The Great Chase: Counting Down to 100% on Hardest Post-War Set
BBCI
Posts: 46
There have been quite a few posts over the years on finding those last few cards to achieve 100% completion. Having been through that experience with my 63 set, and knowing the difficulty (and madness) of finding 1962 Topps baseball low pops, I purposefully started with low pops this time around and saved the stars for last. Great idea, right? Thus, my last few acquisitions have been a #1 Maris (thanks, Joe H.), #5 Koufax and #10 Clemente (thanks, Larry M.), and now I am down to "the one" ....#199 Perry. Anybody have a PSA 8 for sale?
The #199 Perry pop is 110 in PSA 8, but for some reason there are none out there when I need it most!! I have scoured every dealer web site for 2 months straight, contacted everyone I know including Registry members, and watched ebay (like a pot of boiling water)....and nothing! It's kind of funny because I planned this very deliberately to avoid the low pop nightmares...and yet...life always has a way of making that last hurdle (no matter what it is) the most difficult one!
To better explain my urgency, my 1962 set (Base Ball Card Investments) with a GPA of approx 8.25 (when the last few cards are added) will be sold in Mastro's upcoming April auction. Thus, all the cards need to be there in the next couple of weeks. Worst case I can fill with a PSA 7, but I still hold out hope for that PSA 8. On that note, my Basic set would only include one PSA 7 ...and that is the most difficult Post-War PSA 8 around... #323 Don Landrum. I gave up on acquiring this PSA 8 (and now there is a PSA 9) about 1 year ago...there is just no raw material out there for this card. And desperately, I tried contacting the eBay winner (from 2 years ago) of the #323 Landrum PSA 8 that sold for $600+ ...but he does not appear active on eBay anymore.
I probably need to do the math, but I believe the 62 Topps set (given all the low pops) is arguably the hardest Post-War set to achieve 100% of the cards in PSA 8 or better. I believe I am the closest yet...but now wonder if it will ever be achieved (good luck Steve!) in the next 5 years????
Don
baseballcardinvestments@yahoo.com
The #199 Perry pop is 110 in PSA 8, but for some reason there are none out there when I need it most!! I have scoured every dealer web site for 2 months straight, contacted everyone I know including Registry members, and watched ebay (like a pot of boiling water)....and nothing! It's kind of funny because I planned this very deliberately to avoid the low pop nightmares...and yet...life always has a way of making that last hurdle (no matter what it is) the most difficult one!
To better explain my urgency, my 1962 set (Base Ball Card Investments) with a GPA of approx 8.25 (when the last few cards are added) will be sold in Mastro's upcoming April auction. Thus, all the cards need to be there in the next couple of weeks. Worst case I can fill with a PSA 7, but I still hold out hope for that PSA 8. On that note, my Basic set would only include one PSA 7 ...and that is the most difficult Post-War PSA 8 around... #323 Don Landrum. I gave up on acquiring this PSA 8 (and now there is a PSA 9) about 1 year ago...there is just no raw material out there for this card. And desperately, I tried contacting the eBay winner (from 2 years ago) of the #323 Landrum PSA 8 that sold for $600+ ...but he does not appear active on eBay anymore.
I probably need to do the math, but I believe the 62 Topps set (given all the low pops) is arguably the hardest Post-War set to achieve 100% of the cards in PSA 8 or better. I believe I am the closest yet...but now wonder if it will ever be achieved (good luck Steve!) in the next 5 years????
Don
baseballcardinvestments@yahoo.com
0
Comments
I'll keep an eye out in case I see anything.
* C. PASCUAL BASIC #3
* T. PEREZ BASIC #4 100%
* L. TIANT BASIC #1
* DRYSDALE BASIC #4 100%
* MAGIC MASTER #4/BASIC #3
* PALMEIRO MASTER/BASIC #1
* '65 DISNEYLAND #2
* '78 ELVIS PRESLEY #6
* '78 THREE'S COMPANY #1
WaltDisneyBoards
You could also check the SGC registry - sometimes guys there are selling - and the 1962's cross pretty well - a fair amount of bumps.
Bosox1976
Absolutely a terrific set you have--I need 4 for a psa 8 or better set including the Landrum. I too have tried to scout down who has the 8 and 9 but I tracked it down to the Rabbi who sold his to a buyer he does not remember for a not spectacular price.
Certainly this is the toughest mainstream set of the 60s--the 5-s sets will all cpost you a lot more but I am not aware of any pop 1s in any of them exdept perhaps 1953 Bowman Black & White.
Curious why you are using Mastronet--did they cut you a commission free deal?
Jim
Jim, thanks. I am kicking myself for not going after the Landrum 2 years ago at $600. Needless to say, I would pay more than that today. Yes, Mastro cut me a deal on the commission (5% instead of 15%). I figure it would cost me about the same via eBay, but Mastro can pull in a wider audience (with deeper pockets).
Don
Goodwin charges no commission in his auctions and I suspect others would have cut you that deal.
But Mastronet more often than others does get unbelievable prices.
I will be very interested to see what you get.
Good luck.
Jim
Jason Sloan has one. He is a member on the boards and its worth an email ?
ON ITS WAY TO NEWPORT BEACH, CA 92658
I was working on a straight PSA 8 graded set of 1962 Topps and got down to needing 17 cards to complete, including the famous Landrum about 2 years ago and my wife decided that a new kitchen was in order and thus the set was sold.
I believe that the near complete set was sold in the $35K range in a private transaction and that was over 2 years ago......so I figure that Mastro should bring you much more.
Good luck with the set and the Mastro auction!
Jim
Check out my ebay auctions listed under seller ID: jeej
Jim, were those last 17 cards mostly low pops? I can't believe how much 1962 low pops (let's say less than 15) have been going for on ebay recently. A pop 8 sold for $535 (Item number: 8759410854) and a pop 15 sold for $390 (Item number: 8759416242). The fact that there are 40 plus cards with pops below 15 is scary! They used to go for between $100 - $200....so much for the theory that supply will overtake demand!
Don
I was the underbidder on the Cisco which went for over $500.
Jim
John
ON ITS WAY TO NEWPORT BEACH, CA 92658
The only Low POP's that I needed in PSA 8 were #323 Landrum and #350 Frank Robinson, the rest were easy to get common high #'s.
The most I can recall ever paying for a Low Pop card from this set was $880.00 for the Blanchard with a POP of only 4 at that time.
I had been working on this set for over 6 years and never found a high grade Landrum, I think that this could be the toughest of all PSA post WWII cards to find in an 8.
My guess is that an 8 today would bring something in the 1200-1500 range on ebay.
Good luck with the set.
Jim
Check out my ebay auctions listed under seller ID: jeej
Sory to hear that you're having so much trouble finding a Perry. I don't recall that card being difficult to find; I do recall passing on a couple lower-end 8s before finding a nice example. I would normally suggest that you be patient as one will probably come up on ebay shortly. Sorry that I can't help you on this one; good luck on finding one before the April Auction.
I'm down to 4 cards to have a PSA-8 or better Master Set. By my count, a master set has 690 cards which includes all green tints as well all variations recognized by PSA. In addition to the Landrum, I'm looking for #s 111G, 349 and 350.
My experience in building the set is the majority of the hard-to-find cards are between #300 and #360. The #300 Mays was not an easy card for me to find; I have seen several F. Robby cards which are very low-end 8s and haven't wanted to shell out the premium it takes to get this one. I know first-hand of a couple collectors who after several tries have had the good fortune to get 7s bumped up to 8s.
Other cards that I found difficult to locate include 301, 306, 331, 337, 343, 349, 353, 359. The common denominater for many of these cards is a dark background that is susceptible to "snow". I have found PSA to be consistently more difficult on a card with this defect than other grading companies; accordingly beware of attempting to cross-over cards particularly from SGC. No slam on either company intended here as both seem to be consistent in their grading standards for '62s.
With respect to what some of the commons are bringing on ebay, it appears to me that the normal laws of supply and demand are having their impact on prices realized. Right now there are a couple of collectors that are aggresively bidding on cards they need to complete their sets. Another good example is Low pop PSA-9 commons which are typically selling for $250+; a year ago these commons could be had for $150-$175. I do think that '62s will be like other Topps Sets from the 60s and that pops will increase as prices motivate people to sell/submit cards for grading. I think of 62s as being the Rodney Dangerfield of the decade, they don't get much respect from many collectors who don't like the wood-grain design or the lack of complete stats on the reverse. While the wood-grain borders make these cards more condition sensitive than other sets from the 60s, the lack of interest many collectors have in this set may be artificially keeping pops at lower levels.
Based on the above, it would be my opinion this an excellent time for your '62 set to be on the market. Good Luck!
Steve
Jim (Davalillo), that #301 is one of the toughest around...but a PSA 9 just appeared on eBay last night...good luck. Also, you might want to contact John Amback...he has a #287 Witt PSA 8 but is only 12% complete. Not sure if he is actively building that set or not?
Jim (miami3), your price range for #323 Landrum sounds about right. I thought if I was able to track down the card, I would have to offer something in that range.
I guess to Steve's point there are still some wild fluctuations in the prices of low pops....e.g., the $880 for Blanchard would be out of sight even by today's recent bidding wars. But having said that, there are quite a few guys building 62 sets that have been sitting back for a while that I now see creeping into some of the bidding wars...I am guessing because after years of waiting the landscape (supply) has not changed that much. I know the pops continue to increase but I don't think they are increasing at a pace sufficient to satisfy the demand...it will be something interesting to watch over the coming years.
Steve, your set is incredible. I know you have been working on the green tints too, but was not sure how close you were on that front. I have seen some of the F. Robby's come up for auction and thought for sure you would pick one up, but agree it is not worth the premium if they were recently bumped PSA 7s. I am actually going to be selling the "Master" set in Mastro's auction...thus I have all 12 variations too (all in PSA 8 except Reniff Pitching in PSA 7). Some of these have pops that are extremely low e.g., Kunkel Portrait is a pop 5. I do hope you are right this is a good time to sell!
Don
Bosox1976
Jim
ON ITS WAY TO NEWPORT BEACH, CA 92658
Thank you for the kind shout out on the board!