1964 & 72 Topps Baseball - My first attempt

TheDoctor

Hello - After 20 plus years away from collecting (other than the odd box here and there) I decided to get back in and start with a St. Louis Cardinals 1964 team set in 8 or better. This only fueled the fire and now I am working on complete sets of 64 and 72 and I still haven't finished my 64 Cardinals yet (that Javier card is tough to find).

My question is, outside of ebay, what other avenues to you suggest to find psa8's or better. I've went to two cards shows this spring but 98% of the dealers don't carry the cards I need. Maybe two dealers a show will have any PSA cards and one of them is usually at twice the price of recent auctions.

Any suggestions?

Do to a limited budget I have mainly worked on just the first hundred from each set and I'm getting pretty close with the 72, but some of those cards just don't come up on ebay (or haven't in the last few months).

Thanks for any help.

lostdart58

I am a collector of 72 Topps and have been rapidly moving up the registry list (from 47th on December 1st to 11th today). Thats 62 cards on December 1st to almost 550 cards today.

80 % of the cards i bought on ebay. The other 20% I bought from members of this board.

In these 5 plus months I have seen just about every card om EBAY but not all, but it is only a handfull of cards that I have not seen. Other cards came up but due to demand were just too costly.

Try to buy some lots even if you already have a few of the cards in the lots and then turn around and sell them back on ebay.

Most commons in PSA 8 can be had for between $6 and $10 (plus S/H) on Ebay. Buying in lots will save on the S/H.

If you are interested i have about 30 PSA 8's dups which i am about to put up on ebay.

Is your set in the registry for me to look to see which cards you may need?

If not, I can PM you with a list of cards that I have....

Regards and good luck

Jami

VMFA115

Just want to say the same thing...I have been able to find almost every card on ebay. Additional cards are often available, but usually in 9 and at higher cost, on the numerous on-line auctions (Mastro, MileHigh, etc.). If you want, PM me and I will send you my list of the more popular auctions. The best way to deal with them, I have found and as was mentioned, is to buy lots. Sometimes that can save you 50% or more per card. FYI, I do not collect 72's but do collect 64's and have many dup 8's (see Cryer64 on the registry). I would be glad to help if I can.

Good luck,

Dave

Lothar52

Without ebay, we would still all be collecting 1991 topps (not the DS version)...heehehee

Buccaneer

Of all of the sets of the 1960s, I love the design of the 1964 the best. So simple yet so stunning. Take a look at these two cards to see why:



Good luck, you chose wisely.

TheDoctor

Thank you all for the comments and the advice.

My two sets are both listed under "The Doctor's 1964 set" and "The Doctor's 1972 set", both are ranked in the 30's, about 15% of the way complete. I have very few of the major stars, but the commons in the front 100 are coming along and of course my Cardinals.

I've never sent any cards in for grading, but I do have a couple hundred 1964 commons that I need to dig out and see if any are worth grading. I think I bought them back in the late 70's or early 80's, now I just have to find the right 5000 count box. Most of my cards are from the mid 70's but I do have some older cards with personal connections (players my grandpa knew Joe Tinker, Luke Easter, etc). I did find about 5 years ago in my closet, eight unopen cello 1981 football packs that I am soooooo tempted to open to see if I have a Montana rookie.

Very few things better than opening a pack of cards.

Thanks again.

lostdart58

Doctor,

I have the following PSA 8 for your 72 set available for sale:

31, 56, 107, 110, 124, 159, 194, 214, 274, 275, 286, 290, 318, 334, 337, 359, 389, 392, 417, 422, 456, 472, 486, 515, 546, 561, 664, 762, 768, 769

$7.00/each plus S/H

Jami lostdart58

TheDoctor

Jami - Thanks for the offer, sounds great to me. Please let me know how you would like to proceed. Thanks again.

lostdart58

<< <i>Jami - Thanks for the offer, sounds great to me. Please let me know how you would like to proceed. Thanks again. >>



Either turn on your PM feature here (profile page) or email me at jpfister@viaccess.net and we can discuss.

Jami

marz

stick to 9's and 10's so you don't toss your money away when you go to sell these!

lostdart58

<< <i>stick to 9's and 10's so you don't toss your money away when you go to sell these!

>>



I wish I could afford a bunch of 9's.......................and 10's??? Forget about it at $150- $200 a pop!!

Stingray

I agree, trying to find a 10 from the 64 will cost you a mint. I collect 67s and have seen only a few PSA 10 ever go on Ebay and they are commons and still go for $500+++ Even PSA 9s are going for over $60-$100++ depending on what series it is in. I am trying to stick with 8s and 9s (when I get a good deal). I am thinking of even going down to 7s to save some costs. I am not trying to build the best set, just finish the darn thing.

Stingray

FB

Doc,

Thats a nice deal on the 8's and a GREAT deal on the high #'s. Buy them raw at a show and they'll cost you $8 - $16 apiece and then grading will run you another $6 or so. Good luck with both sets. They're two of my favorites.

Couple words of advice from someone who has finished a 72...

Slow and steady... make a game of it.... Guys can easily win 100 to 200 cards a month if they wanted to without breaking a sweat... But, they'll pay 50% more than they should and they'll see cards that they bought for $20, sell for $12 the following week. Be the guys who wins the $12 one...

Make friends on the board... like you found out with lostdart - there are deals out there that aren't on eBay.

Don't get into bidding wars... figure out a price, set a snipe bid and ignore the warning messages that you're bid has been exceeded. These cards are not that rare...

Save shipping costs buy looking at shipping cost before you bid.... An $8 card isn't so cheap when you get an invoice for $13 including shipping.

Look for either lots or large runs of 72's from the same dealer. You can afford to raise your bid by $1 apiece on these because youu'll save it on shipping.

And most of all - have fun with it... If collecting starts becoming a chore - then you're better off dumping the set and focusing on something else.

TheDoctor

I'd love to do 9's but all 8's in the 64 set is the goal and it's real tough to bid $70 on a Hal Reniff 8 common when the Lou Brock 8 is going for the same price, scarcity sure drives up the price. I'm afraid I may have to settle for a couple of 7's, just due to the price, but I have time and I'm along way worrying about at when i'm only 15% of the way through.

A question for the 72 collectors - How often do the variations of Pizarro, Bonham and company cards come up? I've only seen one Pizarro green and that was a 9 that went for about $100.

TheDoctor

FB - Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it. I got back into collecting for the fun and working on the 64 cardinals set sure has mushroome out. It sure can be an expensive hobby, but I enjoy it and my wife loves breaking open packs. On road trips we'll look through the local yellow pages and find a card store and she'll buy a box and bust it open while I drive. She put together a complete Topps Hockey gold set (one card per pack) in Lindros rookie year, by basically busting packs and picking up the odd card at shows.

lostdart58

<< <i>

A question for the 72 collectors - How often do the variations of Pizarro, Bonham and company cards come up? I've only seen one Pizarro green and that was a 9 that went for about $100. >>



Doc,

I was able to pick up a PSA 8 green Pizarro early by accident or luck i realize now......... I have not seen a Bonham at all in either......the Beckert I have in yellow PSA 9 and seen in green.....it wasn't cheap........the James i have only seen in yellow, and only once............. I am a little annoyed that you can only put one of the variations in your set.

I have not had any dealings with Mr Bakka, but of course he is the ultimate authority when it comes to 72 Topps. Him mentioning my name in this thread is indeed an honor.

I have had many dealings with Dave Read (including one today) who is another First class collector of 72 Topps, and may I say that he is as straight a shooter as they come and has been helping me complete my set.

Jami

I did find a Bohnam and a james both yellow available on ebay tonight......................hopefully no one else will find them LOL

FB

Jami,

Ultimate authority my A%&... I've just been active on the 72 set longer than most. Its been a lot of fun along the way - meeting a great bunch of guys. The first generation of 72'ers to hit 90+% are mostly on to other things (Jarvi, Downey, Aponte, Castaldi and me). The 2nd generation has pretty much moved on to other sets as well except for a couple (Read, Emard, Wedge, Montero, Olander and Castaldi again). The 3rd generation made some nice progress (Wolfe, Horton, Wagner, Vitale and few others) and now we're probably in the 4th round of 72 collectors making their way up the ranks.

As you mentioned - the 72 1st series Cubs green variations don't come up that often. If you want them - check out EVERY 1st series Cub that comes up on eBay (Green or Yellow or not mentioned). Because PSA has not done a good job at labeling them properly. So, the pop reports for those cards are way off and they're mislabled quite often. I've even had to send back ones that I've distinctly marked as "Yellow Variation" on the invoice and they come back as "Green". The James is the toughest of the 4. I still only have a yellow one and only in PSA 8. I picked up the Juan Pizarro "Green" in PSA 10 for under $200 because the ad didn't specify which one it was. And I can tell you that it was one of the few auctions that I was nervous about right up until it closed.

Frank

smallstocks

I wasn't even aware of the variation in the '72 series. I just pulled out an old box of doubles from the original cards I bought in packs as a kid and there it is - one Pizarro green, one Pizarro yellow. Ditto Bonham. Ditto James. The cards are not in good shape though. So which are normally more valuable?

Mike

lostdart58

<< <i>I wasn't even aware of the variation in the '72 series. I just pulled out an old box of doubles from the original cards I bought in packs as a kid and there it is - one Pizarro green, one Pizarro yellow. Ditto Bonham. Ditto James. The cards are not in good shape though. So which are normally more valuable?

Mike[/qThe green are the tougher version.

FB

If I still had my cards from childhood - I'm sure that I'd be horrified at the condition. I spent more tim buidling card forts and flipping and flinging them with my cousin than I care to think about.

And yes - the Green are probably the rarer by a 8 or 10 to one margin when I've had a chance to go through large volumes of raw.

smallstocks

I think I still have 100% of every card I ever purchased since I was a kid and began buying them in 1970. The only thing I lost track of somewhere along the line was the 1971 Topps Coins. And I really loved them too .

Mike

TheDoctor

I have all of my cards except three that I sold when I was out of work, a Joe Morgan rookie, a Robin Yount rookie and a George Brett rookie. Of all of them, I wish I had the Yount back, it may have been a 10 it was a beauty of a card. As a raw card I got $200 for it in 1990. But the three of them got me through the month.

I did misplace a shoebox of Topps Basketball the year that the cards came three players per card. Every year I tell my mom, not to pitch any boxes without looking at it first - I want that rookie card of Bird/Johnson/Ervin back!

TheDoctor

Jami - Thanks for the cards, I received them this afternoon. This lot should bump me up a few spots on the list

I saw you were the winner of the two Cubs that you mentioned, very nice.

Thanks again and good luck.