Best Card Sets Under 150 Cards and Why You Like Them.

Blackborder

One of the things I'm learning about the card hobby is the sheer size of the card sets. Coming out of the coin collecting hobby where 100+ coins in a series is huge, 700+ card sets are almost incomprehensible to me, especially if you want to have a graded set. That's around 7k-12k in grading fees alone!

So, I was just curious about those of you building smaller sets. What card sets with less than 150 cards are your favorites and why?

Estil

Well, I'm currently working on 1992-95 Fleer & Ultra master sets where you collect all the insert sets in addition to the regular set. The insert sets are no more than 50 cards each, and I always thought the Fleer & Ultra inserts from that time period were the most interesting as far as design goes. As their 1994 Ultra ad pointed out, they're not just dressed up basic cards, they are totally unique. And highly collectible.

nearmint

My favorite small set is the 1970 Topps Super Glossy insert set. 1970 was the second year I collected cards as a kid, and I always thought these were great looking.

2dueces

My favorite sets and 2 that I have complete or near complete are both under 150 cards.
1966 Topps Football, woodgrain boarders with a 2nd year (first regular size) Namath and a tuff Funny Ring checklist.
1963 Fleer Football. IMO the nicest lookinf football set of all time.
rookies of Dawson and Alworth, plus a near impossible to find centered NNO checklist.
total cards with checklist 89.
One that I don't collect but always thought was an important set of 66 cards, 1963 Fleer Baseball.

I'm not mentioning all the prewar caramel cards that are smaller sets. Someone with more knowledge
of the smaller pre war sets can add their expertiese on these.

Allen

86-87 Fleer Basketball
1963 Fleer Baseball
98-99 SP Authentic Basketball

tennesseebanker

Kelloggs sets are some of my favorites to put together, They are small, colorful, and fun sets to put together.
Football sets from the 50's and 60's are also some of my favorites and I feel are way undervalued.

Webhead1968

I agree, I also like the kelloggs 3-d sets.

Stone193

63F BB and

T3 sets.

The 63F set has only 66 cards - some great HOF'ers - super design and is affordable in PSA 8.

The T3 set has great HOF'ers - tho not an affordable set - can be done over many years - the lithographic design ranks it as one of the best looking sets - being prewar makes it highly desirable. This set is a challenge and that makes it worth doing.

mike

helionaut

1971 Greatest Moments
1941 Play Ball
Many of the overabundance of premium sets in the last decades are 90-120 cards, have really nice designs, and are cheap to pick up. SP Authentic is usually good, as is Legendary Cuts. For all the problems UD has with their products, their design department usually does some nice work.

Griffins

Tons of them-
T200 Fatima Teams- more players appear in this set than any other issue until '52 Topps
'14 Cracker Jack- one of the best designs of all time
'34-36 Diamond Stars- Art Deco design and an excellent selection of players- the only flaw is the abscence of Ruth and Gehrig
'41 Play Ball- Great design, last issue of the era
'49 Leaf- because they are so fugly
'54 Wilson Franks- extremely tough set with a great design
'54 Red Heart- extremely easy set with a great design
'52, '53, '54, 55 Red Man- great design, great player selection
'59, '60, '61 Morrell Meats- great images
'63 Fleer- sounds like a broken record, but if the design isn't good the card isn't good. This design is good. Missing Mantle though.

edited to add-
T3, for the reasons Mike stated above
T9, should actually be part of the T3 set
T218 Champions- 153 cards, so it's a bit over the limit. But incredible artwork
Kalamazoo Bats- early photos with great backgrounds
N162 Goodwin Champions- tough to beat, tough to afford.

NickM

I'm surprised no one mentioned '55 Topps All-American Football yet.

A few other favorites of mine that haven't been mentioned yet are '36 Goudey, '55 Topps Double Headers, T201 Double Folders, '32 U.S. Caramel, C46, '60 Lake to Lake Dairy Braves, '54 Johnston Cookies Braves, R423, '64 Topps Giants, and '51 Topps Connie Mack and Current All-Stars.

Nick

RedHeart54

1984 Fleer Update. Enough said.

gstarling

1927 Churchman Golf to add to the many above that are great.

benderbroeth

dont forget t202 triple folder baseball

djspann

I like 1935 National Chicle football. There are several HOFers, the design and colors are great, and 1/3 of the set consists of short prints.

The 1952 Bowman large football set is a very popular set that just meets the < 150 card constraint. This set along with the Chicles are two of the major pillars of football cards.

I also like 1948 Bowman football. The cards really bring to life the football from that era, I think. Plus, the set has several big names in it.


Doug

Ahmanfan

'55 all american football
61 fleer basketball (66 cards)
69 topps basketball (99 cards I think)
86 fleer basketball (132)

XanaduNow

Am I missing something? Are there more than 150 in the '33 Sport Kings? I love that set. Fantastic representatives from many sports.

'48 Leaf Boxing
'30 Wills Famous Golfers
'28 Churchman Men of the Moment in Sport
'51 Topps Ringside
'71 Barratt

Arthur

packCollector

63 Fleer Baseball is the classic in small baseball sets. Tons of stars (except mantle) , small set , great design , great photos, readily available in all grades so you aren't waiting 6 months between bids. a sure fire winner ,

59 fleer - 80 cards of ted williams , enough said

68 topps game is another cool one , you get all of the stars for cheap and you get a mantle. rounded corner cards aren't appealing to some but if you don't mind then this is a winner.

69 topps supers, great regular size cards with all the stars , a little more challenging and more expensive than the others mentioned but the challenging part makes it fun

then their are all the test issues but you may find yourself waiting months at a time to bid on a card and you will pay dearly as others are doing the same


good luck , happy collecting

Wondo

I am still working on my 1971 Milk Duds set. Inexpensive, but hard to find in nice original boxes.

I was 10 years old in 1971 - it was my collecting nirvana.

EAsports

One that I like is 1951 Topps Magic Football. 75 cards, nice design. Inexpensive set featuring all college players, in old college uniforms, in a "frosted color/painting type" of photo. There are many schools that are represented that no longer even have programs, and some of the cards have campuses and stadiums in the background. I am about 1/3 of the way to the set, in NSG (not so good) condition. The cards still look great, though.

Check out former LSU'er Armand Kitto, with an upper deck-less Tiger Stadium in the background...

Blackborder

Great replys!

I thought the T218 was a good choice. I also think the artwork on those is great.

I like the 1952 Bowman large football as well. I'm surprised these are so cheap compared to baseball cards and the artwork is top notch also.

thesplendidsplinter

Can't believe we are on the second page & nobody said the 33 Sport Kings! One of my faves!
Anthony, you named everything else. For shame!

XanaduNow

<< <i>Can't believe we are on the second page & nobody said the 33 Sport Kings! One of my faves!
Anthony, you named everything else. For shame! >>



Monday November 13, 2006 8:07 AM (NEW!)



Am I missing something? Are there more than 150 in the '33 Sport Kings? I love that set. Fantastic representatives from many sports.

'48 Leaf Boxing
'30 Wills Famous Golfers
'28 Churchman Men of the Moment in Sport
'51 Topps Ringside
'71 Barratt

Arthur

thesplendidsplinter

phreakydancin

1979 Venorlandus Ltd. is the first PSA graded set I ever started, and still one that I love. Only 48 cards in the set, featuring some very cool caricature drawings.

jradke4

here are three of my favorites.

1997 Playoff Prime Honors - only 3 cards Emmitt Smith, Curtis Martin and Brett Favre (almost 3 sure fire HOFer's)
1996 LaserView Inscriptions
1997 Inscriptions

Check out my sets of all three.

XanaduNow

Phreakydancin, I agree. I just picked up a raw set of Venorlandus and I'm thinking about sending it in on the special and start a registry. The best part about those cards is that they're so damn inexpensive.

Arthur