Pages

▼

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

A big 73 Topps push.. and a set-collector question

ARPSmith spoke up for the Giants I pulled in the 2014 Donruss Series 2 hobby box I won from Panini recently. (Still a lot of trade bait left there, btw!) In return, he hooked me up with a nice stack of '73 Topps, checking off a few cards from my list and upgrading a few others.


The highlight? Gotta go with the Davey Lopes high-number rookie.


And ol' "French Fries" himself, Pepe Frias.

Thanks for the trade, Adam! Adam himself is a card away from completing '73 Topps, but has arrived at the "tough schmidt" point. Tough Schmidt, indeed!

Shortly after Adam's package came in, I hit Sportlots and placed a decent order from one seller, checking off a bunch more 73s (in addition to several 2001 Topps Archives Reserve needs, but we'll save that for another post).


Good stuff! I can almost see the finish line on the horizon. With the card show coming up this weekend, I hope to land a few more needed cards, striving to reach the "tough schmidt" point myself. But as for now, here's where I'm at:

560/699
80.11% complete
as of 9/22/14

Hey, cracked 80% complete! Nice.

What's really killing my ratio are the unnumbered team checklists. I've got zero of 24 cards from that little mail-in (?) sideset. Maybe I shouldn't count them in my official "1973 Topps master set" total. Also the manager variations.. do I really care if I have the cards with the coaches' photos background in orange and the cards with the coaches' photos background in brownish-orange?

Without those tricky team checklists and manager variations, I'd be looking at 100 cards left to go. Ah well, I'll keep them in my needslist for now, but we'll see if I give up and drop them once I wind up at tough schmidt. Anybody out there have an opinion on the matter?

 Do you vintage set collectors out there worry about variations and insert-like sets, or do you just check off card #1 through the last numbered card and call it good?

As always, my needs are here and I'm up for trades. Thanks for stopping by.
at

15 comments:

  1. P-town TomSeptember 23, 2014 at 4:20 PM

    Card #1 through the last numbered card and then I'm done. I don't have the coin to chase all of the "variations" and inserts from back in the day.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mark HoyleSeptember 23, 2014 at 5:24 PM

    I say you have to get the checklists. I'll see what I have. The coach variations I don't think are a must. I'm hitting a show this weekend. I will bring your list.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mark HoyleSeptember 23, 2014 at 5:30 PM

    I have eight checklists for you. Mets, Cards,Phil's,Whitesox,Royals, Pirates, Expos,Dodgers

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mark HoyleSeptember 23, 2014 at 5:47 PM

    Found a Grich and Concepcion. They are all on the way

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. defgavSeptember 23, 2014 at 8:27 PM

      Thanks, Mark! You're the best!

      Delete
    2. Mark HoyleSeptember 24, 2014 at 1:57 AM

      I don't know what you spend per month on cards but when you get down to the Schmidt just make it the purchase of the month. One can be had at a decent price.

      Delete
    3. AnonymousSeptember 24, 2014 at 4:06 AM

      I'm not going to speak for Gavin here, but in my case I always come down to "Yeah, I could spend (insert dollar amount here) on this relatively cheap Schmidt... But think of all the commons I could buy with that money!" I personally am OK with waiting to find that one Schmidt that's been used in bicycle spokes or has someone's name written on it.

      Delete
  5. Tony L.September 23, 2014 at 5:57 PM

    I feel like the checklists should be included, but that's based on nothing more than my own preferences. The variations? Meh. No need.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tony L.September 23, 2014 at 5:57 PM

      But that Lopes Rookie is sweet. I have to chase it down myself for my Brewers collection!

      Delete
  6. JediJeffSeptember 23, 2014 at 7:01 PM

    Just the base, ma'am. All those variations are people being uber anal and thinking you have to have all the versions to complete a set. Hell - in that case, what about the time the card borders were just a little more yellow on one card compared to the other?

    It's impossible.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousSeptember 23, 2014 at 8:31 PM

    Since I've been purging my collection and doing some serious navel-gaving about what kind of collection I want to have, I find that my answer to your question is "It depends". For 1974, I collected the entire base set, traded set, team checklists and every single variation. For 1973, I'm also in a "Tough Schmidt" situation, but once I've got 1-660, I'm done. Many of the sets that I previously had on my mental "complete someday" list are now officially as complete as they're ever gonna get... it all depends on how I feel about a particular set.

    ReplyDelete
  8. RAZSeptember 23, 2014 at 9:21 PM

    I'm all about that base, 'bout that base, 'bout that base.

    ReplyDelete
  9. BobWalkthePlankSeptember 24, 2014 at 5:30 AM

    I think your head would explode if you tried to get all the variations.

    ReplyDelete
  10. eltoro2012September 24, 2014 at 8:53 AM

    I am also working on completing the 1973 set and I haven't worried about the manager variations. I feel that if the variations were to deal with information (name misspelled, wrong position, etc.) then I would try to pursue them. Since they are only aesthetic, either variation will work.

    ReplyDelete