past and card collecting brings with it a sense of nostalgia and a way to fill time. I also hope that it can be a shared experience with my sons (age 5 and 7).

Growing up I collected Topps - coolest thing I ever did was put together a 78 Topps set in the late 80’s. I like the process of set collecting and decided that I want a longer term project to focus on and have embarked on the process of attempting to collect the 52 Topps set. To this day, I still remember being a kid and looking at the 52 Mantle at my LCS and thinking how great of a card it was. Not to mention everyone’s posts on this forum outlining the beauty of this set.

My current philosophy is to attempt to build in a PSA 5-6 (obviously will need to settle for a lot less on a handle full of key cards). I’ve seen on this forum and agree that a well-centered 5 presents very nicely. In the last 2 months I’ve compiled 30 commons (including a few high numbers). Most significant card so far is Herman Wehmeir (red back) in PSA 6 from the Greg Morris auction the other night - cannot wait to get that one in hand.

I’m interested in what others think of what seems like very quick inflation on the prices of the non-Mantle stars (Robinson, Mays, Mathews, Campanella, Wilhelm) in lower grades 2-5. I’d like to pick-up at least one or two of these in the short term to feel a real sense of commitment to the set and a bit of accomplishment. I’m not looking at this as an investment so not concerned with that, but because I am viewing this as a longer term (at least a few year) project I don’t want to rush into buying something if the prices are close to the top of a bubble. The commons and minor stars seem to be fairly consistent on pricing to me so I am going to keep plugging away on those now.

Thanks again for sharing all of you knowledge and I’ll update on my progress as I move forward.

[cardsagain74]

Originally Posted by BradW

My current philosophy is to attempt to build in a PSA 5-6 (obviously will need to settle for a lot less on a handle full of key cards). I’ve seen on this forum and agree that a well-centered 5 presents very nicely. In the last 2 months I’ve compiled 30 commons (including a few high numbers). Most significant card so far is Herman Wehmeir (red back) in PSA 6 from the Greg Morris auction the other night - cannot wait to get that one in hand.

I’m interested in what others think of what seems like very quick inflation on the prices of the non-Mantle stars (Robinson, Mays, Mathews, Campanella, Wilhelm) in lower grades 2-5. I’d like to pick-up at least one or two of these in the short term to feel a real sense of commitment to the set and a bit of accomplishment. I’m not looking at this as an investment so not concerned with that, but because I am viewing this as a longer term (at least a few year) project I don’t want to rush into buying something if the prices are close to the top of a bubble. The commons and minor stars seem to be fairly consistent on pricing to me so I am going to keep plugging away on those now.

Jackie and Mays have led the way during covid. Low grade ones have tripled in price; when I started last February, I remember noticing that Willie was extremely easy. You had your pick of the litter for a $1000 grade 2. Now if I were starting out, I'd focus on a PSA 4 or 5. Those are a much better value now, as all the new quarantine set collectors have pushed up the lowest grade key cards just to "have the set" as cheaply as possible. Not just in some of the '52, but all over quality vintage during this time.

The other huge cards/other HOFers/high numbers have done about as well as other top of the line vintage (up around 40-80%). And like you mentioned, the minors (except for Minoso and Doby) and commons haven't moved much.

As far as "bubble" talk, naturally it's impossible to time as well as many think. Just like during the junk wax boom, most post-war baseball vintage hasn't exploded like many other bubble-ish items from the modern or other sports worlds. And when things eventually burst in those other areas, that vintage probably won't get hurt nearly as badly on the downside either.

But the thing is, starting out with the '52 now is still awful tough, cause it's so damn expensive that even the "non-bubble" gains have really taxed the bottom line of buying now. You'll have to be very price-conscious and patient (and have your really long-term view) to navigate the possible current pitfalls well enough.

[cardsagain74]

Out of the blue....it looks like I have completed my set tonight. Had 21 high numbers left, and a longtime ebay member (and seller of plenty of '52s recently) had just listed a complete high # lot (minus Mantle) for sale, and it was nice stuff priced at fair market value.

He was getting a lot of requests already for individual cards, so between that and my offer to work something out, he decided to take down the listing and break it up, and a deal for my 21 remaining was reached 🙂

The cards range from PSA 1 to PSA 5, but many were centered 4s and 5s. A nice way to finish things off.

Will hold off on final numbers until everything is in hand, but it looks like this journey is complete!

[jayshum]

That's great. Congratulations on completing the set.

[savedfrommyspokes]

Congrats on completion...I saw that lot yesterday too and considered sending a message also, however, the two cards I need to finish my set were lower graded than what I was seeking.

[irv]

Originally Posted by cardsagain74

Out of the blue....it looks like I have completed my set tonight. Had 21 high numbers left, and a longtime ebay member (and seller of plenty of '52s recently) had just listed a complete high # lot (minus Mantle) for sale, and it was nice stuff priced at fair market value.

He was getting a lot of requests already for individual cards, so between that and my offer to work something out, he decided to take down the listing and break it up, and a deal for my 21 remaining was reached 🙂

The cards range from PSA 1 to PSA 5, but many were centered 4s and 5s. A nice way to finish things off.

Will hold off on final numbers until everything is in hand, but it looks like this journey is complete!

That's a huge 52 Topps accomplishment!

Congrats again, John.

[cardsagain74]

Thanks guys.

Larry, that's just unlucky that yours were lower grade. He had plenty that were nice mid-grade (or 3s with great eye appeal).

Only two of mine were PSA 1s from the order. I'd wanted to avoid any 1s at first, but since I'd still ended up with six high number 1s prior, it didn't really matter at this point. And there are already enough 1.5s and 2s in mine too that it doesn't make much of a difference.

May upgrade those 1s at some point, but with the price craziness at the moment, I was glad to get it finished.

[cardsagain74]

The package with the last 21 highs arrived, so it's officially complete

Also was unexpectedly able to upgrade the set's main weakness, which was the PSA 1 Hoyt Wilhelm. Got a nice deal on a PSA 3.5, which is on its way. Then I'll sell the current one, and eventually the other dozen or so low number doubles that have been acquired along the way.

The only other upgrades I'll probably fool with sometime are the other grade 1s. There are nine lows and six highs, all commons. Even if it's just to get PSA 1.5 highs or raws that'd be fr instead of pr, it'd still be nice to hold on entirely to that standard that I initially hoped for.

The final average condition was 2.7, for both low and high #s. Though the weighted average (and how the set "feels"), is a little nicer than that, since the cadillac cards are 3s, Campy/Reese/Mays/Bart average a 3.5, and most of the top low # HOFers are 4s or 5s.

Every low number common is raw, while most key lows (and all highs, except a handful of commons) are graded, mostly PSA.

It's been fun logging the progress here, and doing so led to completing it faster (and more efficiently) than I ever expected, thanks to the help of some forum members filling some of it in!

407/407

Avg overall condition: 2.7

Avg cond of high # keys: 3.1

Avg cond of low # keys: 4.0

Top 10 cards w/ grade:

311 Mickey Mantle: 3
407 Eddie Mathews (R): 3
312 Jackie Robinson: 3
261 Willie Mays: 3.5
314 Roy Campanella: 4
392 Hoyt Wilhelm (R): 3.5
333 Pee Wee Reese: 4
332 Tony Bartirome: 2.5
1 Andy Pafko: 2.5
400 Bill Dickey: 2

[LincolnVT]

Must feel so good to have all 407. I'm looking forward to it one day.

[Natswin2019]

Originally Posted by cardsagain74

The package with the last 21 highs arrived, so it's officially complete

Big congrats on the achievement!