Any advice on '55 All Americans???

BigRedMachine

I have half a mind to start this set in mid grade form for the fun of it because I like the design and find myself more interested in the history of football all the time. That being said, I wondered if any of you working on the set could give me an idea of what the commons generally go for in PSA 5, 6, and 7?? I checked the PSA online price guide, but it has a 2001 BC Albert Pujols AUTO PSA 9 as $800 and there's one on ebay not for $1975 and the reserve is not even met, so I know it's not exactly up to date.

I haven't received my first SMR since rejoining, don't know if it's any different. I'll probably check out eBay but thought some of you might know.

Anything else I should know about the set?? Any cards impossible to find in decent grade?? Just curious. Thought about biting the bullet and buying the Four Horseman card in 6 or 7 and then putting together a set VERY SLOWLY from there. Thanks for any help.

Shawn.

Ahmanfan

one of my favorite cards of all time:

unfortunatly, I haven't had the funds available to build a set yet. should be fun, but the commons are getting more expensive all the time. better start while it's still reasonable.

detroitfan2

Hi Shawn,

In my opinion, great set to collect, and reasonably priced in mid-grade PSA condition.

Here's the most recent ebay sales: 55 AA PSA's

Some 5's for under $10 and 6's for reasonable prices too.

Also, here's a thread on 55 All-Americans from these boards (earlier this fall I believe).

Good luck!

-Tom

rbdjr1

I too, had thoughts in building an "All-American" PSA set. My thoughts about this set "were curbed" when I saw just how difficult it would be to obtain, even a small fraction of '55 AA's in PSA mint condition, as I'm a collector of mostly mint material.

Not only are these beautiful collectibles difficult to find in mint condition, plus, if somehow I could locate PSA 9s, I'd need to "own a bank" to pay for them. You could be successful though, in building a wonderful '55 AA set, in the lower and mid range grades, as the 55 AA's are truly a beautiful set of cards (one of my favorites!).

I took the only other path I could. I began to build the only other vintage college football set from that era, the 1961 Nu-Card College Football set in PSA 9's and PSA 10's!

After some years of hard work, I'm proud to say, I have the world's top graded vintage PSA set of college football players:

rbdjr1's 1961 Nu-Card Football Set - The Number One All Time Finest Set

Good luck to you if you decide to begin the '55 AA set. I "punked-out", in favor of 1961 Nu-Card football!

rbd

P.S. I'm still searching for an Ernie Davis #143 in PSA 10!

pandrews

wow, that bvg thorpe looks pretty good.. is something wrong with the back?

it's one of my favorite cards, also..

ndleo

I'm doing a mixed set - commons and stars under $100 raw, the rest graded PSA 6-8. This has become my favorite set and sold off all of my basketball and baseball cards to fund my pursuit. As a football fan, it has been enjoyable getting the cards and reading the backs. I have mine in sheets and everyone that looks at it comments how attractive the cards look. The colorful fronts with the black and white pic still stand up well against any other football set out there.

There are plenty of raw cards available on ebay and at shows. Right now demand for these cards is average. However I do notice that prices for these cards are starting to rise on ebay. I was able to pick up a bunch at shows where football doesn't sell for a good price. The only problem with ebay is that college football fans are generally more devoted than pro football fans. It seems that Notre Dame, Army, and Michigan players attract more bid than average. USC is starting to pick up a little bit.

Good luck, hopefully we don't bid against each other too much.

zef204

On a side note,


My high school football coach was Jim Thorpe's grandson and had tons of his memorabelia in his office including one of Jim's Olympic gold medals. He still goes to events to accept things whenever Jim is honored as he is the closest living relative of Jim's. I always thought that was pretty cool and thought I would share.

Tough set, I have 3 cards that are pretty tattered that were my old man's from back in the day.

BigRedMachine

Thanks for the advice.

rbdjr: Wow, that's an incredible set you have. Congrats. It will be all my budget can handle to complete the set in PSA 5, 6, and 7 form and there does seem to be quite a few mid grade cards available on ebay.

ahman: I agree with Perry, that Thorpe of yours like very nice. Must be a crease or wrinkle we can't see?? That is one beautiful card. As an Indiana boy, I'm also fond of the Four Horseman card and the Notre Dame history behind it. Either of those cards in midgrade form would be the pride of my collection.

ndleo: I was thinking the same thing. How many cards can I sell off to help fund this?? Sometimes I have to sell one thing to afford another. But I'm really wanting to concentrate on one thing and stop buying a modern wax box a couple of times a month. I need to have a big modern eBay sale to free up some cash.

I've nearly made up my mind already to give it a try, I wouldn't be surprised if I started soon. I have exactly ZERO 1955 AA cards, so my journey would be a very long one. Thanks again for the help.

Shawn.

Southsider

I just sold a partial set of mid grade PSA graded All-Americans. 53 cards total. Mostly 6's with a few 5's. I picked up the common 6's for between $12-15 each and the common 5's for $8-10 each. The SP's, stars, & HOFs go for more, but still generally a little less than SMR. There are always cards coming up on ebay for this set, so you can afford to bottom-feed and be patient.

packernut

My advice would be to buy the cards raw and submit them. I bought most of my cards ungraded off Ebay for a fraction of the graded cost. I then submitted them as bulk. Considering I paid less than 25% of book, the majority of them came back 6's and 7's.

tkd7

I've had good luck buying ungraded lots and singles and submitting for grading. Most come back between 5 and 6, but I did buy one raw for $10 that came back and 8 and I sold for ~$70

Ahmanfan

thanks for the compliments. I guess it was in a scrapbook, it has 2 spots of paper loss on the back. I think I got it for $50 or $75 a couple years ago, I was happy. beautiful front.
John