I've finally decided to start on 1970s sets! Anyone here have top grade 1976-79 Topps baseball sets

Estil

My birthday is coming up and I want to get these (my wife is also wanting me to do extra chores to earn these too), but the problem is that if I get them on Ebay, I'll end up possibly getting inconsistent quality (and possibly risk a poor shipping job). I'm hoping someone here will have NRMT to NRMT-MT quality (nice sharp corners, no gum/wax stains, no miscuts or "hairline borders") 1976-79 Topps sets and I want to be able to get all four in one purchase (or at least from one dealer). At BBCE, he has a 1978 and 1979 Topps set; do you think his sets will be the quality I'm looking for?

PS: No PSA or other graded cards please. I just want the best raw sets possible. Thanks!

Stone193

Hi Estil

Those sets are just full of OC's and other printing defects.

So, whenever you buy a 78 or 79, I wouldn't over expect - especially if the price is right.

Why buy completed? Have you considered putting the sets together yourself?

mike

Boopotts

<< <i>Hi Estil

Those sets are just full of OC's and other printing defects.

So, whenever you buy a 78 or 79, I wouldn't over expect - especially if the price is right.

Why buy completed? Have you considered putting the sets together yourself?

mike >>



That's a great point. Unless you actually get to see the set up close and personal you can basically count on at least 30% of any of these sets being 75/25 or worse. And I'd be very surprised if you'll every have the opportunity to buy a sequence of PSA 8 quality sets in one whack from someone. If you're really serious about this your best bet is going to be to buy multiple sets from each year, put together a master set you're happy with, then build as many sets as you can from the remainders and flip them.

jskirwin

Agree with the above.
It took about a year of constant buying/selling/trading to put these sets together.
The centering is simply a nightmare, esp. on the '78.

Still, since I grew up in that decade I have a soft spot for those cards. It's alot of fun to put these sets together yourself, and compared to the 60's or "real vintage" stuff, it's relatively cheap to do.

So... Get cracking and build the sets yourself.

Estil

Well, once upon a time I did own those sets, and let me tell ya, I did need have to upgrade quite a few commons to get better centering. I really wish I hadn't sold them; those 1978 & 1979 sets were quite beautiful especially.

And I definetly hear ya about miscuts being a problem; remember that thread with that guy opening those fresh 1977 packs? Even THOSE had a few miscuts in them! Sheesh! The "buy several sets and cherry pick" would be great, if we could afford it, but as it stands now, I'm VERY lucky if I can even get one of each in one purchase! (Unfortunatley, we can't exactly spend thousands of dollars on cards ).

So it sounds like I should just try to find the very best looking sets I can, accept the fact there's going to be at least a few miscuts, and just upgrade them and make them the best they can be. I know most of you here think quite highly of BBCE; he has a 1978 & 1979 Topps set for sale for $275 (both together); do you think his sets are about the quality I want, or close to it?

Finally, let me just say you PSA singles buyers got it easy. You just find a card with the grade you want (avoiding qualifiers in most cases of course) and that's it. But with a set, you've got around 660-792 cards to think about. I guess you could say buying a complete set is sorta like buying a classic car and upgrading is like restoring it to as nice a shape as you can.

blindflyer

Estil,

What about this idea:

Instead of buying all 4 sets in "one whack" --- why not buy 4 copies of the '79 set in one whack.

Then, as Boopotts said, take the best of each card to create your "personal set" and flip/sell the other 3 sets. At the end of the day, you'll likely spend a bit more for that one set, but it'll be much stronger than any "one" raw set you could buy.

Then, move on to the 78's, 77's, etc.

The whole proces will take longer ... but should actually be fun and should be far more satisfying in the end.

-Tom