Cats, guitars, baseball cards -
I started collecting in 1998. My initial focus was on making sets and collecting Eddie Mathews cards. Eddie, a Hall of Fame third baseman, was my favorite player as a kid, and his team, the Milwaukee Braves, was my favorite team. As time has gone by, I've expanded to include football cards, some non-sport cards, some NASCAR, and even a few basketball cards. I've also acquired photographs, both autographed and not, magazines, books and even the occasional vintage magazine ad.
Since I started selling cards at the local show, my emphasis has largely gone away from making sets, partly because in these days of short-prints it's become very hard to complete most sets. Plus I had pretty much run out of space to store them. I still do a few, however.
As I said in the collectibles home page, the first cards I bought were Topps baseball cards in 1959.
I put together a set of Topps '59 baseball. Most of the cards in the set are Excellent or Very Good.
There's a handful graded better than that and a fair-size chunk that are Good. There's one Fair which
is the Aaron #380. It took about three years at a cost of about $1,800 to complete the set.
Next I did a set of '59 Topps football. The '59 football set contains 176 cards so is much easier to complete than the BB set. They also seem (to me, at least) to be generally available in better grades than the BB cards. My set is almost completely Very Good and Excellent, with a handful of Near Mint, Excellent Mint and Good. I completed this set in about three years at a cost of approximately $525.
Then I started on the 1960 Topps BB. I completed this set of 572 cards, though I'm not exactly sure when. My estimated total cost for the set is about $2,000. The majority of my set is Very Good or Excellent with just a few outside that range.
Finally I started a set of 1960 Topps FB. This set contains only 132 cards so it's relatively easy to complete. It took me about six years to finish the set at a cost of about $270. Most of my set are Excellent Mint or Excellent with a few Very Good and just a couple outside that range.
For sample pictures of these cards click HERE.
Click CONTINUE to continue to next section (Eddie Mathews).
