1971 Topps and PSA 7 grades; Set Building

RayBShotz

You have to go back to, perhaps, 1957 before you can find any real pricing respect at auction for PSA 7 or NRMT quality cards. Yes there are exceptions on a card by card basis, and for a number of the highly desired star cards such as Mantle, but all in all PSA 8 seems to be the grade of choice for most collectors post 57'.
You can, however, make an arguement that as a whole 1971 Topps baseball more than holds its own in PSA 7 grade. Lets face it, the black borders are just murder. (Some would like to make a similar arguement for 1962 Woodgrain difficulty but I believe the woodgrain can sometimes hide as well as it can expose an edge or corner flaw, a characteristic you dont acquire with "The Black Death".

My question is this. Does the relative strength of 1971 PSA 7 grade cards today accurately represent the eventual status and strength of price these cards will maintain 2,3 or 10 years from now?
Or is it's strength just a result of the passionately high prices for PSA 8 examples and the average set builder lowering his target due to their inability to reasonably finish an 8 set on an average budget?

I am not (yet) in on the action for 71's. I have always professed that a NRMT card is an outstanding card, that pre-PSA, any collector would have been, very likely, proud to own. Interested to hear your thoughts on this issue.

As an aside to all this; In 1971 I was 12 years old. I can remember buying those first 6 or 8 packs of 71' Baseball and soon thereafter thinking it was just not cool to collect baseball cards anymore. The book on childhood was coming to a close. In the last 5 years I have continued the journey with the urgings of the PSA graded card phenomena and my friends right here. Luvin' every minute of it!
RayB69Topps

Robby

RayB , My quess is that the '71s in Psa 7 will hold their value at the current SMR and in 5 to 10 years , the price of a '71 Psa 7 should go up dramatically as more and more cards are submitted for grading and collectors start seeing the hugh disparity of high grade cards in relation to the '60s and '70s years ( excluding 1962 as you said and I agree that '71s are much more unforgiving because of the black borders ) !!!!! I collected all the '71 Team Cards- League Leader - W.S. Cards - and purchased some Star and Minor Stars in the early '90s ( Purchased alot of them From Johnny Adams Baseball Cards in Wisconsin thru phone bids - does anybody know if they still are in business ? ) I would guess that most of them might grade out to at least Psa 7 + 8s ????? Too bad you grew up and quit buying them ! As for me , I think the last year I bought cards was 1967 Topps Baseball and it was just one pack , I was a Sophmore in H.S. , sastified my curiousity about what they looked like , and decided it was just kid's stuff to be wasting my money on ! Sorry for the rambling on ! Robbie

Buccaneer

<< <i>in 5 to 10 years , the price of a '71 Psa 7 should go up dramatically as more and more cards are submitted for grading and collectors start seeing the hugh disparity of high grade cards in relation to the '60s and '70s years >>



Can you clarify that, please?

Robby

<< in 5 to 10 years , the price of a '71 Psa 7 should go up dramatically as more and more cards are submitted for grading and collectors start seeing the hugh disparity of high grade cards in relation to the '60s and '70s years >>



Can you clarify that, please? Buc , This is just my opinion , and in no way am I a guru on predicting the future , be it baseball cards or the stock market ! I KNOW we are talking about Psa 7 's , but if you look at the Pop. reports for the following years of Pas 10's graded starting with 1960 ( 14 ) - 1961 ( 83 ) - 1962 ( 31 ) - 1963 ( 34 ) - 1964 ( 57 ) - 1965 ( 40 ) - 1966 ( 38 ) - 1967 ( 61 ) - 1968 ( 917 ) - 1969 ( 243 ) - 1970 ( 84 ) and for 1972 ( 244 )............ TOTAL OF 10's for 1971 ( 25 ) THE lowest # of 10's except for 1960 and we are talking about a fairly modern vintage set ! Compare the toatal number of graded grades of 1962 ( 41,438 ) to 1971 ( 42,392 ) .......... 1962 has 1,420 Nines........ 1971 has 1,393 Nines .......1962 has 15,524 Eights ..........1971 has 21,872 (more 8's).............1962 has 13,478 Sevens..........1971 has 14,739 ( pretty close ) I only compare the 62's to the 71's because of there toughness on borders ! IF the SET REGISTRY really takes off , and more and more mainstream collectors start collecting slabbed cards and trying to complete graded sets , I JUST FEEL THAT , the 1971 set has a lot of potential to be one of the toughest sets to complete in high grade , and if enough people attempt to vie for completing it , Psa 7's in 1971 will do very well ! Again , only my opinion ! Robbie

Buccaneer

Thank you, I am wanting to learn how to accurate read and interpret the Pop report.

Buccaneer

Which brings up a point. If the Set Registry do become more popular (as well as the bias towards graded cards), wouldn't the pop of all vintages increase? Would the prices remain the same due to the same distribution of percentages we see now or will the increase in supply lower the prices?