1972 Baseball Poppage

PaulMaul

In a moment of insanity, I've decided to pursue all-graded 1971 and 1972 baseball sets. I had about 12-15% of each set in graded form to start with, as well as a ton of high grade raw commons accumulated over the last 12 years, mostly from show buys.

I recently sent in four 1971 subs. While there were some nice hits, PSA has just become brutally tough with this set. Cards that look fantastic routinely get 7s now.

My first 1972 sub was a bit more successful. I hoped for more 9s but it's a good start.

1 1 24544839 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 4 Checklist 1-132 Card
2 1 24544840 NEAR MINT 7 1972 Topps 5 John Bateman Card
3 1 24544841 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 11 Bobby Valentine Card
4 1 24544842 NEAR MINT 7 1972 Topps 18 Juan Pizarro Yellow Under "C" And "S" Card
5 1 24544843 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 22 Rob Gardner Card
6 1 24544844 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 23 Ted Kubiak Card
7 1 24544845 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 26 Andy Etchebarren Card
8 1 24544846 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 41 Tommy Davis Card
9 1 24544847 MINT 9 1972 Topps 56 Rich Chiles Card
10 1 24544848 MINT 9 1972 Topps 59 Fred Stanley Card
11 1 24544849 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 62 Angel Mangual Card
12 1 24544850 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 64 Pete Broberg Card
13 1 24544851 MINT 9 1972 Topps 67 Red Schoendienst Card
14 1 24544852 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 77 Ron Theobald Card
15 1 24544853 MINT 9 1972 Topps 78 Steve Arlin Card
16 1 24544854 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 84 Vince Colbert Card
17 1 24544855 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 86 AL Batting Leaders Oliva/Murcer/Rettenmund Card
18 1 24544856 MINT 9 1972 Topps 87 N.L. R.B.I. Leaders Torre/Stargell/Aaron Card
19 1 24544857 MINT 9 1972 Topps 90 AL Home Run Leaders Melton/Cash/Jackson Card
20 1 24544858 MINT 9 1972 Topps 91 N.L. E.R.A. Leaders Seaver/Roberts/Wilson Card
21 1 24544859 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 97 Tom Kelley Card
22 1 24544860 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 101 Astros Rookies Greif/Richard/Busse Card
23 1 24544861 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 112 Greg Luzinski Card
24 1 24544862 MINT 9 1972 Topps 137 Dick Williams Card
25 1 24544863 MINT 9 1972 Topps 143 Garry Jestadt Card
26 1 24544864 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 147 Dave Kingman Card
27 1 24544865 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 158 Jerry Kenney Card
28 1 24544866 NEAR MINT 7 1972 Topps 165 Chris Speier Card
29 1 24544867 MINT 9 1972 Topps 168 Deron Johnson in Action Card
30 1 24544868 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 176 Tom Haller in Action Card
31 1 24544869 MINT 9 1972 Topps 199 Mike Fiore Card
32 1 24544870 MINT 9 1972 Topps 202 Scipio Spinks Card
33 1 24544871 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 221 N.L. Playoffs Bucs Champs! Card
34 1 24544872 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 228 World Series Game 6 Card
35 1 24544873 MINT 9 1972 Topps 251 Checklist 264-394 Small Print on Front Card
36 1 24544874 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 252 Ken Reynolds Card
37 1 24544875 MINT 9 1972 Topps 302 George Mitterwald in Action Card
38 1 24544876 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 305 Ken Boswell Card
39 1 24544877 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 331 Stan Swanson Card
40 1 24544878 MINT 9 1972 Topps 359 Don Pavletich Card
41 1 24544879 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 375 Reggie Cleveland Card
42 1 24544880 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 377 Terry Harmon Card
43 1 24544881 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 388 Charlie Williams Card
44 1 24544882 MINT 9 1972 Topps 389 Bill Rigney Card
45 1 24544883 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1972 Topps 399 Milt Wilcox Card

gemint

Good luck with your pursuit. Those are great sets. I agree that it's gotten a lot tougher recently to get 9s (8s on '71s) than it used to be save for the occasional favorable sub. With the prices of graded common cards mostly cheap these days and the difficulty in getting newer subs in the right holders, I think it's better to buy them already graded except for the tougher low pop cards if you can find nice raw examples.

PaulMaul

Agreed on all counts John. BTW, all five of these subs were 50-day and popped in 5-14 days.

PSASAP

Here's a set (actually 767/787 cards) that sold last week. The set had one PSA 10, 331 PSA 9, and the rest either 8.5 or 8. At $8,412, that was slightly less than $11.00 per card. This seems like a great deal for someone who wanted to avoid having to chase down all the cards, or for a dealer wanting to sell the cards individually.

PWCC auction

gemint

<< <i>Here's a set (actually 767/787 cards) that sold last week. The set had one PSA 10, 331 PSA 9, and the rest either 8.5 or 8. At $8,412, that was slightly less than $11.00 per card. This seems like a great deal for someone who wanted to avoid having to chase down all the cards, or for a dealer wanting to sell the cards individually.

PWCC auction >>



I haven't run the VCP numbers on it yet but a cursory view seems like they got a steal.

timpatg

<< <i>Agreed on all counts John. BTW, all five of these subs were 50-day and popped in 5-14 days. >>



I had two 50 day orders logged in after a 5 day order that both popped before the 5 day order. Of course I have one 50 day order that's been there since the Clinton administration.

PaulMaul

If you're buying flips it's a great way to go, but unfortunately I can't stand tilt, and so even the majority of 9s are unacceptable to me. As a result I don't think I'd be happy with a bulk purchase like this.

BTW, it kills me to look at all the beautiful 1971 7s I'm getting back and see the same cards on eBay as tilted, horrifically ugly 8s.

gemint

<< <i>If you're buying flips it's a great way to go, but unfortunately I can't stand tilt, and so even the majority of 9s are unacceptable to me. As a result I don't think I'd be happy with a bulk purchase like this.

BTW, it kills me to look at all the beautiful 1971 7s I'm getting back and see the same cards on eBay as tilted, horrifically ugly 8s. >>



That's what's been frustrating me as well. I see the garbage 9s on eBay that I reject and then get my nicer subbed examples back in 7 holders. Not just limited to 70s cards either. I have a beautiful 1953 Mitchell that sits in a 7 holder even though it's well centered with a full red corner. Browsing the 8s in VCP archives, almost every example has a worn corner on the red border.

gemint

Not to highjack your thread, but to provide an example of today's standards for us ordinary Joe's, here's the '53 Mitchell that is deemed 'NM'.

PaulMaul

Yeah, when I get them all back I'm going to post in this thread some comparisons of my 7s with eBay 8s. I agree that '53 is beautiful and fits the classic description of an 8...three nice corners, one with a touch, nice centering, etc.

The rough cut upper left should not be penalized, there are tons of rough edged 9s out there, it is not chipping, just a rough cut.

grote15

Strong sub--nice % of 9s on a tougher set.