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75 topps commons-go figure?

I guess I'll never figure out the whys of the card game. An auction for 16 real run of the mill commons from shoeless joe closed at $140 including S/H thats $8.75 a card !! Only 1 card in the bunch had a pop. of less than 20 which I call low pop. less than 10 real low pop. 2 days earlier I picked up 5 low pop cards for less than $6.50 each GO FIGURE I understand how some cards get run up there is a #539 Jefferson card that 2 reg. members are slugging it out for now(pop.9) Just don't get that other auction. By the way hoosier if you read these boards how about 1 week I bid next week I'll let you bid? AND that Ryan card I've got 3 raw that would propably be 9's OC any one know how to fix them?image
"All my life I've been searching for something"

Comments

  • sorry were talkin 1975topps PSA8'simage
    "All my life I've been searching for something"
  • CreeperKatCreeperKat Posts: 393 ✭✭
    I'll tell you what, I'm getting pretty desperate looking for my last 6 commons I need for my 75 Angels. The price for Shoeless Joe's auction does not really surprise me.

    Looking for Los Angeles/California/Anaheim Angels in PSA 8 or better
  • mcastaldimcastaldi Posts: 1,235 ✭✭✭
    Bub> I would say that the definition of "low pop" absolutely has to depend on demand. If a card has a pop of 2 but noone wants it, does it really matter? But the other side of the coin - if a card has a pop of 1,000 and 1,500 people want it. . .

    I think it really depends on who's looking for what at a given time as well as the overall market. What certain people need also comes into play. For example, I need three cards to complete my 75 set. I could really care less about population - I'm pretty much going to do what I have to do to secure those three cards. The market pricing played a HUGE role in my decision to once again build a 1972 set. When I saw that I could regularly pick up PSA8 commons for less than $8 per, it became a pretty simple proposition. When I decided to build the 72 set again, I adopted a strategy that's proved very successful so far - be VERY aggressive on the tough cards (requires a true understanding of the particular set) and then just bottom-feed everything else. The idea is that if I pick up the really tough cards, everything else will be there when I'm ready and at an attractive price - which cannot be said about the tough cards. An effect of this should be that the last remaining cards should be easy ones - as opposed to waiting on a super-tough card to surface.

    Anyway. . .

    Mike
    So full of action, my name should be a verb.
  • VarghaVargha Posts: 2,392 ✭✭
    Mike -- that is an excellent strategy as long as you don't get caught up in bidding wars. I built my 1951 Bowman set by going strong after the difficult cards. The only thing was, that it was not so evident when I first started it. Time and diligent tracking are certainly key factors.

    As to the 75 Topps, I would imagine that impatience can build a set quickly. Yet as with many sets, impatience makes for a poor investment strategy.

    (Left out a word)
  • mcastaldimcastaldi Posts: 1,235 ✭✭✭
    David> I decided in February to do the the second go-round with 72T. In that time, there are a couple factors currently at play that is making this strategy work much better than I expected.
    1) I have the benefit of having pretty much climbed the hill on the 72 set once already. I can apply the lessons learned from the first time.
    2) With the knowledge of #1, I am much better able to target those cards which are the toughest. As opposed to cards with "population scarcity".
    3) There have been several VERY tough cards come to eBay recently, but the market has been so depressed the pricing on the toughest cards in the set have been really pretty cheap -
    Examples. . .Expos Team @ $31. . .I now have two Ken Hendersons, one at $42 and the other at $28. . .I have two Rob Gardners, one at $12 and another at $13. . .and. . .the Aaron IA, Reds RC, Holtzman, and Drabowsky have come from my own submissions. In my opinion, these are all steals since I expected to pay many times those prices in most cases.
    4) I've also found that many PSA9s can be had in the $20-$25 range.

    Time will tell if this continues, but so far the progress on the set to this point has exceeded my wildest expexctations.

    Mike
    So full of action, my name should be a verb.
  • If this is the lot you were refering to:

    Lot of 16 Different 1975 Topps Baseball PSA 8

    I was one of the bidders. Although $8.00 each and up was a little high for this lot, the size of the lot had something to do with that price - at least in my bidding. I'm willing to pay a little more per card for a larger lot because when you factor in the cost of shipping and insurance, the per card price gap closes quite a bit. If I buy singles at 5.00 each, but add 3.00 each for shipping, or a small lot of 5 cards at 6.75 each plus shipping, it's really not that far from the 8.78 per card price paid for this lot (133.50 + 7.00 shipping).
    John Vineyard

  • BasiloneBasilone Posts: 2,492 ✭✭

    Mike-

    Great posts...in fact....I have been doing that with the 1965's that I have started back up again. Luckily for me there have been a couple of guys who have broken up their complete sets in the past month. Ive been able to pick up 75 cards so far in the last 30 days but have place 300+ snipes to "bottom feed". Some I win some I do not but I know that those cards will always be on the market. I make my "strong plays" with the cards that I do not come on the market every day. I have been in the 1965 market since Feb 2002...so prior knowledge of cards and the bidding habits of fellow collectors has really helped me this second time around the block.

    John
  • WabittwaxWabittwax Posts: 1,984 ✭✭✭
    1975 Topps is really a remarkable set. The popularity of it amazes me being one of the newer "vintage" sets. Lately I've been grading lots of 1975's and I have had no problem at all selling any of the cards, even PSA 8's with a Pop 50+. I've graded about 400 of them so far this year and I know guys like DSL have submitted tons and the demand is still there. I think people are climbing on the the 1975 Topps set as fast as they are being submitted. Soon the registry will have over 100 people making that set. I myself may even make that set someday because it's my birth year and probably my favorite set for appearance.
  • mcastaldimcastaldi Posts: 1,235 ✭✭✭
    Steve> The 75 set has a few things going for it that do make it a VERY attractive set to build -
    1) It's probably the only set that can really be called both "vintage" and "modern" - it has most of the HOFers from the 60s, has an excellent batch of rookie cards and it also has the last cards of Gibson & Killebrew.
    2) It is challenging to find cards in high-grade, but plentiful enough to make the search for high-grade cards a reasonable adventure
    3) Price - run-of-the-mill PSA8 commons have never been very pricey. Of course, low pop examples and occasional eBay silliness causes an exception or two, but in general 75T are really affordable.
    4) Availability - dealers are seeing some demand and are considering them to be old enough where they're starting to actually bring high-grade raw 75s to shows
    5) Among the 70s sets, 75s are one of the tougher sets to pick out the PSA8s and 9s from raw cards. If you're successful submitting raw 75s, you're probably going to be pretty successful submitting other cards from the 70s.
    6) There are only 660 cards. As opposed to the 700+ card sets of 70-72 and 78-80.
    For collectors looking to build a set that is challenging and attainable, 75T is a very attractive set. I think the numbers in the set registry reflect that.

    Mike
    So full of action, my name should be a verb.
  • Mike,

    I can't believe you picked up that Expos card for $31. That's one tough card. Two years ago, it probably would have sold for $100+.
    Please visit my eBay auctions at gemint
  • mcastaldimcastaldi Posts: 1,235 ✭✭✭
    John> I was definitely surprised at that. Suffice it to say the snipe I had in place was significantly higher than that. There are 7 PSA8s now with one 9 - but - it's a card you NEVER see come up on eBay. The Henderson as well. There are 7 of those with one 9. There's no rational explanation why I've been able to buy two of them on eBay for an average of about $35. It just left me to wonder if I'm the only one who's actually serious about building the 72 set right now.

    Mike
    So full of action, my name should be a verb.
  • gaspipe26gaspipe26 Posts: 1,614 ✭✭✭
    Right now I use a similar approach with 1969's. No tough card will go cheap. I'll stockpile them. The easier cards, they'll always be available.
  • Gaspipe,
    Just go into your garage for all the tough ones.Dont you have em all in there?
  • Hey Vargha, what you goin' to do with those 9's your gobbling up? image
    "All my life I've been searching for something"
  • VarghaVargha Posts: 2,392 ✭✭
    Who me?
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