No love for tennis?

NickM

With 5 of a possible 122 cards, I'm in second place on the International Tennis HOF set. Granted, many of the players are found only in 1920s and 1930s British sets such as the John Player & Sons or Churchman sets, but when the set includes Connors, McEnroe, Courier, Graf, Sampras, Evert, Navratilova, Agassi, Borg, etc., you would think that it wouldn't be too hard to find partial sets that are more complete than 5 cards.

Are other people working on this set, and not registering their sets so far, or is there just not much interest in tennis cards?

Nick

ThoseBackPages

i love 1980s tennis. i think the problem with the card aspect of tennis is the lack of any kind of continuity

psychump

The Aussie men's final was breathtaking!!! I love singles tennis...no one to blame but yourself. HBO's story on Bob Hewitt was eye opening but not mentioned during the telecasts as far as I can tell. As collecting cards go...I think this is a great collectible! What are some of the prices the greats go for?

NickM

psych - it's all over the map, often depending mainly on the rarity of the set.

1979 Venorlandus cards (Evert, Connors, Borg) can be found for less than $5 in PSA 9 condition and $15 or so in PSA 10 condition.
1977-79 Sportscasters are sometimes $10 or less in PSA 8 or above condition (many of the cards have only been submitted a handful of times, though lots of high-grade raw exists).
Some of the '80s stars in Netpro or FaxPax sets can be found for under $10 for PSA 9s.
Older cards can often fly under the radar - I got a PSA 6 strip card of Bill Tilden for under $15 IIRC a few years ago, though sellers are now asking a lot more for the same card. When you do find the British cigarette set cards, a PSA 7 could run you anywhere from $10 to $50, depending on the opening bid and whether there are any other bidders. I just picked up a Budge PSA 4 from Kelloggs Pep for under $5 (including combined shipping).

Nick

psychump

Good Knowledge thank you. I have a Don Budge Raquet and a Pancho Gonzalez raquet as well. Store bought I believe in the sixties or before.

cards651

Nick - I enjoyed tennis at one point but the cards in the set are just a jumble. Netpro from the 80's? These were never really collected would be my guess. The Navratilova card is well into her prime years. It's too bad World Team Tennis didn't issue some cards in the early 70's. They had all the stars from those years and there would be good demand today, perhaps like the WHA Hockey cards. Don't know anything about the old tennis cards. Good luck with the collection. (Side note - I think PSA has Cawley/Goolagong reversed.) - Kevin

alnavman

Please note I'm a married man but had to comment on this thread, did anyone else see the current #1 ladies player on the Ellen show the other day. Her legs are about ten feet long!! Makes me want to start watching tennis more.

cards651

My kids had the women's Australian Open on the other day. My kids play basketball and soccer and they could not believe the squealing from both players. It was well beyond grunting and had moved on to where each was clearly trying to gain some sort of psychological edge. I gave up on tennis a long time ago. I guess the more attractive players are nice for a pin-up calendar or a TV talk show.