opinions please.....and I know this is the place to find them

mccardguy1

well after a few years of trying to put various vintage sets together and then selling them I have been trying to find something I can afford and actually have fun doing and hopefully not lose the fun of the chase. So here is my thoughts and I was looking for opinions on this idea.

I have been on the bay looking over graded star cards from the 70's, 80's and early 90's. (mainly 1990 leaf and 1992 bowman.) I have seen that especially for the 80's and 90's graded 9 and even 10 star cards are extremely affordable, or so it seems. Is there a reason for this??

Now my question. I have toyed with the idea for a long time of identifying the main cards from each year and decade to collect.......say 1990 Leaf I would pursue the Thomas rc, Griffey and the rest of the higher up stars in PSA 9 or 10. Basically going down the smr and looking for the key cards in each of the sets and buying a nice mint or gem mint copy of them. Right now I cant see putting alot of money in commons that are slabbed but later on when the finances dictate maybe I can identify one of these sets I really want to go after and I would be miles ahead by having the key cards. Has anyone done this??? Does it make sense for me to be buying a PSA 9 1983 Topps Johhny Bench for 10 bucks (or whatever the cost!!) . Would I be throwing money away by taking this approach??

I know all about "just have fun with it...blah blah blah" and thats what I intend to do. But I really dont think anyone who buys slabbed cards wants to think he will lose his shirt someday and I certainly dont want to throw money down the toilet. But this does seem to be fun and a challenge and at the same time maybe I will not get bored with throwing together a 660 card set and being outbid on a Toby Harrah common for 20 bucks. (not that there is anything wrong with a 660 card set that has Toby Harrah in it!!)

Let the opinions fly!!! please!

calleocho

It sounds like you want to collect plastic.

You can buy lots of 100 cards for 10 dollars ..its cheap and fun

modern cards are simply too plentiful...dont get me wrong, i own a bunch lol.

If you have a tight budget , then the more reason to use it wisely...

BugOnTheRug

there are no opinions on this board.

Wabittwax

One thing that I always thought would be fun and cheap is to collect Topps Hall of Famer cards only from a particular decade. For instance if you are doing the 1980's, you would collect every Topps Ozzie Smith card graded, every Topps George Brett Card graded, every Topps Nolan Ryan card graded, etc.. So in the end, you wouldn't have every single 1989 Topps card graded, only the HOF'ers from that set, along with the HOF'ers from 1988 Topps, 1987 Topps, etc.. You would have no more than 10 cards of any particular HOF'er. Nice thing is, 4SC and others dump that stuff all the time for next to nothing. ALso, by using only Topps cards, you could do it from any decade and you wouldn't have 247 different cards from the same year. If enough people did it, PSA could add it to the registry for each decade. Also it would be a type of set that wouldn't be negotiable on what cards are added, it would be only Topps regular issue cards (excluding subsets) and only HOF'ers.

mccardguy1

Wabbitt that is a excellent idea. You have me rethinking my plan now. I am now thinking about doing what you suggested for the 70's and or maybe 80's Topps. I grew up collecting in the 70's and collected many cards from the 80's. The 70's would be a bit more challenging but I think that would be fun.

thanks for the input!

1420sports

I have seen that especially for the 80's and 90's graded 9 and even 10 star cards are extremely affordable, or so it seems. Is there a reason for this??

yes. Most of the cards from the 80's and 90's are not hard to find as these cards were mass produced. This came after the "rookie card" craze of the early 80's, so collectors hoarded this stuff and the companies produced an abundance of it. Is the 83 Topps Bench PSA 9 worth 10 bucks? To me it would be, but I am a collector. To the "investor", probably not. Without checking the pop reports, I would have to say that there are most likely tens of thousands of raw PSA 9-10's out there for that card, where they may only be a few hundred raw PSA 9-10 of the 1968 Topps card.

Here is another question:

Is a 1990 Leaf PSA 9-10 common really worth what SMR says it is? No one knows, as there may only be a handful of people who submit and collect the set in graded form. To them, it is worth the price. Modern collecting certainly is a challenge when collecting PSA 9-10. One of them is financial challenge. Some modern collectors have told me they are making a mistake getting these cards graded. I do not collect any modern issues, but I would imagine it would be hard at times to justify. What if the card comes back an 8? Is it deemed a failure? After all, it is the same card it was before it was submitted.

If 10 bucks can get you a 1983 Bench PSA 9 or a 1990 Leaf Dykstra PSA 10 and it makes you happy, then buy it. The SMR again is only a guide, and it is hard to put a price on enjoyment. Hell, I have a Greg Luzinski player set that I spent over 50 bucks to have certain cards graded. Probably a bad financial decision, but it is nice to see them slabbed.

1954

Value is always based on supply and demand. Right now I don't think the demand has come close to the supply which is not a good thing. I do love some of the sets that you have mentioned, i.e. 92 Bowman and 90 Leaf. Those are some of the best sets from the 90's. If you are interested in doing a modern set I would go with a set that is small in size, but has true value. The set that I would do and I would think would have a pretty big demand would be the 1993 Topps Finest set. Only 199 cards in the set, so you could assemble it without loosing your shirt. Heck, I think I just talked myself into sending mine in.

Shane

mccardguy1

1954.....now thats a set I have totally forgotten about. A few weeks ago I was going to go after grading a complete 84 donruss set which I really like. I Have the set complete but after going through it I just cant see dropping that kind of money to grade it. The condition is real nice but it would be a load of cash to grade and potentially not worth the investment. so I am content to keep it like it is and buy the key cards in nice grades......but you have given me another idea with that set. Its a set thats very nice looking, fairly small and has potential to hold its value. Great idea.

Griffins

An alternative (and an increasingly popular one) is to build a HOF type set. Get a HOFer ( or a lock HOFer like Maddux, Griffey, Bonds, etc) in as many different sets as you can. As your budget increases you can expand back in time. For example
'89 UD Griffey
'81 Fleer Ripken
'77 Topps Joe Morgan
'75 SSPC Willie Mays (one of the most underpriced issues, IMO)
'79 Kellogg's Mike Schmidt
etc etc.
Some of the sets from the '40's and earlier can supply you with HOFers for less money than some of the recent sets, and will certainly hold their value infinitely better. Lower tier HOFers in the T206 set in 3's and '4's can be found for under $100. or less.
Makes for a lot of fun because you're not looking for one or two key cards, but can collect what you like.

tkd7

I grew up in the 70s with stars like Yaz, Bench, Morgan, Jackson, etc.

I've been looking to pick up a PSA graded card from their last season. I guess it is the opposite of the rookie card. It is an easy theme to work backwards as well. 68 Mantle, 66 Koufax, 73 Mays, etc.

These cards are a lot cheaper than the rookie cards.

MooseDog

1969 Topps was Mantle's last regular card...