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Topps 1970 PSA 8 Commons and 7&8 Stars

I have decided to tackle this set. Any advice would be appreciated since this is my first PSA set I'm going to build.

Thanks,
Scott

Comments

  • Well, I have collected this set for quite some time, and I will try to give some advice. I am across the world on a business trip, so please forgive any syntax errors I may have. What I have found as general rules in collecting this set are as follows:

    1) The hardest cards to find in good condition in general are the all-star cards which are from (I believe) the Series 3 boxes. I have opened up a few of the Series 3 boxes and getting a well centered all-star card frequently seems to be more of a case of the printing maching malfunctioning rather than functioning properly, particuarly for stars like Rose or Bench.

    2) Although SMR would suggest that the high number cards are more expensive / valuable, I have personally found it more difficult to find quality raw cards from the first to fourth series - by this I mean cards that I think would grade 8 or 9

    3) The hardest cards in the set for me to find were as follows (in no exact particular order, but they were hard): 1 - Mets Champions (high pop but very popular card because of all of the crazy Mets fans across the river); 7 - Indians Rookies, horrible centering back and front; the checklists in general plus variations - but particularly the lower number ones; 536 Mike Kekich, I do not know why, got a good one early and the only one I have seen; than there are a few high number commons which are a pain - 638 Frank Bertania, 662 Frank Lucchessi - maybe the printer did not like the name Frank - just kidding - see 661 Jerry Robertson and my all time bane other than the 53 Bowman Whitey Lockman for finding a well-centered card, the Johnny Bench AS

    4) The stars in this set are easy to find, with perhaps the only exception in my experience being good copies of the Thurman Munson and Vida Blue rookie cards.

    5) There are a lot of great dealers and collectors of this set, many of whom I will probably forget and get nasty messages from, but these are names that come to hand even when my memory does not work well as I am tired: Keith Abrahms, Frank Bakka, Steve Hart at baseball card exchange, Chris Klinger, Peter Lalos, setbuilders, Chris Klinger, Andy Madec, and many others if you go to EBAY and search.

    This is a much easier set than 1971 so enjoy

    all the best

    chris
    Collector of baseball PSA sets from the 1970's & hockey rookie cards; big New York Rangers fan (particularly now that they are sleeping with the enemy with Holik and Kaspiritus). Also starting to collect 53 Bowman Color as I think they are the most beautiful cards I have seen.
  • bobsbbcardsbobsbbcards Posts: 3,254 ✭✭✭
    Hi Chris,
    Thanks for the excellent information. I have a beautiful '70 set but all raw. I bought it years ago from Steve Wolter who must have gotten it in the year of issue since it looked like a brick in its 800 count box (only taken out by a little old lady on Sunday's).

    The thing about it was, every card in the 1st series is almost miscut top to bottom (all high). Every other series was great. Has always made me wonder...was this set from vending and do vending boxes/sets always come from the same printing sheet? Seems to make sense. If I was gathering cards for vending (and I was Topps) I would see no reason to take cards from different printing sheets.

    I bought the set so long ago that I actually had second thoughts about buying it based on the centering of the series. Now that we are in PSA (like BC and AD but a whole new era) I would only have to get a few PSA 9s and 10s out of the rest of the set to pay my cost ($2 grand).

    Any info you could give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
    Bob

    P.S. your plane spinning around has made me dizzy
  • Thanks for the responce. I choose this set because it is the year of my birth. It will probably take me forever to complete.

    Anybody do good with buying ungraded cards off ebay and submitting them to PSA and getting a 8 or greater. I'm feel good about buying the PSA 8's already graded but am unfimilar with getting older cards graded. That and the membership to PSA is not cheap.

    Thanks,
    Scott
  • Scott,
    Chris is clearly the foremost collector of this set. Some of his comments are directly related to the PSA 11 set that he has put together.
    My advice would be:
    1) Buy slabbed cards instead of submitting.
    2) DON"T overpay. Many of the cards can be had for less than SMR on a regular basis. There was a post on the board a few weeks ago about 70 T BB in PSA 8 and the complaint was he couldn't give them away. In those grades, it is a buyer's market.

    Travel safe Chris, there are nutjobs out there.
    Fuzz
    Wanted: Bell Brands FB and BB, Chiefs regionals especially those ugly milk cards, Coke caps, Topps and Fleer inserts and test issues from the 60's. 1981 FB Rack pack w/ Jan Stenerud on top.
  • gaspipe26gaspipe26 Posts: 1,614 ✭✭✭
    I have a few of the 1st series low pop 8's if you wan. Email me at rjc012661@aol.com
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