****IT IS DONE**** My 1956 Topps Baseball set is finally complete
mccardguy1
Posts: 1,507 ✭✭✭
I appreciate your indulgence and allowing me to show off the progress of my 1956 Topps baseball set. My family could care less about my collection so posting here at least allows me to "show off" a little bit and after all, isn't that one of the reasons why we are here?
I have been collecting for 45+ years and attempted this set a few times but economic reasons forced me to abandon those attempts but I guess as I have been getting older I feel I may as well just go for it and go for it I did. My plan was to be looking for decently centered cards with no creases and nice corners and edges and I feel, for the most part I accomplished my goal. There are a few upgrades I want to make but overall the set is complete as is with a mixture of white and gray backs. I was looking keep the Hall of Famers graded and the remaining commons and semi stars ungraded but found some graded commons with a price that was too good to pass up.
An interesting story, at least to me is that the last two cards I needed for the set was the Dale Mitchell and Don Larsen cards. If you are not all that familiar with baseball history, Dale Mitchell is the batter Don Larsen struck out in the 1956 World Series to give him the first and only no hitter/perfect game in baseball World Series history. And yes, I said this game was from the 1956 baseball season.....just as this set was from. I found the last two cards I needed for my set to be both ironic and a fitting end to my quest.
I appreciate everyone who followed my nearly three year search for the cards in this set and indulged me with my frequent updates on this thread. Now to decide what is next!!
Thanks for looking and indulging me.
Name
1 William Harridge
2 Warren Giles
3 Elmer Valo
4 Carlos Paula
5 Ted Williams HOF
6 Ray Boone
7 Ron Negray
8 Walter Alston HOF
9 Ruben Gomez
10 Warren Spahn HOF
11 1955 Chicago Cubs Team Card
12 Andy Carey
13 Roy Face
14 Ken Boyer
15 Ernie Banks HOF
16 Hector Lopez
17 Gene Conley
18 Dick Donovan
19 Chuck Diering
20 Al Kaline HOF
21 Joe Collins
22 Jim Finigan
23 Fred Marsh
24 Dick Groat
25 Ted Kluszewski
26 Grady Hatton
27 Nelson Burbrink
28 Bobby Hofman
29 Jack Harshman
30 Jackie Robinson HOF
31 Hank Aaron HOF
32 Frank House
33 Roberto Clemente HOF
34 Tom Brewer
35 Al Rosen HOF
36 Rudy Minarcin
37 Alex Grammas
38 Bob Kennedy
39 Don Mossi
40 Bob Turley
41 Hank Sauer
42 Sandy Amoros
43 Ray Moore
44 Windy McCall
45 Gus Zernial
46 Gene Freese
47 Art Fowler
48 Jim Hegan
49 Pedro Ramos
50 Dusty Rhodes
51 Ernie Oravetz
52 Bob Grim
53 Arnie Portocarrero
54 Bob Keegan
55 Wally Moon
56 Dale Long
57 Duke Maas
58 Ed Roebuck
59 Jose Santiago
60 Mayo Smith
61 Bill Skowron
62 Hal Smith
63 Roger Craig
64 Luis Arroyo
65 Johnny O'Brien
66 Bob Speake
67 Vic Power
68 Chuck Stobbs
69 Chuck Tanner
70 Jim Rivera
71 Frank Sullivan
72 Philadelphia Phillies Team Card
73 Wayne Terwilliger
74 Jim King
75 Roy Sievers
76 Ray Crone
77 Harvey Haddix
78 Herm Wehmeier
79 Sandy Koufax HOF
80 Gus Triandos
81 Wally Westlake
82 Bill Renna
83 Karl Spooner
84 Babe Birrer
85 1955 Cleveland Indians Team Card
86 Ray Jablonski
87 Dean Stone
88 Johnny Kucks
89 Norm Zauchin
90 1955 Cincinnati RedLegs Team Card
91 Gail Harris
92 Red Wilson
93 George Susce
94 Ron Kline
95 1955 Braves Team Card
96 Bill Tremel
97 Jerry Lynch
98 Camilo Pascual
99 Don Zimmer
100 1955 Baltimore Orioles Team Card
101 Roy Campanella HOF
102 Jim Davis
103 Willy Miranda
104 Bob Lennon
105 Al Smith
106 Joe Astroth
107 Eddie Mathews HOF
108 Laurin Pepper
109 Enos Slaughter HOF
110 Yogi Berra HOF
111 Boston Red Sox Team Card
112 Dee Fondy
113 Phil Rizzuto HOF
114 Jim Owens
115 Jackie Jensen
116 Eddie O'Brien
117 Virgil Trucks
118 Nellie Fox HOF
119 Larry Jackson
120 Richie Ashburn HOF
121 Pittsburgh Pirates Team Card
122 Willard Nixon
123 Roy McMillan
124 Don Kaiser
125 Minnie Minoso
126 Jim Brady
127 Willie Jones
128 Eddie Yost
129 Paul Martin
130 Willie Mays HOF
131 Bob Roselli
132 Bobby Avila
133 Ray Narleski
134 St. Louis Cardinals Team Card
135 Mickey Mantle HOF
136 Johnny Logan
137 Al Silvera
138 Johnny Antonelli
139 Tom Carroll
140 Herb Score
141 Joe Frazier
142 Gene Baker
143 Jimmy Piersall
144 Bob Powell
145 Gil Hodges
146 Washington Nationals Team Card
147 Earl Torgeson
148 Alvin Dark
149 Dixie Howell
150 Duke Snider HOF
151 Spook Jacobs
152 Billy Hoeft
153 Frank Thomas
154 Dave Pope
155 Harvey Kuenn
156 Wes Westrum
157 Dick Brodowski
158 Wally Post
159 Clint Courtney
160 Billy Pierce
161 Joe DeMaestri
162 Gus Bell
163 Gene Woodling
164 Harmon Killebrew HOF
165 Red Schoendienst HOF
166 Brooklyn Dodgers Team Card
167 Harry Dorish
168 Sammy White
169 Tex Nelson
170 Bill Virdon
171 Jim Wilson
172 Frank Torre
173 Johnny Podres
174 Glen Gorbous
175 Del Crandall
176 Alex Kellner
177 Hank Bauer
178 Joe Black
179 Harry Chiti
180 Robin Roberts HOF
181 Billy Martin
182 Paul Minner
183 Stan Lopata
184 Don Bessent
185 Bill Bruton
186 Ron Jackson
187 Early Wynn HOF
188 Chicago White Sox Team Card
189 Ned Garver
190 Carl Furillo
191 Frank Lary
192 Smoky Burgess
193 Vinegar Bend Mizell
194 Monte Irvin HOF
195 George Kell HOF
196 Tom Poholsky
197 Granny Hamner
198 Ed Fitz Gerald
199 Hank Thompson
200 Bob Feller HOF
201 Rip Repulski
202 Jim Hearn
203 Bill Tuttle
204 Red Swanson
205 Whitey Lockman
206 Erv Palica
207 Jim Small
208 Elston Howard
209 Max Surkont
210 Mike Garcia
211 Murry Dickson
212 Johnny Temple
213 Detroit Tigers Team Card
214 Bob Rush
215 Tommy Byrne
216 Jerry Schoonmaker
217 Billy Klaus
218 Joe Nuxhall
219 Lew Burdette
220 Del Ennis
221 Bob Friend
222 Dave Philley
223 Randy Jackson
224 Bud Podbielan
225 Gil McDougald
226 New York Giants Team Card
227 Russ Meyer
228 Mickey Vernon
229 Harry Brecheen
230 Chico Carrasquel
231 Bob Hale
232 Toby Atwell
233 Carl Erskine
234 Pete Runnels
235 Don Newcombe
236 Kansas City Athletics Team Card
237 Jose Valdivielso
238 Walt Dropo
239 Harry Simpson
240 Whitey Ford HOF
241 Don Mueller
242 Hersh Freeman
243 Sherm Lollar
244 Bob Buhl
245 Billy Goodman
246 Tom Gorman
247 Bill Sarni
248 Bob Porterfield
249 Johnny Klippstein
250 Larry Doby HOF
251 New York Yankees Team Card
252 Vern Law
253 Irv Noren
254 George Crowe
255 Bob Lemon HOF
256 Tom Hurd
257 Bobby Thomson
258 Art Ditmar
259 Sam Jones
260 Pee Wee Reese HOF
261 Bobby Shantz
262 Howie Pollet
263 Bob Miller
264 Ramon Monzant
265 Sandy Consuegra
266 Don Ferrarese
267 Bob Nieman
268 Dale Mitchell
269 Jack Meyer
270 Billy Loes
271 Foster Castleman
272 Danny O'Connell
273 Walker Cooper
274 Frank Baumholtz
275 Jim Greengrass
276 George Zuverink
277 Daryl Spencer
278 Chet Nichols
279 Johnny Groth
280 Jim Gilliam
281 Art Houtteman
282 Warren Hacker
283 Hal Smith
284 Ike Delock
285 Eddie Miksis
286 Bill Wight
287 Bobby Adams
288 Bob Cerv
289 Hal Jeffcoat
290 Curt Simmons
291 Frank Kellert
292 Luis Aparicio RC HOF
293 Stu Miller
294 Ernie Johnson
295 Clem Labine
296 Andy Seminick
297 Bob Skinner
298 Johnny Schmitz
299 Charlie Neal
300 Vic Wertz
301 Marv Grissom
302 Eddie Robinson
303 Jim Dyck
304 Frank Malzone
305 Brooks Lawrence
306 Curt Roberts
307 Hoyt Wilhelm HOF
308 Chuck Harmon
309 Don Blasingame
310 Steve Gromek
311 Hal Naragon
312 Andy Pafko
313 Gene Stephens
314 Hobie Landrith
315 Milt Bolling
316 Jerry Coleman
317 Al Aber
318 Fred Hatfield
319 Jack Crimian
320 Joe Adcock
321 Jim Konstanty
322 Karl Olson
323 Willard Schmidt
324 Rocky Bridges
325 Don Liddle
326 Connie Johnson
327 Bob Wiesler
328 Preston Ward
329 Lou Berberet
330 Jim Busby
331 Dick Hall
332 Don Larsen
333 Rube Walker
334 Bob Miller
335 Don Hoak
336 Ellis Kinder
337 Bobby Morgan
338 Jim Delsing
339 Rance Pless
340 Mickey McDermott
n/a Checklist 1/3
n/a Checklist 2/4
342 total cards for the set.....100% complete
Comments
I am looking forward to seeing the progress and of course pictures of your journey. Good luck!!!
Vintage Rookies
Beautiful. It's coming along nicely. Please continue to update your progress. I hope you complete the whole set, and don't feel bad, my wife couldn't care less about my collection, except to scold me for adding on to it!😉
Its a great looking set. I wish you luck in your quest. Enjoy the journey!
Great set, last set of the "big" sized cards!
Hiya Andy
You're in good company buddy - show away!
Thanx for sharing - really nice set to do - best of luck.
Thanks for sharing. Really nice cards - that Roberts really looks undergraded.
Thanks for the kind words everyone! I love hearing about everyone else's collecting endevours I thought I may as well put this one out there too!
Not long ago, after SGC announced they were going to new holders and flips I sent a small amount of cards to them for grading as they had a very reasonable special. The cards came back and many of them, including the Roberts looked very undergraded to my eye. It seems SGC tightened their standards once again so I do plan on taking about five cards to the National this year and dropping them off at the PSA booth just for giggles. I am not a grading fanatic but if/when it comes time to sell this set (I don't plan on it...I will let me wife do that once I am gone) I will be shorting myself if I don't at least try to let PSA give me a better grade.
great start to the set. I am down to 4 cards
good luck
collecting RAW Topps baseball cards 1952 Highs to 1972. looking for collector grade (somewhere between psa 4-7 condition). let me know what you have, I'll take it, I want to finish sets, I must have something you can use for trade.
looking for Topps 71-72 hi's-62-53-54-55-59, I have these sets started
Nice partial set. If it were me I would seriously consider taking the cards out of the graded holders and having a very nice raw set since you are not planning on selling anyway. Of course if they were all 7 and 8's you wouldn't want to do it.
Good luck with your quest to complete the 56 set. I recently completed the set after about 12 years of collecting. Currently, #70 on the Set Registry.
I read in another thread where she got you with an elbow pretty good "in her sleep" recently. You sure she was asleep?
Just messin' with ya.
LOL, yeah, she was asleep. If she was awake, the elbow would have landed a little lower! 😉
The intention was to get all of the HOFers graded with the commons and remaining set to be raw but I have seen some picked up some commons that were graded for the price of raw so why not? I have thought about removing them all from slabs but I really havnt decided yet. as of right now I will probably leave them all in slabs but that may change.
Great looking cards and project. I just got into collecting cards last year and this is the first set I'm working on. I have basic completed in raw but working on completing the master PSA graded. I have a couple hundred due back from PSA around the 1st of next month and I'm pretty excited. I have quite a very duplicates and triplicate raw and graded if you ever want to do some trading hmu.
1954 Football Bowman
1956 Topps
1957 Topps
Redskins HOF Rookies
Redskins Ring of Fame Rookies
Slinging Sammy Baugh
Redskins Tickets (Stubs)
Redskins Matchbooks
I had a few recent pick ups to this set and they were all Hall of Famers. I added the Koufax, Mathews and Ashburn which brings me to a total of 25 Hall of Famers out of 32 in the set. I still have some biggies to go after and it is obviously going to take me some time to be able to afford them but I will eventually make it.
Thanks for looking!!
I think I have spent way too much money lately but my wife said I should do it so I did!!
I recently added the Clemente and Rizzuto as well as some commons to bring my total number of cards up to 81 and my Hall of Famer count up to 27 out of 32 in this set. I still need the Mantle,Mays, Jackie Robinson, Whitey Ford and Slaughter so a few of those are going to have to wait. I had hoped to be at 100 cards by the end of 2019 so I am pretty sure I will have that plus more.
Thanks for looking and the encouragement on completing this set.
Your wife said you should do it. I can only dream of such a thing. The only thing my wife says I should do, is hand her the remote.😉
She has a whole craft room filled with crap she has purchased over the years while I never bought anything. She knows she has no leg to stand on if she told me not to go for it! LOL I keep that little nugget in my back pocket for when I really need it.
Leverage. Absolutely brilliant! Nice collection by the way. I hope you get the rest of the cards you need.
Great collection!! My favorite Topps set, the design rules!!
I added the Jackie Robinson and a number of commons. This gives me all of the Hall of Famers with the exception of Mays and Mantle. Its going to be awhile before I get those so I may as well start filling in with the commons.
Thanks for looking guys!!
I thought I would bump this tonight. I am now at 114 cards and I have all of the Hall of Famers except Mantle and Mays.
My goal for 2019 was to have 100 cards and to have 75% of the HOFers in the set so I am quite a bit ahead of schedule. My 2020 goals will be to obtain the Mantle and mays and to be at 200 cards by the end of next year.
Thanks for looking.
Congrats on reaching your goal. You are building a nice set and doing it at a really fast clip!
Its been a little over a year since I started this trek to completion of this iconic Topps set and as of today I am at 75% complete. While I still need the Mantle and Mays I am blown away at how blessed I am to be able to be at this point in such short a period of time. I have used primarily money that I have made selling cards and other "stuff" we no longer need around the house to buy these cards. Since we are downsizing and looking to move within a year neither my wife nor I had any problem getting rid of things we don't need anymore so I took my portion and sunk it into this set. I was most fortunate to find a collector on the Net54 boards who cut me an awesome deal on over 50 cards, with the majority of them graded and he even graciously allowed me to put them on lay-a-way and pay him over the last five months. Those cards arrived today and they were enough to push me over the 75% mark.
The Mays I am confident I will have sometime this year along with most of the remaining commons but that Mantle is going to kill me. It's probably time to have a massive garage sale!! LOL
Thanks for looking
Congrats on reaching the 75% mark. That is really fast work. Keep posting pictures as I have enjoyed watching you work on your set. The Mantle is a major purchase and the reason I am only working in a few HOF sets! ‘56 is at even more of a premium than many others since it is his first Topps card in 3 years. Good luck the rest of the way.
Hey everyone,
Its been awhile since my last update in March and at that time I was at 75% complete and still needed the Mantle, Mays and 2/4 checklist. I am happy to report that I know have all three of those cards and currently sitting at 86% complete with mainly all commons and minors stars needed to complete this awesome set.
I wanted to give a shout out to Doug who sold me one of his Mantle cards, one of many cards he has from his childhood. I can say that I am only the second owner of this Mantle and as a guy who loves history, I think it is pretty cool that I bought the card from "that little kid" who pulled it from a pack in 1956. This card is nicely centered and has a small crease in it but for my mid-grade set it is perfect. Thanks Doug for working with me on this card.
On a side note, back in March we were all quarantined so I decided to go through some boxes I had not looked at in while and found some packs I purchased back in 2012 and just stuck them in the box. Since I am mainly a vintage collector I rarely buy packs except for a few here and there to see what that year's cards look like. I stumbled across two packs of Topps Heritage and found a Mike Trout card in it. I knew 2011 was his Topps rookie so I set this card aside and it wasn't until I looked on Ebay a few weeks later that I realized that this was his first Heritage card and raw copies were going for a few hundred bucks. Seeing that my card was pretty nice so I sent it off to be graded and it came back a Gem Mint 10. Since I had no interest in this card I knew that I could easily flip the Trout to purchase my Mantle and that is exactly what happened. I love the Mantle even more knowing that it cost me next to nothing...literally to get it due to the sale of the Trout.
Thanks for looking guys and for the encouragement as well. I am hoping to be close to complete (not worrying about variations and back colors) by the end of the year.
Nice Mantle! One of the things that I really like about it is that you can see the gently rough edges on at least three sides of the card, which make it appear to be quite pack fresh. The crease doesn't, at least to me, detract that much from a solid looking card. Congrats!
kevin
Beautiful Mantle!
Congrats on the Mantle! I have enjoyed watching your progress. Good luck on getting the rest.
Hey ever> @tulsaboy said:
HI Kevin, I totally agree with you and I would not have purchased a Mantle that was not graded but looking at this card I was reasonably confident, because of the edges that you are speaking of, that this card was untainted. The centering and edges is what sold me on this one and like you said, the crease is of no bother to me.
I appreciate your affirming my thoughts!!
Just a quick bump to show off the finished set! Thanks everyone for following along.
Absolutely Brilliant! Congrats and hats off to you!!!!!
Congratulations! What a fantastic set, and it was fun to browse through each card, almost like flipping through a virtual binder.
What an awesome and rewarding sense of accomplishment you must feel, congratulations!
Thanks for posting each card as I’m not a vintage guy so had never really looked through the full set before. It looks like you really spent considerable time looking for those examples with great eye appeal.
John
Congrats, that is an awesome set!
Kingnascar's PSA Sets
Kingnascar's PSADNA Sets
Great job! You put together a really nice set and did it fairly quickly. It was fun to watch.
Congratulations. Great set you put together
saucywombat@hotmail.com
Congrats.
One of the nicest sets ever. Its a ton of work to scan the cards yet collect all of them.
Posting here gets appreciation for sure.
1948-76 Topps FB Sets
FB & BB HOF Player sets
1948-1993 NY Yankee Team Sets
Congratulations! 1956 is an awesome set.
Congrats! Yu must be proud. Thanks for sharing.
Very cool indeed.
I personally consider the 1956 Topps set the most beautiful cards of all time. I love the profile combined with the action shot in the background. And the flourish and colors the Topps artist added to the original black & white photos really bring them to life. Congrats on completing the set and thanks for the scans.
Love it!!
I'm torn between the '55 and '56 sets....they are BOTH spectacular.
I do have one BURNING question....WHO is the Dodger on the ground at Mathews feet on this '56 Mathews?
Some say PeeWee....some say Zimmer....does anyone really know for sure?
Now you should collect the 56’ Pins.
Kiss me twice.....let's party.
Awesome job!!! Big Kudos!
Your dedication has been rewarded. Enjoy the set.
Absolutely STUNNING collection, MCcardguy. I have a few cards from this set, but seeing the entire collection truly highlights how beautiful the set it. Congratulations.