48 Down--1966 Topps Baseball Completed in PSA 8 orr Better

Davalillo

With the winning of card #544--Cardinals Rookies--in the latest Goodwin auction, 1966 Topps Baseball is now completed in PSA 8 or better. This was the last year I collected growing up and a small number of cards that I collected as a kid actually made it into my set. With the completion of this set, 1962 Topps is now the only major Topps set not complete in PSA 8 or better(3 needed) from my 60s sets(I do not collect 1969 graded--yet).

Thanks to Brian Dwyer for his hard work on this set--Brian can correct me if I am wrong but I believe we sort of slogged it out on this one-card by card on ebay.

This set stands 5th on the registry with a 8.01 set rating. There are two excellent sets--5 time award winner Vintage Corvette with 8.95 and Rick the Dad just behind with 8.92. I am one spot ahead of the noteworthy football card collector--Fuzzdude. I will let this set rest at this level.

This represents the 15th set in PSA 8 or better I have completed since year-end 2005.

My goal continues to be over 100 vintage sets in psa 8 or better with an interim goal of 50 by year-end 2006.

Completed sets in psa 8 or better are as follows:

BASEBALL(26):

1936 S&S
1948 Bowman
1951 Topps Red Back
1954 Red Heart
1954 Topps
1956 Topps
1957 Topps
1959 Fleer
1960 Fleer
1960 Topps
1961 Golden Press
1961 Nu-Card Scoops
1961 Topps
1961-62 Fleer
1963 Fleer
1963 Topps
1964 Topps
1964 Topps Giants
1965 Topps
1966 Topps
1967 Topps
1968 Topps
1969 Topps Super
1970 Kelloggs
1970 Milton Bradley
1970 Rold Gold

FOOTBALL(12):

1950 Bowman
1951 Bowman
1954 Bowman
1955 Topps All-America
1959 Topps
1960 Mayrose Cardinals
1960 Topps
1961 Nu-Carrd
1963 Fleer
1963 Stancraft Playing Cards
1969 Topps 4-in-1
1976 Wonder Bread

BASKETBALL(6):

1948 Bowman
1961 Fleer
1969-70 Basketball
1970-71 Basketball
1972 Icee Bear
1976-77 Topps

HOCKEY(2):

1962-63 Parkhurst
1962-63 Topps

MULTI-SPORT(2):

1933 Goudey Sport Kings
1954 Quaker Sports Oddities

BarkusD

Jim,
Congrats on pushing another one over the finish line. I continue to marvel at your accomplishments. Let me know if you decide to go after 69 Topps Football. My set is about 70% complete in 8 or better and I'd be willing to sell it to you. I hop around from set to set and although I have been putting in a lot of effort into the 69 football set, it's not too important to me because it was printed before I was born and I don't recognize most of the players.

David

calleocho

I noticed you do not have a 52 Mantle in 8 ..( you have an 8 OC)

Adding one of those has got to hurt..however ...you should do it now, those babies never go down in price.

Stump

Jim

Congrats on that. The 544 is one of the toughest in the set. Good luck an the rest.

Dave

Bosox1976

Way to grind it out Jim.

ArnyVee

Another impressive completion. Congratulations!

tkd7

Good job as always Jim

spacktrack

This was one of the hardest sets to track down the final cards for, but as always, it was done eventually. Off the top of my head, the final cards were #216, 507, 511, 513, and 544. After a long drought, the middle three came on eBay within a week of each other. Shortly thereafter, the #216 leader card come on eBay--two of them in fact. The #544 is a card that I do not ever recall seeing offered in the 2+ years I worked on this set.

WinPitcher

Great Job Jim.

IMO the 66 set is the hardest of the 60's sets to complete. I always thought that the 66 hi numbers were tuffer then the 61's. Did you notice that?


Steve

spacktrack

I just found some of my old records from this set and on January 14, 2004 I indicated that there were 153 cards left until PSA 8+ completion. That means it took a little over 2 years to put together the final 25% of the set. 29 of those cards were high numbers.

ironranger

Congratulations Jim! Hopefully 2 more sets will be completed soon to get you to your 2006 goal (and only about half way through the year!).

eyebone

Jim:

Congratulations.

What hockey sets are you actively working on? Not that I have any cards to offer for sale or anything like that, but I am just curious as to how much attention and effort you put into hockey. Also, do you stick exclusively to Topps or are there some Parhurst and/or OPC in the mix?

Eyebone

spacktrack

Eyebone:

Jim's working on a handful of hockey sets including the 2 that are already finished.


Davalillo Hockey: 1953-54 Parkhurst 7.060 100.00% 7.060 4
Davalilo Hockey: 1957-58 Topps 7.367 48.48% 3.374 13
Davalillo Hockey: 1959-60 Topps 6.929 72.73% 5.444 7
Davalillo Hockey: 1960-61 Topps 7.788 95.45% 7.562 4
Davalillo Hockey: 1961-62 Topps 7.468 43.94% 3.261 9
Davalillo Hockey: 1962-63 Parkhurst 8.221 100.00% 8.221 10
Davalillo Hockey: 1962-63 Topps 8.049 100.00% 8.049 2
Davalillo Hockey: 1963-64 Parkhurst 8.051 100.00% 8.051 5
Davalillo Hockey: 1963-64 Topps 6.748 78.79% 5.756 11
Davalillo Hockey: 1965-66 Topps 7.533 92.19% 7.084 3

theczar

congratulations on the accomplishment. i have been working on the 1966 set for 19 months and am just over the 2/3 mark in psa 9 or better. the term so close yet so far is never truer. i was hoping for 75% by the end of the year 90% by 12-31-07 and go from there. even at 67% and a 9.04 average i am only 12th in that year.

i cannot imaging trying that with 48 sets. WELL DONE.

theczar

by the way the last 1966 #544 on ebay in psa 9 sold for $721.99 from dslsports on 9-29-04. the buyer sent me a scan and he was highly disappointed in the centering and sold it to one of the top registry's for his buying price.

softparade

In the spirit of giving Jim some competition I have decided to list all of my successful attempts at complete sets in PSA 8 or better.

BASEBALL(1):

1978 Topps (And its not even true "vintage")

FOOTBALL(0):

BASKETBALL(0):

HOCKEY(0):

MULTI-SPORT(0):

Look out, I am on the rise

JVette

Congratulations!! I cannot imagine 48 sets at PSA 8 or better.

Ripken

Jim,

The '66 is one underrated set in my book & that was a yeoman's job to get it done. I do have to say, though, that each time I auction '66s I'm kind of disappointed at the results. I sold a high # tonight for something like $10 in PSA 8. I think I paid more to get it in raw form and send it in! I guess there must be some cards in the set that are very easy to find or there just aren't that many people trying to complete a graded set. 1960 and '61 also seem to disappoint from a selling perspective. '71s are hot...and I get pretty good action on '65 and '64 as well.

BTW, I noticed you have a '70 Rold Gold set. Any chance you have a spare PSA 9 or 10 Cochrane?

Rich

Davalillo

Thanks to all for the congrats.

TheCzar,

Building an all psa 9 set is a huge accomplishment--good luck.

Ripken,

Sorry--I immediately sell all my dupes that I upgrade.

Jim

mikeschmidt

Great accomplishment, Jim

mojorob

Jim,
Very nice job on the 66 set.
That is a set that I would love to have in straight PSA 8 or even close to it.
Another brick in the wall.
Congrats to you!!

1954

Jim,
Could be 49 tonight......?

SL

Davalillo

Shane,

Do you know something I don't?

Jim

kadokakid

Congrats, that is very impressive. I'm a newbie to the boards, just curious how long it has taken you to put together all the sets? Did you put them together mostly card by card, or purchase nearly complete sets?

Good luck on reaching 100.

Hopefully I'll have my one 1970's set completed by the time you have your 100th.

Congrats on a great accomplishment.


Doug