Building a 1970's Topps Basketball set in PSA 9?

TheCARDKid · April 19, 2003 3:28PM

So far it hasn't been done. One of my longer term projects would be to complete one in straight PSA 9. I love the 74/75 design and the player selection (not to mention the rookies), but its hard enough to find the stars in PSA 9, let alone the commons. There are only 10 Abdul Jabbar 8's, and one 9. There are less than half a dozen of most of the stars in mint condition.

I think from 76/77 onward, it would get easier with straight psa 9's. There is more unopened and vending available. Not to mention fewer cards per set.

Is anyone else considering a 70's Topps basketball set in all psa 9?

dbj77 · April 19, 2003 3:36PM

Hey, I am. I've got to finish my other vintage baskeball first. Right now I'm working on several: 1961 Fleer in PSA 7, 1961 Hawks Essex Meats PSA 8, 1972 Icee Bear PSA 9, 1968 Jack in the Box PSA 10, and 1986 Fleer PSA 9 I'm also working on some vintage baseball sets so my plate is too full right now, but I plan on doing it eventually. Good luck and if you get ahold of some unopened material I'd like to know.

Doug

TheCARDKid · April 19, 2003 5:52PM

I remember when Mark Murphy a year or two ago use to have 76/77 vending boxes for $600 or so. Considering almost 3 sets in a box, not bad. Unopened before 75/76 is tough. 71/72 is the toughest 70's topps material of the 4 sports in that decade. Dave and Adams Card world had a 73/74 box for aroud $2 grand I believe a few months ago. I think either finding raw commons or getting NM-MT sets and cherry picking the best cards is the best bet.

PROMETHIUS88 · April 21, 2003 1:35PM

i'm trying to do the 70/71 topps set in psa 8. that itself is almost impossible much less in 9 which IS impossible right now since there are 0 9's for some of these. with pops of 5 or less on some of the 8's, the prices get crazy!!! figured the maravich rc in 8 would be my most expensive, but there are several commons(including sp's) that would cost more than the maravich!!! i really think there is unlimited potential for 70's basketball sets in 8 or better as more people are realizing how great those sets look.....especially the great hair!! good luck in whatever set you choose!!! (just stay away from the 70 set.....you'll only drive up the prices!!! lol!!!) tim

Camel22 · April 21, 2003 2:17PM

Agreed. I'm trying to put together the 1969 Topps Basketball "Tall Boys" & anything that's a PSA 9 on e-bay is going for around 500%-700% of SMR value. Its unbelievable. A Chamberlain PSA 9 went for $5,000 a couple weeks ago vs. SMR's price of $875 for a Wilt PSA 9. A Jim Washington common PSA 9 went for $675 a few months back vs. $75 SMR for a common PSA 9. IMO, the toughest basketball set to put together --- even when you're lucky enough to find one of these tall boys with sharp corners, the centering was so horrible that chances are slim the card is centered correctly. The set is very, very underrated. Only 99 cards but what an awesome set.

PROMETHIUS88 · April 21, 2003 2:33PM

camel, i'm also working on the 69 set in psa 8. only have a couple as i am focusing on the 70 topps and the 86 fleer in psa 9. i do have a 69 topps goodrich psa 8 comming in the mail any day! card books for $90...i think. and i paid nearly 2x for it. the last one that sold on ebay about 1 month ago sold for over $230!! i think when i go full force on this set, i will probably have to settle for 7's and maybe upgrade over time. i'm not really even a big basketball fan, but i love the look of the tall boys!!! i may even break up my 86 fleer set to have more to spend on the 70's!!! if you have any extras of any in 7 or better of 69's or 8's in the 70 set, let me know!! might be interested if the wallet allows!! tim

TheCARDKid · April 21, 2003 5:54PM

There use to be alot of unopened wax of 70/71. I remember numerous boxes coming onto the market. It's all relative of course. Certaintly more than either 69/70, or 71/72. Has that all been opened? I think they were mostly from the 2nd series.

61 fleer is another year, where there use to be many many boxes (even a case or two of the stuff in the early 90's). Yet it's all dried up now.

Mintstateinc.com always has a nice selection of top quality 70's basketball (albeit, priced at the high end of the market).

Supply and Demand will catch up with the 69's at 500-700% SMR. Even though they are super condition sensitive, I'd wait until the dust settles to pick up some good values. It pays to be patient.

TheCARDKid · April 21, 2003 6:05PM

1968 Jack in the Box is an underrated set. The PSA 10's can be bought for next to nothing (for the stars, Hayes, etc). Because there are so many 10's relative to the 8's and 9's, it's perceived as being "too easy" and thus not desirable.

Speaking of 69's, can you imagine what the PSA 10 Alcindor Rookie would go for.

mexisar · April 22, 2003 12:27AM

I am also working on a 1969 psa 8, but this last months it seems several new buyers have emerge, with lots of money pushing some commons in psa 8 for around 200, i want to pay under 40 for commons, so i guess it is going to take me some time

I also just bought a Goodrich psa 8 for 110, i used the buy it now, since the others i have seen have gone for a lot more

I am actually collecting the rookies(listed and unlisted) of all the topps basketball sets of 1970-1981 in hopefully psa 9,(1971 and 1976 in psa 8, since psa 9 is rare in these sets)

probably i will finish the 1978 set in psa 9 since i already have all the listed rookies(working on the unlisted rookies)
i am trying to pay at most 10(commons, semi-stars) for hopefully one day finish the set, (the jabbar and maravich are hard to find in psa 9, someone was selling a whole bunch of julius erving in psa 9, some went for around 40+ , but the last ones the seller had went for over 70+, so i lost a great chance for this card.

plus i also started collecting a 1986 fleer in psa 9, i have 25% of it, but i have mostly the commons

isaias

PROMETHIUS88 · April 22, 2003 11:41AM

mexisar, i've seen you out there bidding on pretty much the same stuff as i'm buying. you aren't afraid to throw up a pretty penny for some of the stuff, but it looks like we bid against each other on a lot of the same stuff. i've noticed that some of the 86 fleer psa 9's have come down in price, but some of them have shot up about 20-30%. makes me think i should sell mine off and wait for a lull again. you are absolutely right about the 69's. there seems to be quite a few more people out there bidding on 8's driving prices to crazy levels. my only thought is that finally people are realizing how great the set is and i think it's been underpriced for a long time. hopefully some folks will get tired of waiting and some prices will come back down again. good to see you here on the boards. also, let me know if you have your sets listed in the registry...would like to compare!!! lol!! tim

dbj77 · April 22, 2003 12:02PM

Cardkid, I agree about the Jack in the Box being underrated. I bought a PSA 10 Elvin Hayes for 19.99 (plus S+H) and I was the only bidder. I like the cards, plain looking with no stats on back, but I still like them. I also think the 1972 Icee Bear set is underrated, I've been bidding on these lately too.

dbj77 · April 22, 2003 12:20PM

Hey guys
Jmullen has some 69's and 70's for sale apparently in PSA 8 or higher.

mexisar · April 22, 2003 1:48PM

Hello promethius88
i basically have just rookies, since that is my goal, before i would not bid on the 1969's , i would just notice that the commons would go for around 35,
i only have a few at most 10 so i have a long way to go
but this has always been a set i would like to complete, but i am in no rush.
yes i also believe they have been underpriced, in a way i guess this is why i collect vintage.

i also have some 1948 bowman,

i also have no rush in the 1986 fleer, i don't really know much about this set in regards to grading, other than the multiples of 11(commons) going for a premium, and the prices changing from auction to auction
of the stars i only have worthy, wilkens, dumars, and scott

the thing about the 1970's cards is that most cards only have(or had) POP of 1, so i probably over paid(specially on the 1978) on many of the rookies i have.
So now on some i have placed a bid lower(specially on the unlisted rookies) and hope to get them at a lower price in the future.

I have no cards listed in the registry at this time, but will soon, i usually depend on memory

in what I have and don't have,

at first my goal was only to get all the lakers rookies, then to get all rookies of the vintage, and now also to get some sets

Isaias

rbeaton · April 22, 2003 9:08PM

Mile High Card Co. has the following:

LOT: 214 1969 Topps Basketball High Grade Group of 27 Cards,
LOT: 215 High Grade Lot of 125 PSA graded 1970 Topps Basketball cards and
LOT: 216 1970 Topps Basketball Group of 234 High Grade Cards

Good Luck,
Robert

Davemri · April 22, 2003 11:01PM

Glad to see all the basketball collectors.

I, like mexisar, am collection just rookies. Check out my website to see my progress.

I have fallen in love with the 57's, 61's, and 69's. I now only need 2 HOF RC's from the 69 set. (Cunningham and Goodrich) If anyone has any spare 7's let me know.

dave

dbj77 · April 22, 2003 11:19PM

Dave, nice collection and nice site, check your PM's for a message from me.

Davemri · April 23, 2003 4:17AM

mexisar · April 23, 2003 5:18AM

NIce site dave,

something i should do as well, but i always have excuses, of not having time
i just realized that artis gilmore is not in the hall of fame.

several current coaches should(probably) be in the hall in the near future
phil jackson, larry brown, pat riley, jerry sloan,don nelson

have you updated the new class of the hall?
1957 Earl Lloyd RC
I also like the 1957 set , but i only have a couple(too mush $)

if i ever see those 1969 7's i will let you know

isaias

Davemri · April 23, 2003 11:17AM

Thanks for the nice comments. I know that we have went head to head on many auctions. Seems we have very similar interests. I dont have any plans for collecting coaches any time soon, but i may change my mind down the road.

There are alot of nice 57's on right now, but you are right, they are not cheap. I want to get every Rookie in that set in a psa 6 or better. $40 is about as cheap as they go. Also, there are 21 Rookie cards of HOFer's in that set counting Lloyd. I added him to my written list, but havn't added him to my website yet. Just too lazy I guess.

Do you/Are you planning on having any sets on the registry? It sounds like you would give us some stiff competition.

**Also, I wanted to mention that the basketball HOF rc set that i submitted only has 3 current participants. I want to invite everyone to join this set.
It is amazing that the football and basketball HOF RC set were listed within a month or so, and the football set currently has about 16 people and basketball only 3. I didnt realize that more people collect football than basketball. We need to show more support to basketball.

BTW..Anyone know who Redfish3 is on ebay. He also competes with me on many basketball cards.

dave

mexisar · April 23, 2003 1:17PM

hello
the thing is for me i would first buy rookies for around 10% book(ex/mt or better) ungraded
so that way i really didn't worry about over grading by the seller
i wasn't really into buying graded cards.
then i started buying 70"s rookies graded(psa, bgs, bvg) since i wanted a really nice one.
At first i wanted to get the 70's before i bought the expensive ones(57 topps, 48 bowman, ect).

but seeing that i was paying around 30 dollars for the unlisted rookies of 1978 in psa 9, made me think that for a little bit more i could be buying a nice psa 8 of 1969, ect.

the bgs i have are really nice(undergraded probably), but now this bvg is a different story, the credibility i had for that company has gone down really fast
so some of the rc cards i have are graded by beckett like julius erving , maravich, bradley,connie hawkins and erving/bird, so these can't be added to the registry

of 1957 i basically have
sharman psa 6
VERN MIKKELSEN in psa 8( i just bought)
and around 3 more.
so for this set i have a long way to go

i recently found the psa basketball HOF rc set, and this is something that i would like to do.
also the all-time lakers set, i feel this set is missing several cards that it should have.

The set that I would truly would like to complete one day is the 1971 trios(stickers) set, but these are rare to find in nice condition because of the black borders.

right now i should be saving for a trip i want to take, so i should not be buying that much(hopefully i won't be tempted)

good luck on your goals

if we see this as a project of years, we should not have a rush,
since the basketball sets have fewer cards compared to the other sports, by just getting like one card every other week, by say 5 years that will be lots of cards!!!

isaias

Camel22 · April 23, 2003 2:32PM

Another perfect example of how 1969 T BSKT commons are so undervalued by SMR........ SMR has 69 Tall Boy PSA 8 commons @ $38.....yet this auction of this PSA 8 common sits at $250 w/ over 3 days left. Another is at $207 with 3 days left. As mentioned, very undervalued and underrated.

EBAY -- 1969 Topps PSA 8 COMMON -- $250 w/ 3days left

AlanAllen · April 23, 2003 11:29PM

<< <i>
**Also, I wanted to mention that the basketball HOF rc set that i submitted only has 3 current participants. I want to invite everyone to join this set.
It is amazing that the football and basketball HOF RC set were listed within a month or so, and the football set currently has about 16 people and basketball only 3. I didnt realize that more people collect football than basketball. We need to show more support to basketball.
>>

Dave,
I think that's because the HOF set has a lot of overlap with the NBA Top 50 set. There are 13 registrants on the Top 50 set, so I wouldn't say there are significantly more people that collect football than basketball.

Joe

Dhjacks · April 24, 2003 5:13AM

Nice to see a good basketball thread with some of you I see on E-bay. After not paying any attention to basketball cards since buying packs in the '70's, I'm really enjoying these cards again. I've completely stopped buying baseball for now. Good luck to all. Don

Building a 1970's Topps Basketball set in PSA 9?

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