Fred Bear
Verified Trader,
Well, last month, a few big changes occurred... the company I work for is sending me back-to-school to complete my Ph.D. work... my wife and I decided it was time to sell our home and move into a bigger place... and we've decided to try and start a family. All really great things! Accounting for these new situations got me to thinking about my collection and collecting habits. I decided to go in a new direction and focus more on vintage cards and vintage collecting (sets and hall-of-famers).
I posted around the time I made the switch and asked for some advice and got some great comments and suggestions. I contacted a couple of vintage dealers that I was referred to (thanks hockeygrampy) and checked out a vintage board and the Vintage Hockey Collector book (thanks orfew). I'm obviously still learning, but January has been pretty fun!
Project #1 - 1954-55 Topps Set
I finally decided on putting this set together in PSA 6 condition over the next two years with plans to upgrade to PSA 7 condition from there (hopefully within 5 years). I decided this after picking up a few in PSA 4, 5 & 6 condition for comparison. As of the end of January, I had picked up...
#2 Bob Chrystal
#28 Lou Jankowski
#42 George "Red" Sullivan
#47 Cal Gardner
#52 Earl Riebel
I've been registering the cards in the PSA registry, but have no intention to compete for the top spots. Right now, I'm 8.33% complete with a grade of 5.400 and a rating of 0.205. It's been a fun experience and I'm learning a lot about vintage collecting...
Project #2 - 1980-81 Topps
I've learned that while finding the 54-55 Topps cards isn't 'difficult' right now, learning to pace myself is! So I figure I should come up with a side-project (or probably 2 or 3) to work on as I put together my main set. 80-81 was the first year that I can remember buying packs of in the store (wouldn't visit an actual card shop for probably another 3-4 years) and that gives it a great nostalgia factor for me. I don't mind that most collectors would rather have the OPC version. As a kid in Michigan, we had Topps and that's what I'm going with! I picked up this lot in January to start a much longer scale project since the populations are much lower...
#7 Dave Maloney
#57 Carol Vadnais
#130 Denis Herron
#235 Glen Resch
#264 Stanley Cup Finals
I picked up a complete set in decent condition last year and will probably look to try and find someone who is willing to help me determine if any are good candidates for getting graded on my own. I'll probably try and pick up more of these raw, too, with the intention of grading. Again, not the world's most popular set, but it's one that I will always appreciate! (Currently, these 5 give me 1.89% of the set, a rating of 0.157, and a grade of 9.000 which is good enough for 9th out of the 10 listed in the registry).
Comments and tips are always welcome!
Please share some of your vintage pick-ups from January as well!!
I posted around the time I made the switch and asked for some advice and got some great comments and suggestions. I contacted a couple of vintage dealers that I was referred to (thanks hockeygrampy) and checked out a vintage board and the Vintage Hockey Collector book (thanks orfew). I'm obviously still learning, but January has been pretty fun!
Project #1 - 1954-55 Topps Set
I finally decided on putting this set together in PSA 6 condition over the next two years with plans to upgrade to PSA 7 condition from there (hopefully within 5 years). I decided this after picking up a few in PSA 4, 5 & 6 condition for comparison. As of the end of January, I had picked up...
#2 Bob Chrystal
#28 Lou Jankowski
#42 George "Red" Sullivan
#47 Cal Gardner
#52 Earl Riebel
I've been registering the cards in the PSA registry, but have no intention to compete for the top spots. Right now, I'm 8.33% complete with a grade of 5.400 and a rating of 0.205. It's been a fun experience and I'm learning a lot about vintage collecting...
Project #2 - 1980-81 Topps
I've learned that while finding the 54-55 Topps cards isn't 'difficult' right now, learning to pace myself is! So I figure I should come up with a side-project (or probably 2 or 3) to work on as I put together my main set. 80-81 was the first year that I can remember buying packs of in the store (wouldn't visit an actual card shop for probably another 3-4 years) and that gives it a great nostalgia factor for me. I don't mind that most collectors would rather have the OPC version. As a kid in Michigan, we had Topps and that's what I'm going with! I picked up this lot in January to start a much longer scale project since the populations are much lower...
#7 Dave Maloney
#57 Carol Vadnais
#130 Denis Herron
#235 Glen Resch
#264 Stanley Cup Finals
I picked up a complete set in decent condition last year and will probably look to try and find someone who is willing to help me determine if any are good candidates for getting graded on my own. I'll probably try and pick up more of these raw, too, with the intention of grading. Again, not the world's most popular set, but it's one that I will always appreciate! (Currently, these 5 give me 1.89% of the set, a rating of 0.157, and a grade of 9.000 which is good enough for 9th out of the 10 listed in the registry).
Comments and tips are always welcome!
Please share some of your vintage pick-ups from January as well!!
