Delaying the inevitable

 

 I wrote last month about how I am collecting three sets that are known for being difficult on collectors -- 1967, 1969 and 1970 Topps.

I'm not afraid of difficult sets. I completed '71 and '72 Topps. But the hobby has changed since I finished those sets and just the repeated effort tends to wear on you a little bit as you progress in the hobby. That's why I add little "enjoyment sets" to my completion quests. Stuff like this:

All of this 1985 Donruss came in a TCDB transaction with GoldenEagles555. I now have more than 100 cards from the set, which may not seem like much but I have gone more than three decades with having no more than 20 cards from the set, and my brain just started thinking that's the size of the set.

No rush on completing this one because it's needed to help balance the madness of '67, '69 and '70. I am "close" on all three of those sets in terms of cards that I've accumulated already -- but we all know that the difficult part is the relatively few cards in the high numbers.

 

Perhaps to snap me back into reality after all that easily acquired '85 Donruss, I received another card in the TCDB trade.

 

This was a low-number need from the 1967 set, totally unexpected from GoldenEagles. 

I also landed another 1967 need in a Twitter purchase from Doc's Card Sales. Always key to get a '60s card of a Hall of Famer.

But there are so, so many famed players left to get in the '67 set. I have no doubt I will get them all eventually. Still, I have some doubt about those high numbers, you know the real toughies -- Tom Seaver, Rod Carew and Brooks Robinson. I've often felt those are going to be impossible and there will be some point when I'm just staring down the final two cards forever.

I'm always avoiding those super pricey guys when I'm set collecting and I feel like I'm delaying the inevitable. So I looked up on ebay how much it might cost me to land those guys -- in the near future -- based on recently completed sales.

I scrapped the graded examples, because there's no need to overpay when I'm already paying a bunch.

 

This is what I came up for averages for the '67 examples:

Rod Carew: $317.32

Brooks Robinson: $215.97

Tom Seaver: $717.45

Pricey but not impossible -- the Seaver is the only that made me throw up my hands. It's also the one with the least available examples, because everyone is grading that thing.

Here is what I have for the one major 1970 card I need:

Nolan Ryan: $201.18

Too much, subjectively, but I can pay it if I need to.

How about a couple 1969 examples?

Reggie Jackson: $141.15

Nolan Ryan: $198.32

I also recently added a few 1969s as well, these from Twitter and @Tec872. Obviously, no Nolan or Reggie there.

 

But the little bit of research made me feel a little better, many of those cards that I've considered elusive do seem like I could acquire them. And if I got myself together, I could add one or two so that they are not the last ones on the list being held over my head.

 

I just sent a Beckett magazine article out a few days ago and I'll have another one wrapped up in a week. Some of the cash from that could go to a very worthy cause.

 

Obviously there are many other cards in those sets that will require some cash but I'm not quite as afraid of them (for instance, I looked up completed prices on the '67 Red Sox team card, and while it's tough to find in decent condition, that's not going to be a big priority for me, I have a feeling).

 

Research not only provides information, sometimes it calms fears, too.