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The March to 100 Sets--A mid-course correction
Davalillo
Posts: 1,846 ✭✭
For most of the last decade I have been resolute on my focus on getting to 100 vintage/semi-vintage sets with every card graded PSA 8 or better. I am up to 59 complete with another 30 within 6 cards of completion. I should be able to get to my goal in the next four years.
I always figured that such sets like 1952 Topps and 1934 Goudey and other tough ones would be amomg them, just that they would be among the latter ones I would complete.
Well, completing certain sets with every card PSA 8 and better is not only a very costly proposition but in some cases is impossible because the cards do not exist or are in such low pops that the cards are never up for sale. Even though I have 350 or so of the 1952 Topps set in psa 8 to buy the last 54 would run at about $400,000(if I could find them).
So for certain tough and costly sets I am trying to finish them with psa 7s. While ultimately I would like to make them 100% PSA 8 sets, my first priority is to get these done. For the following sets, I am a buyer of psa 7s to finish the sets--1934 Goudey, 1934-36 Diamond Stars, 1938 Goudey, 1939 Play Ball, 1940 Play Ball, 1952 Topps, 1953 Bowman Color, 1953 Topps, 1955 Topps, 1952 Bowman Large FB. I would also be a selective seller of non HOFers at above market prices of T206s, M116s and 33 Goudeys. All my sets are on the Registry.
This still gives me over 150 sets to focus on in psa 8 or better and I have expanded my interest to non-sports where I am going to try to work on 10 sets at a time. Also through submissions of raw cards bolstered by buying already graded cards I will push into the late 60s / early 70s sets in baseball, football and basketball. My problem is I love all these sets and the players from this era are still part of my childhood.
So I still hope to get to 100, but a little differently than I had earlier envisioned. And, as always, I very much appreciate all the help from fellow collectors in getting there.
Jim
I always figured that such sets like 1952 Topps and 1934 Goudey and other tough ones would be amomg them, just that they would be among the latter ones I would complete.
Well, completing certain sets with every card PSA 8 and better is not only a very costly proposition but in some cases is impossible because the cards do not exist or are in such low pops that the cards are never up for sale. Even though I have 350 or so of the 1952 Topps set in psa 8 to buy the last 54 would run at about $400,000(if I could find them).
So for certain tough and costly sets I am trying to finish them with psa 7s. While ultimately I would like to make them 100% PSA 8 sets, my first priority is to get these done. For the following sets, I am a buyer of psa 7s to finish the sets--1934 Goudey, 1934-36 Diamond Stars, 1938 Goudey, 1939 Play Ball, 1940 Play Ball, 1952 Topps, 1953 Bowman Color, 1953 Topps, 1955 Topps, 1952 Bowman Large FB. I would also be a selective seller of non HOFers at above market prices of T206s, M116s and 33 Goudeys. All my sets are on the Registry.
This still gives me over 150 sets to focus on in psa 8 or better and I have expanded my interest to non-sports where I am going to try to work on 10 sets at a time. Also through submissions of raw cards bolstered by buying already graded cards I will push into the late 60s / early 70s sets in baseball, football and basketball. My problem is I love all these sets and the players from this era are still part of my childhood.
So I still hope to get to 100, but a little differently than I had earlier envisioned. And, as always, I very much appreciate all the help from fellow collectors in getting there.
Jim
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Comments
Thanks for the kind words. I have a great passion for the hobby and anyone who knows me or has been to my house would attest to that.
Financial considerations do come into it. While I commit a lot per year to my collection, I am on a budget and still have children who haven't started college yet.
Also, I have said this often before but I could not hope to do nearly as many sets without the many collectors who keep an eye out for the cards I need and I am very appreciative of them.
Jim
This may be a dumb question, but have you ever thought of a selling a set to upgrade a current one?
No, I haven't. In smaller sets or some sets from the 60s, I try to upgrade from 8 to 9 or in rare instances 9 to 10 but I would never sell a set to do this. I have sold cards occasionally to add dollars to my overall card budget and I am likely to do this more in the future.
Jim
Nothing wrong with some sets grading 7.50 and above. Like you said some of those cards are a bear in 8.
good luck
Steve
I was wondering, how do you fit all those cards in your house? My collection must be one tenth that size, and I'm already running out of room.
Also, don't you ever lose sleep at night worrying about a fire, or an earthquake, or the neighbor's dog, or something like that?
Larry
Thank you.
Its a pretty big room. If your travels bring you to the NYC-NJ area you are welcome to see it. If you subscribe to SMR, a recent edition had an article about my collection with lots of pictures. I have about 2000 of my most valuable cards on the wall around the perimeter of the room and about 18 large tables inside the room with stacks of cards or binders.
Neighbors dog--no.
Earthquake--no
Fire-not really. Room is fireproof.
Jim
1990 leaf in (10)
1986 topps mets (10)
2008 ring kings cut signatures
any Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Keith Hernandez cards in (10)
cmoking@yahoo.com
I would be interested in 34 Goudey psa 7s.
I am a seller of 33 Goudey, M116 and T206 psa 8 commons at the right price to fund my buying.
Pls contact me on the 34 Goudey psa 7s I need.
Always looking for 1957 Topps BB in PSA 9!
That would be too easy...and involve a change in my lifelong goal.
I just hope that one day I can have 1 tenth the size of a collection like yours. How do you do it? I mean, I have a tough time focusing on just two or three sets--how are you able to focus on that many? I give you a lot of credit. I think there are a lot of collectors out there that are striving to do what you do. You've set the bar real high...
Paul
Forget blocking him; find out where he lives and go punch him in the nuts. --WalterSobchak 9/12/12
Looking for Al Hrabosky and any OPC Dave Campbells (the ESPN guy)
It requires a number of things:
1)When I do complete in psa 8 or better, not being enticed to continue upgrading(although I do this with smaller sets and certain sets from the 60s).
2)Having the discipline to walk away from a set or certain cards when the numbers get too high.
3)Lots of collectinfg friends who either sell you cards or highlight cards on sale on ebay or in various dealers inventories.
4)A long-term time horizon.
5)A dealer or collecting friend to handle a good chunk of your buying and selling off upgraded cards on ebay. Brian Dwyer has done this for me in the past and a dealer friend is doing it for me now.
Your collection truely is an amazing work in progress!!
Please send me your email address as I would like to drop you a note.
Thanks,
Kirk
robinson209@comcast.net
jdc122@aol.com.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Jim
Good luck on your non-sport set building. That has to be the last frontier of undervalued card collecting.
Hello Jim,
Funny but I was noticing that u are just about complete with your 1961 Fleer Football set, needing just three more cards:
006 STAN JONES
042 DON MCILHENNY
220 SID YOUNGELMAN
Maybe someone here can come to your rescue, with these last three?
With these three cards, you would then have 100% complete Fleer football sets from '60, '61, '62 & '63!
rd
P.S. Jim, those early football sets (i.e, National Chicle, '48 & '49 Leaf), should prove interesting! Wishing u the best!
edit: The kid's college education or that well centered PSA 8 Bronco Nagurski?
Quicksilver Messenger Service - Smokestack Lightning (Live) 1968
Quicksilver Messenger Service - The Hat (Live) 1971
Jim, great to hear from you and thanks for keeping us sodomites informed. For years I have followed your quest for 100 sets in PSA 8 with a mild disinterest it is truly sad to hear that you will be polluting your collection with sub PSA 8 cards. I expected more from a member of the PSA Hall Of Fame . What's next ? Qualified 8 's ? Such abominations only carry a weight of 6. Oh Jim , how you disappoint me. This is how it how starts. A downhill spiral into the dark abyss of mid grade. PSA 4, the four horseman of the apocalypse , PSA 5 , the numbing of the 5 senses, PSA 6 , the mark of the beast, PSA 7 , seven deadly sins ! Repent before it's too late. If it rains frogs this afternoon I will know which path you chose.
<< <i>Jim, great to hear from you and thanks for keeping us sodomites informed. For years I have followed your quest for 100 sets in PSA 8 with a mild disinterest it is truly sad to hear that you will be polluting your collection with sub PSA 8 cards. I expected more from a member of the PSA Hall Of Fame . What's next ? Qualified 8 's ? Such abominations only carry a weight of 6. Oh Jim , how you disappoint me. This is how it how starts. A downhill spiral into the dark abyss of mid grade. PSA 4, the four horseman of the apocalypse , PSA 5 , the numbing of the 5 senses, PSA 6 , the mark of the beast, PSA 7 , seven deadly sins ! Repent before it's too late. If it rains frogs this afternoon I will know which path you chose. >>
I don't think PSA can retract Hall of Fame awards from previous years. So whatever happens now with the lower grade sets, the award is something that Davalillo will always have.
Thanks--some sets you just get stuck at 1 card or 2 cards and the cards do not exist or do not show up. Examples of this are the 60 Fleer Woodard, the 53 Bowman Gillom and the 66 Topps Checklist.
I am enjoying the non-sports stuff. I am building a set in psa 8 from the late-50s called Isolation Booth and I just bought 9 psa 8s for $15 apiece. Some sets have very little demand and are cheap..
RD,
I just need those three but I also need to upgrade the Woodard in the 60 Fleer set(pop 1) and the Lott in 62 Fleer.
Wolfbear offered me the 3 remaining 8s in 61 Fleer and offered me a fair deal but I just couldn't pary with the 9 he wanted me to part with. Now if you know someone who has these 3 cards I would be very appreciative.
I am not working on the 48 and 49 Leafs currently or the Chicles and I have even sold a couple of Leafs lately. Don't think the Nagurski is in my future but you never know.
LowStartMick,
More than anything else I want the cards and if you can't find them in 8 or if they are just too expensive then its time to take the next step down.
Kobe/PAndrews and whatever other aliases you wish to hide behind,
You are not worth responding to.
Amazing. I've been thinking of doing some early non-sports sets. The only one in my collection is the 56 Topps Presidents set. I originally collected the 1972 set as a kid. I stumbled upon the 1956 set when I found out the 72 set was basically an extension of 56.
I believe some of these sets have lower print runs than their sports brethern of the same time period. Although the majority of prices are amazingly cheap, I find my non-sports interest to be mainly in the modern genre. I guess I just don't love the early sets enough to want to collect them.
I'll have to live through your sets for now and pay a visit to the "Colosseum of Cards" when I'm in NJ.
I just bought 80 percent of the 56 Topps Presidents set in psa 8 for about $50 per card bfrom Scottsdale Cards.
I love the set--another one that brings back memories.
It is a great set....and very difficult.
As i said before nothing wrong with a couple 7,s like the 52 bowman smalls
Some of the sixes sets are harder then 99.9% of folks think like the 66 checklist thats a 2k to 3k card if ever a 8 shows up, 67 phillys have a few cards like that just no eights at all.
On your non sports quest gl i have a 66 funnyring set in the curret mastro auction that would fit nice and it goes well with your 66 set lot 95 i think in the Americana stuff
Drop me a line i have a 7 66 checklist card 132 i am sure we can work something out.
Frank oh FAB 1, I OWE A EMAIL AND I PROMISE IT WILL BE SOON I HAVE BARLEY HAD 5 MINS A DAY THE WHOLE YEAR , Anyway i will be to you soon
I'm sure we can--especially since you're not like that guy shouldabeena who tries to get every penny he can out of you. I heard he threatened to hold his breath until Fuzz raised his price for one of his cards by 50 cents. Geez.
I always enjoyed reading that SMR article awhile back. Do you have a #1 favorite card? I was just curious.
Take care,
Josh
I collect PSA 6's and 7's and there is nothing wrong with a 6 or a 7 especially on sets from the 60's and earlier. I wish you the best in your quest. I just wish you would hire me to scan all your cards and put them on the registry so the we can see them all.
John
ON ITS WAY TO NEWPORT BEACH, CA 92658
Mr. Al Crisafulli(the one and only) has promised me that once I get rid of my 13-year computer he will get a scanner for me and train me how to put pictures up. Since Al is unquestionably a man of his word and he lives close by, I would say that as soon as I find the time to buy a computer it will happen.
Any computer suggestions? I know nothing.
jim
<< <i>John,
Mr. Al Crisafulli(the one and only) has promised me that once I get rid of my 13-year computer he will get a scanner for me and train me how to put pictures up. Since Al is unquestionably a man of his word and he lives close by, I would say that as soon as I find the time to buy a computer it will happen.
Any computer suggestions? I know nothing.
jim >>
You cannot go wrong with a Dell. I called Dell up and informed them of my needs (lightning fast, plenty of memory, basically all the bells and whistles )
and had them build it right on the phone for me. When she was finished I simply said "Ok now make it even better" Real easy and very helpfull, cant go wrong. Just my 2 cent opinion.
My only issue is that apparently Skinsfan is creditied with owning my set at one point. I don't remember that. 1st and 3rd and a few others. Sure. But my set?
Though a good number of the cards I card came from the famous Outcalt find as well. Would not be nearly as nice with his help.
Art ??? Any comments?
Fuzz
I know nothing about computers
John
ON ITS WAY TO NEWPORT BEACH, CA 92658
When they interviewed me they said some guy named Mike Tavanner said Art owned your set and did I know anything about it?
Josh,
No single favorite card--I love them all.
Perkdog,
Thanks--I will go with the Dell.
My interview with Kevin was short and over the phone i imagine thats how he talked to Kirk ect
I TOLD HIM HE SOULD CONTACT YOU ,DID HE?
There were a couple errors i guess trying to keep my long winded story to a short story a couple of things were mixed up .#1 Being NO THE FUZZ HAS ALWAYS OWED HIS SET AND IT WAS AT 1 TIME THE ALL TIME BEST !!!!!!! And still is trhe #2 all time set.
I had told him i have owed a few sets that at 1 time or another were in the top few including the current #1 set but it had been upgraded big time since i owed it.
Also just to point out another error when i mention Kevin Outcalt send me cards raw to look over they were funnyrings not base cards ,At that time i was the only person i know of who was playing with them.
Your name came up many many times as i explained how the battle for the 66 set was what really started the 60 olympics and really the rivarly for all 60,s sets and how it bonded so many of us guys together and how i really enjoyed that just as much if not more as the cards themself.
PS Fuzz my man did you get your little bonus i sent ok ? could not find a pack with Stenarude on the front so i hope that came close
Anyway hope that explains the error but i really like Jims idea just blame it on COULDABEEN
Please?? Please send the scan to
twodueces22@yahoo.com.
thank you very much in advance.
"I spent 50% of my money on alcohol, women, and gambling. The other half I wasted.
That's great Jim, but please don't tell me if you got a card #1 and #17 in PSA 8. Those are the 2 upgrades I need to finish my set. I would be sick. Unless you were willing to sell them to me
Sorry--I got them both. Card number one is a pop 6. Franklin Pierce however looks plentiful..
Sincerely,
Network54
Always a good idea to blame Shoulda. If we don't know what he did, he does.
Secondly,
Skinsfan, Relax, it was a joke. Some of my cards probably did come from your stuff. You have held more top cards than anone else. I am not touchy from where my cards came. They are mine for now. Also a good number came from Kevin. Probably bought between 300 and 400 from him already slabbed in 7 and above. Also he sent me more than a hundred regular issue cards to pick from to help find the last few 8's. Didn't work, no 8's but bought them all anyway. I ended up with several raw sets as well.
I did not talk to the guy but MOSH and I neither list our email addresses. So it would be our fault, not his .
Besides, you have been the top guy in this year having but at least three of the top all time sets. I ffound Kevin. I thought he did a nice job and got the details close enough. Competing against you on this set was some of the most fun I have ever had in this hobby.
Fuzz
PS. I did get the extra in the package. Thank you very much. The extras in a Skinsfan package are better than what I get a Christmas from people that actually like me.
<< <i>You're deigning yourself to below PSA 8s? Does that now make you part of the armpit of the hobby?
Sincerely,
Network54 >>
Keep your head up, Jim. Some PSA 7 cards look nice for the grade.
I have PSA 7's. I also have 3's 4's 5's and 6's. Does that mean I am part of the armpit of the hobby. You know I get real tired of people coming on here and baiting Jim. He starts an honest post of taking a slightly differant direction to finish sets and get some closure. Compromise is what gives a person character. If you are coming on here to start trouble why don't you go back into the hole you crawed out of. Are you speaking for all of Network 54? I think not. You may want to go get your encephalitis checked by your proctologist. Don't go away mad just go away. Oh by the way I live in Muskegon Michigan if you want to visit. I am not hard to find.
Dave Jacobs
Say it isn't so! Please tell us it's just a late April fool's joke! I for one, would be totally crushed to see your name bidding on PSA 7's in the upcoming auctions.
You drew a line in the sand years ago and shouted to the world ... PSA 8's or better for me! For years you have touted the march to straight 8's. We have all watched your progress, and while some have said it couldn't be done .... I personally bought a bottle of Dom, to crack open ... on that grand sunny day when you'll finally pick up the last 8 needed and announce to the boards; "100 vintage sets completed in straight 8's!!!!!!"
We know it's tuff, Jim. We know some of the sets are impossible to complete, but that's what made it such a daunting task to begin with. Don't lower your standards. We want you on that wall ... we need you on that wall!
So Jim, please reconsider and delete those blasphemous PSA 7 words from your post before you become just another ... dare I say it ... collector.
As a sign of my moral support ... I'll take all of those ugly PSA 7 Chicle's and Leafs off your hands for (cough) SMR ... so that you won't be tempted by them anymore!
I sent you an email yesterday and have not heard back from you. How many PSA 7/8's would you be interested in if I were to buy the 1952 Topps set in REA? I am thinking about buying it. I have one guy who wants 21 of the cards. Let me know by emailing me at the AOL account.
SL
I would be interested in potentially joining your bid group, for the twenty Philadelphia Phillies that are in the REA set.
marc.schoenen@ge.com