My wife and I are now teaming up for our mega-project! Our mission: complete ALL 1970s sets (w/ PSA

Estil

As all of you know, I've been trying to build 1970s sets with the key cards in PSA 7 (thanks to originalbest and vintagetoppsguy for the inspiration to jump into the PSA pool). Well, me and my wife are going to celebrate our anniversary in just under four weeks (6/17/05) and for my anniversary present, she's been picking out PSA 7's from the below checklist for me. Now, I have no clue which cards she picked, just that they come from this list and are PSA 7 NQ (and yes, I did show her how to find them on Ebay and to avoid qualifers and the no-name graders).

As you can see, our main focus is to finish up 1974-79 and to start the 1973 set. But that's not all! We also want to do the 1970-72 sets as well with PSA 7 key cards. I was thinking about settling for PSA 6's for 1970-72 keys but I've decided to go with 7's for two reasons. One, the difference in eye appeal is much greater in 6's vs 7's than 7's vs 8's for 1971 in my opinion. Also, while the PSA 7's in 1971 don't come cheap (I think the top five cards in that set can go for around $100 in that grade, especially Munson's solo RC), 1972 PSA 7's are surprisingly much more affordable, and with the exception of Nolan Ryan, the other keys (even Carlton Fisk's RC) only book for no more than $50 in the Beckett Almanac. It will be especially crucial to get the key 1971's graded as everyone here knows that raw cards are suspectible to doctoring of the black borders.

And what do we define as "key cards" you might ask? Well, for 1973-79, we want to get all the cards that book for $8 or more in PSA 7; the rest of the sets will be raw (but as close to consistently NRMT or better as I reasonably can get 'em). For 1970-72, we want to get the cards that book for $25 or more in PSA 7 (any lower and we'll end up having to get about every other high number in graded form).

Our target for completing all the 1970s sets like this is the end of 2010. I'm only going to include the 1973-79 checklist for now, and then add the 1970-72 ones once 1973-79 is near completion:

1973 Topps
==========
615 Mike Schmidt RC<----We should probably save this one for last, right?
220 Nolan Ryan
001 Ruth/Aaron/Mays
050 Roberto Clemente
067 Nolan Ryan LDR
100 Hank Aaron
130 Pete Rose
305 Willie Mays
474 Ruth (RBI)
588 Checklist 529-660
614 Dwight Evans RC
-------------------------------
255 Reggie Jackson
472 Lou Gehrig (GS)
613 Bob Boone RC
-------------------------------
193 Carlton Fisk
245 Carl Yastrzemski
300 Steve Carlton
350 Tom Seaver
380 Johnny Bench
471 Ty Cobb (H)
473 Hank Aaron (TB)
-------------------------------
090 Brooks Robinson
142 Thruman Munson
190 Bob Gibson
280 Al Kaline
320 Lou Brock
330 Rod Carew
556 New York Yankees TC
630 Denny McCain

(for 1974-79 I'm only including those we're still lacking):

1974 Topps
==========
(also need a nice raw NRMT/MT upgrade lot or near set)
001 Hank Aaron 715 (and the five card commemorative subset in PSA 7 also)
040 Jim Palmer
050 Rod Carew
055 Frank Robinson
085 Joe Morgan
095 Steve Carlton
105 Carlton Fisk
160 Brooks Robinson
207 Nolan Ryan LDR
215 Al Kaline
252 Dave Parker RC
280 Carl Yastrzemski
332 Hank Aaron AS
340 Thruman Munson
473 World Series Game 2

1975 Topps
========
003 Bob Gibson HL
080 Carlton Fisk
200 1962 MVPs
622 Fred Lynn RC
(also need Stargell, McCovey, and Gibson in raw NRMT or better)

1976 Topps
==========
001 Hank Aaron RB
160 Dave Winfield
300 Johnny Bench
341 Lou Gehrig ATG
345 Babe Ruth ATG
346 Ty Cobb ATG
347 Ted Williams ATG
500 Reggie Jackson

1977 Topps
==========
006 Nolan Ryan LDR
144 Bruce Sutter RC
150 Tom Seaver
231 George Brett RB
450 Pete Rose
473 Andre Dawson RC
476 Dale Murphy RC
480 Carl Yastrzemski

1978 Topps
==========
006 Nolan Ryan RB
020 Pete Rose
036 Eddie Murray RC
100 George Brett
200 Reggie Jackson
360 Mike Schmidt
700 Johhny Bench
707 Molitor/Trammell RC

1979 Topps
==========
024 Paul Molitor
115 Nolan Ryan
116 Ozzie Smith RC
330 George Brett
610 Mike Schmidt
640 Eddie Murray
650 Pete Rose

So do you guys think we can do it if we really commit ourselves and cut back on other luxuries like eating out and such? The fact we have no vehicle and no gas bill will surely help matters, right?

blindflyer

I'm pulling for ya, Estil!

Your posts are refreshing to read. Collecting in its purest form. Pretty awesome that you're wife is now jumping into the action!

Good luck.

-t

Estil

<< <i>I'm pulling for ya, Estil!

Your posts are refreshing to read. Collecting in its purest form. Pretty awesome that you're wife is now jumping into the action!

Good luck.

-t >>



Thanks! I can't wait to see what she picks out for me!

EagleEyeKid

Good luck! It's always awesome when your
wife helps out with collecting.

70chip

Thats a neat project Estil, good luck with it!!! By the way, does your wife have a single sister who loves cards? Send her my way LOL!!!!

69Cubs

A wife that helps collect cards is amazing! I try to keep my cards out of sight or they might find their way to our fireplace.

Depending on you financial situation, you should be able to finish those sets ahead of schedule(2010). 70's cards are in great supply.

Good Luck Estil

jradke4

i would say go for the key Rc's and higher value cards now. more people may be trying to sell for cash and more than likely they will only go up in value in a few years.

EchoCanyon

PM sent

perkdog

<< <i>I'm pulling for ya, Estil!

Your posts are refreshing to read. Collecting in its purest form. Pretty awesome that you're wife is now jumping into the action!

Good luck.

-t >>



Exactly! Agree 100%

Bottom9th

I'm in awe that your wife is into with you. I have learned to settle for mine not really caring about my collection, which is better than complaining about it!

Bob...

TheVon

<< <i>So do you guys think we can do it if we really commit ourselves and cut back on other luxuries like eating out and such? The fact we have no vehicle and no gas bill will surely help matters, right? >>



I think your wife will divorce you before you complete this goal. Seriously, that's great that she is helping you with this but if you love her, you wouldn't want her to give up so much for three years would you?

Estil

<< <i>i would say go for the key Rc's and higher value cards now. more people may be trying to sell for cash and more than likely they will only go up in value in a few years. >>



It does seem getting the PSA cards (especially several in one purchase to save on shipping and cost in general) is the easy part. The hard part is getting the rest of the set in a nice consistent NRMT or better. My 1974 set still needs some work in that department and my 1977 set has about 30-40 commons/semistars needing upgrading.

I'm also hoping with time, the 1970s PSA 7's will continue to get cheaper as more people "try their luck" in sending them to be graded. You know, increasing the supply? I sure could use a price drop in 1971's; even PSA 7's are not exactly given away for that year.

Estil

<< <i>

<< <i>So do you guys think we can do it if we really commit ourselves and cut back on other luxuries like eating out and such? The fact we have no vehicle and no gas bill will surely help matters, right? >>



I think your wife will divorce you before you complete this goal. Seriously, that's great that she is helping you with this but if you love her, you wouldn't want her to give up so much for three years would you? >>



It's more like I'm the one that does the most cutting back. But then again I buy all the groceries and choose store brands and such whenever possible.

nightcrawler

Very cool

And agree with TheVon.

Estil

Well, me and wife decided to exchange some of our anniversary presents early and this is what I got to cross off the above list:

1973 Topps Pete Rose #130
1974 Topps Nolan Ryan #20
1976 Topps Carl Yastrzemski #230
1976 Topps Hank Aaron #560
1976 Topps Tom Seaver #600
1977 Topps George Brett LDR #001
1977 Topps Nolan Ryan RB #234
1977 Topps George Brett #580
1977 Topps Robin Yount #635
1977 Topps Nolan Ryan #650
1978 Topps Nolan Ryan #400

I also have a spare 1975 Hank Aaron PSA 7 and 1977 Nolan Ryan PSA 7 if anyone wants to do a trade for anything left on the list!