Landmark Sets?

Axtell

I was thinking that this would be a neat idea...not necessarily to have them all PSA graded, but to get people's input on what sets would be considered 'landmarks' and why...I'd like to go a little out of the box here. I'll start:

1981 Fleer and Donruss Baseball-ended Topps' near total monopoly on cards (and the fleer set is always good for a laugh...so many errors!)

1989 Upper Deck-arguably the first 'premium' card.

1993 SP/Flair-First 'high end' cards.

Would love input on other's ideas...I am going to be purchasing some MJ Roop binders, and think this would be a neat collection to have on hand.

ArtRossLives

C56 Hockey - first hockey set
T206 - its too cool
1914 Cracker Jack - first numbered set
1933 Goudey - gum cards
1948 Bowman - post WWII
1952 Topps -
1957 Topps - regular size
Death to all 'high end' sets

Stone193

Art
Great list!
Also the 1955 Bowman - Topps kills the competition by purchasing it!
The 63F baseball set - again Topps kills the competion; stopped them from producing their second series.
74T set - first set where the wax packs included all series in the same pack.

your friend
Mike

koby

1993 Topps Refractors Baseball- The first very high end inserts.

1986 Fleer Basketball - The first real offering for this sport in a long long time.

DirtyDog48

Landmark Football Sets

1952 Bowman Large-Size - The Holy Grail of sets for football collectors - beautiful artwork and almost impossible to complete.

1955 Bowman - Bowman's last hurrah before being taken over by Topps - attractive "halo" design on brightly colored backgrounds.

1956 Topps - Nice design which employs several of the identical player photos in the '55 Bowman set - significant because it is Topps' first NFL set after the Bowman acquisition.

1960 Fleer - A new kid on the block emerges to challenge Topps - fittingly, this set features players drafted by the NFL's rival American Football League - not suprisingly, the 1960 Fleer set has the highest percentage of rookie cards of any other major set.

1962 Topps - Eye-catching horizontal layout with classy black border design.....for my money, the Topps art department rolled over and went to sleep after issuing this set....in my opinion, it's the last of the true landmark football sets.

brianwintersfan

1988 Topps baseball

pandrews

if you include modern sets, you cant count out 1989 Upper Deck Baseball..

5thScaleRacer

1989 Score Football

pandrews

<< <i>1989 Score Football >>



yeah, it is now.. but when it first came out it was thought to be garbage! pro-set was the stuff everybody wanted (even me!)

phreakydancin

1951/52 Parkhurst hockey - the first post-war hockey set, packed full of HOF rookies

1954/55 Topps hockey - the end of Parkhurst's short-lived monopoly, and arguably the finest looking set ever made

1972/73 O-Pee-Chee hockey - the first set to include WHA players, a precursor to the 4 WHA sets of the 70s; also included the "so ugly they're beautiful" Team Canada inserts

56Parkies

<< <i>1972/73 O-Pee-Chee hockey - the first set to include WHA players, a precursor to the 4 WHA sets of the 70s; also included the "so ugly they're beautiful" Team Canada inserts >>



Anyone know why there wasn't a 1978-79 O-Pee-Chee WHA set? That was Gretzky's true Rookie year, and would have been a great set. Even in 1973-74 when O-Pee-Chee didn't do a card set, they did a WHA poster set (and Quaker Oats did a WHA card set that year). Card makers missed the boat on that one!

RipublicaninMass

<< <i>if you include modern sets, you cant count out 1989 Upper Deck Baseball.. >>



I agree p_, those cards were the "bomb" when the came out. The cool foil pack, nice premium cards stock. It revolutionized the card world, and made way for the 93 SP set. Just look at the other cards from 89, upper deck was by far, the best!!!

stormsurge

The 1914-1915 Cracker Jack sets get my vote!

fsjeter

<<1993 SP/Flair-First 'high end' cards.>>


'91 Stadium Club. This set raised the bar a little higher than '89 Upper Deck which paved the way for the '93 SP. I consider this the first high end modern set. They would be considerably more popular if there were any good rookies in the set.

Scott

NickM

fsjeter - Jeff Bagwell is in the set.

I would add E121 and E122 American Caramel (1st mainstream sets to feature actual photographs), 1940 Play Ball (first set to have a significant "legends" selection), '53 Bowman Color (need I say more), and '59 Fleer Ted Williams (1st major single player set).

Nick

NickM

BTW, I don't consider the M101-4 and M 101-5 Sporting News sets to be mainstream, because of their manner of distribution.

Nick

fsjeter

<<fsjeter - Jeff Bagwell is in the set.>>

True. Unfortunately there are some other key 1991 Rookie omissions from the set like Jim Thome, Mike Mussina, I. Rodriguez, Chipper Jones, and Kenny Lofton to name a few. I do like that Sammy Sosa card with the throwback Chicago White Sox uniform.

Scott

gregmadduxfan

1990 Leaf and 1992 Bowman were both very solid as well. I agree with the 93 refractor set, 93 Sp set, and of course the 89 upper deck set. The 89 upper deck set really seperated itself from the other sets that year and set the path for the future. I am also a big fan of the 84 donruss set but don't know if that is a landmark but then again it's all your personal opinion. Looking at older stuff I think the 71 topps baseball set is a great set with the black borders really helping the cards satand out (also making it expensive to get high grade cards).

Gemmy10

Gotta be the 2000 Upper Deck Yankee Master Collection. With 100+ (out of 500) complete sets broken up, and the Gazillions of young Yankee fans out there, they are sure to want one when some of them are millionares 20 years from now since their parents couldn't afford one when they were little tikes growing up rooting for Derek.

Of course I own 3 complete sets.