1977 Baseball Set Project
bgr
Posts: 1,610 ✭✭✭✭✭
Building a graded PSA 8+ 1977 Topps set. For-fun, Not-for-profit.
My goal is to only use cards that I pull from vending or packs and self-submit for grading.
To get the ball rolling I put aside about 300 cards from 5 vending boxes for review and then separated those into 3 categories.
- Better than 8
- 8
- Maybe 8
I put the 8 Better than 8 category aside and split my 8s and maybe 8s into 3 Orders based on series.
Order 1 Histogram.
3x MINSIZE
8x PSA 6
13x PSA 7
17x PSA 8
7x PSA 9
1x PSA 10
I also had 8 cards that I screwed up on because they had wax on the surface and I forgot to remove it before submitting.
8x PSA 4 & 5
I also had 1 team card in this order that got a PSA 5 on. I didn't think it would get an 8, but I like the team cards. The MINSIZE cards are all less than 1mm short on one of the sides, so I have questions about PSA's requirements.
I thought there were a few cards which had a shot at a PSA 10 in this order... a very outside shot. This wasn't one of them.
Here are the rest which came back above expectations. A few of these were also from the "maybe 8" pile.
Comments
The Carew looks awesome. This was one of the first sets I collected as a kid. 77 Topps baseball are very hard to find in NM-MT or better condition. One of my buddies has between 1500-2000 commons from this year that he pulled straight from packs and immediately put into plastic sheets. Months ago we looked through the cards and could only find 42 cards that look like they might receive a PSA 8.
Exceptions.
This Rawly had the print lines at the top, but when I sent it in the upper-left corner wasn't mangled. I had this as "maybe 8".
I had this leaders card as a "maybe 8" but I think I was overly optimistic.
I missed the right edge ding.
Here's another miss and some PSA damage. Top left edge has a nick. This should not have been a "maybe 8" with the back centering.
Another miss on back centering.
I started wondering if I mixed up a pile.
This one still looks like an 8 to me, but I'm happy to have it in a 6 slab all the same.
This one also looks fine. Maybe a PD ding...
Team card
I think they bopped you kinda hard for top-to-bottom centering on those 6's.
Gobble.
I'm a big fan of the 77s, and that Chet is great. I've always thought the photos were so different from 76 or 78 and loved how so many are posed.
I've sent in a ton over the past few years too and you've done better than me. I've also seen a lot of MinSize returns on the 77s from Vendings. Not really sure why that seems to be so common in that year.
Good luck on your set. So many of this year are off-center or have rough edges/corners. The cardboard is so soft and damages so easily.
Just a little under, but some nice looking 7s.
Upper left corner on Tito got dinged! I had this as a solid 8.
Here's one that I thought was also a solid 8, but without that little bit of diamond-cut may have had a shot at a 9.
8s are great... for vintage.
I have had much better luck with vending compared to wax. I save my wax boxes for when I run out of kindling. Though, I did open a 1979 OPC baseball wax box a couple months ago and it was amazing. Ted was laughing, but it turned out OK.
79 OPC and 79 Topps are in the queue.
Those Shellz penny sleeves that UFFDAH showed off in his thread have saved me so many card dings... they're awesome.
I think you did very well on this batch considering the current state of grading.
Congrats on the 8's, 9's and 10 for the set build - good luck with it!!
I love 1977 Topps. Great cards. Good luck with the set.
judging by how your six and sevens graded cards look i can see that my personal raw set is a nm to a exmt grade set. i do not think i have that many eight grade cards in my raw set. thank you for showing your graded cards and good luck in getting more to complete your set.
Nice sub. Love 77's -
Munson and Guidry are hot 9's if you can get lucky!
I just got back a 20 card 1977 submission, like yours mine came from vending. It was a test submission.
1-8
15-9
4-10
This was a blast to read! Keep them coming.
Those are great results. Sometimes you get a really good vending box where they're almost all bangers. That's why I love vending so much. Most of my subs are from 2 of the 5 vending boxes.
I think the main difference between the 7s and 8s is centering for the most part, especially top to bottom.
Order #2. Must be a quota that 3 cards are rejected for minsize. I measured all of these and 1 of them is actually 0.5mm too large T/B and exactly 2.5" L/R. Unless they mean thickness I don't know what to say.
Anyways. Order #2 histogram 6,7,8,9 (No 10s)
Let's get the overachievers out of the way... These were all supposed to be 8s anyways!
This Bobby Valentine is incredible front and back.
Jerry Royster Rookie Cup. I had this as a maybe 8 because of the ink smudge (upper left) and a small stain (back bottom edge). Aside from those 2 blemishes it was a 9 so I was happy to see it as a 9. You just never know with PSA.
Nice project bgr, I’m thinking of doing the same thing with 82 topps when I retire. Unfortunately I probably have 5 more years. I have a stack of around 50 cards and quite a bit of unopened.
Good luck on your set, you’ve already posted a lot of beautiful cards. 👍
PSA 6 - but really nice 6s
This one might be a little miscut - this one slipped past me. Lots of 77s which are not quite rectangles.
Another team card I couldn't resist. If they were sharp and the entire image was on the card I think I sent it in.
This Bill Castro looks better than a 6. Back centering is good as well. It's quite possible that some of these need to go back for review.
I think this one is upside down. I think this is closer to a 9 than a 6. Safe in a slab though is the important part.
This must be submitter error. Not sure what I saw in this card, but it's from the "maybe 8" pile and is not ever going to be an 8.
13 total misses isn't too bad.
The Castro and most of the 6’s are way off top to bottom. Take one of your 9’s and compare the bottom of the card to the Castro.
You're correct of course. The Castro, along with all of the cards, are measured by software and this one was borderline at 64%/36% T/B. I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining - I don't really care about the actual grades. I'm after a nice looking set before a high grade set - I just like throwing shade at PSA.
Those are some very nice 9s. Very cool.
As for the MinSize, I've had a ton come back this year and I also haven't been able to figure out what the deal is. Most are even a bit larger which the MinSize thing even more odd.
I chalk it up to them using computer assistance as a crutch and not actually thinking about it as an individual.
I’ve got about another 10-12 thousand more to go thru with anywhere between 1 and 100 or so of most cards. I just get bored and bug eyed going thru them all. I usually weed out all the OCs and junk them as I go. 98% were from a vending cases I opened 30+ years ago. At least I put everything in number order. Maybe I’ll send in another 100 or so when the next 70s special comes around
Please keep us updated if you make another submission. I probably opened 20 boxes from this year when I was a kid. For $2 I could play there games of pinball, get an ICEA, but a couple of comics, and three packs of baseball cards. Great time to be alive.
Fun thread -- good luck with your set, bgr! It ooks really nice so far and thanks for sharing the ride. '77 Topps is definitely a tough set in terms of paper stock, as others have mentioned, and also a bitch when it comes to centering. Your set looks really solid in the centering department.
The Mark Fidrych rookie card is one of my favorite cards ever, so I'll be looking forward to the grade you get on #265. Hopefully you can land a 9 or 10 on that one.
I can’t download the pictures to my phone but if you want to see the 10’s the certain are
95666179
95666186
95666187
95666188
Correction, I did get 1 minisized, I overlooked it originally so 1 less 9
They were pretty tough on you I think
Those centered "7's" are 8's every day of the week back in the "Old Days" - maybe even 8.5's (its too tough to see the corners enough to know if they're "9's" - but I agree with harnessracing. The pinched you but good!
Reporting grades like that - they (PSA) should be worried about anybody even thinking about submitting sets or near sets for grading in this tight environment.
sjjs28@comcast.net
Collector of 1964 Topps Stand Ups, 1965 Embossed, 1968 Topps Game and 1969 Topps Decals
Registered Sets: 1964 Stand Ups, 1965 Embossed, 1968 Topps Game, 1969 Topps Decals
It's a $10K entry at 660 cards at $15 all-in just to grade, which used to be $3K in the 2000 & most of 2010s.
I wish you all the best and money is relative but I think the ship has sailed in trying to build a large complete vintage set at today's grading prices - not to mention the volatility in grading consistency.
To put it in perspective I bought a large bulk of 1978 SGC 96 or "9" cards at $3 a piece a few years back. I'm at ~80% complete it's nearly impossible to find the cards needed, let alone at a good price in SGC grade & I'm lukewarm on getting them in PSA - I basically gave up.
There's 11 1977 PSA sets at 100% and only 2 of them average above "9". There's 9 more sets between 70% and 99%, whereby 6 are over 9.00 grade.
I would have to imagine that if one could compile a 100% graded set above "9" grade it would easily bring six figures with 1/2 being "10"s -- maybe?
1977 card stock is fragile compared to 1978, another factor.
Edited to add: I emphasize that I wish you the best & I don't want to discourage you but things are different now than doing this pre-pandemic or earlier...
Erik
I break even on the 14-9s I just got back. I make out on the 4-10s
I most likely won’t send in another batch unless the grading is deeply discounted which doesn’t look like that will happen
I totally get that it’s not a profitable exercise. I just enjoy sourcing my own boxes, ripping them, and submitting. I figure it will take me years to finish this set.
I’ve got another 120 77s to post before I switch to 79s that I have ready for sub. This winter I’m going to open another stack of 77 vending. Fun fun fun.
Great thread and sweet cards. They were harsh on those cards for sure.
Great 8!
This is what scares me. My 20 were no better or worse than these and I got mostly 9’s and 4-10’s with only 1 8
It can be pretty frustrating. I opened a few 1968 topps baseball cello packs last year and submitted a few to get a feel for PSA on the issue and I got some 4s which I thought were 8s. I have another 30 or so cello packs but I might just grade the packs if they don't know how to grade properly.
Here are some of the ones which just perplexed me.
The surfaces have no issues. I got some 7s and 8s but I think, for the most part, they're incorrectly graded.
Pure insanity. You have some of the best 4's and 5's in history. PSA needs to provide grading notes when incidents like this happen. I have seen ample 8's with printing defects, a worn corner, and bad centering and your cards all look better.