Best 70's Baseball and Football sets and why.

Blackborder

Not necessarily what you think is the best designed, but the best set overall taking everything into account.


I'm pretty much decided on the football set - 1975. It may not be the best design on the 70's but it's one of the better ones, and the green & black goalpost back design is definitely the best. The set has a great mixture of older stars, like Dawson, Otto, Olsen etc. as well as some great future rookie stars like Fouts and Swann. There are neat Blanda tribute cards as well. Too bad Payton's rookie wasn't in the set.

For baseball, I've always liked the quirky photographs on the 73 set, but that only takes you so far. I've been developing an appreciation for the 75 set. I used to hate the psychedelic colors, but they're not so bad on a second look. The 75 set arguably has the best player selection of the 70's as well with the Brett and Yount rookie cards and Aaron tribute cards.

54topps

I like the 1971 year for all sports. Its also the year I was born!! The basketball and hockey from 1971 are very colorful. The black beauties from baseball are very tough to find in high grade.

Blackborder

<< <i>I like the 1971 year for all sports. Its also the year I was born!! The basketball and hockey from 1971 are very colorful. The black beauties from baseball are very tough to find in high grade. >>



Agreed on the 71 baseball. That definitely is one of the best sets, if not the best.

Indy78

I'm with you on the 75 football and baseball sets. The baseball set in particular is my favorite in that it has a great selection of RC's, great design, the opportunity to collect both the regular and mini sizes, relatively inexpensive, challanging to find centered cards with clean corners and edges (due to them being colored), and great mixture of new and older HOFers (e.g., Brett, Yount, Kaline, Killebrew, etc).

BTW, the Aaron tribute cards are in the 1974 set, not the 75's.

PowderedH2O

For football I think the 1971 set is the best. It is visually appealing, has lots of great stars that a lot of the other sets of the 70's don't have (Unitas, Starr, Sayers, Namath, etc...), and has the best backs of any set ever. For baseball, I say 1976. Something about those 76's has always appealed to me. For basketball I like the 1971-72. And for hockey it is 1973-74 OPC. A GREAT hockey set!!!

hammered

Baseball: 76 is best to me because if's the first one I collected as a kid. I also like the variety of poses on the star cards. The Rose and Bench cards are my favorites of those players from any year. It also has Aaron's last cards. The set's design is colorful but not over the top like 75. It has a pretty nice mix of portrait and action shots ('75 is almost all portrait shots). Rookie cards of Eckersley and Guidry, and a Brett card that's even more valuable in top grade than his RC. The All-Time All Stars are a great subset with some of the best players ever.

Football: 77 has the best design and a really good selection of rookie cards - Carson, Webster, Selmon, Largent, Haynes, etc. I like the 1000-yarder designations and Payton's card from this set is his best-looking card and toughest card in high grade, IMO. It's a big set, but not too big, and it also has a nice combination of action and portrait shots. '76 was almost all close up head shots. And it's undervalued - you can pick up a high grade set for about $100.

Bosox1976

I agree on 76 topps for baseball. I like 77 football.

ElToroLoco

75 Topps, a great man was born that year!

Beck6

I will second the 1971 football. Great star power and the borders make it tough for high grades