[mseward]

Was looking at mjmj's recent thread showing his recent awesome Phillies pickups for his PC, and got me wondering about something. I've been wanting to start collecting and assembling vintage Detroit Tigers team sets.

For those of you who collect vintage, and even better of you collect a certain team/player, do you only consider those cards with a minimum grade? Why/why not? Does the grade change depending on the year/age of the card? Do you buy vintage cards for your PC raw? Again, why or why not?

Thanks so much in advance for your answers. I'm sure this will be helpful in steering me as I begin this endeavor. And, if you have any other advice or thoughts, please do share.

Thanks so much!

[mjmj1966]

What I did was take the highest price card in the team set and see at what grade I could afford and then purchased all the rest in the same grade. For example all my 1959s are PSA 7. In the case of the 1973 Mike Schmidt I could only afford a 7 but all the rest of the team set will be 8. I like keeping them all the same grade but there will be exceptions and 1973 being one of them. Just basicly get the grades you can afford and are comfortable with and go from there. Here are my years and grades I look for:

what I can afford (????-1939)
psa 4-5 (1940-1949)
psa 6 (1950-1955)
psa 7 (1556-1964)
psa 8 (1965-1977) exception Mike Schmidt rc
psa 9 (1978-present)

Hope this help in some way.

[beatles guy]

My breakdown for Cardinals goes like this:

1950's and prior - EX or better (VG on some of the more expensive stars)
1960's to 1972 - EX-MT or better
1973 to 1979 - NM or better

I am a centering guy. I'd rather have a few touched corners than have an off-centered card. That may be just me though.

[radarblip]

Lol, I'm the oddball in the bunch. Don't do sets of any kind, don't do Graded cards. I keep it simple collecting what I like.

With Vintage, I get what I can when I can especially if I don't see a card that often.

Centering is the second thing after the subject matter. Prefer Portrait type cards and not really into action shots. For me its more about the player.

Surface can have minor creasing but prefer NO paper loss and a little original shine with no stains. Corners/edges come last. Older vintage is what it is,,,,,,,USED.

[waynetalger]

Me pre-war no paper loss and no creases through the face. I expect rounded corners and creases
after war no creases no paperloss. (although I have a few with creases I am always looking for a better card for that one

[98holiday]

I'm not to worried about the condition.If I can get a superstar HOFer at a good price,as long as its not mangled, I get it.Collecting is my hobby.I'm not looking to make a buck of my collection.

[jerodc10]

I try to get cards with no creases, corners not a huge deal.....I just like being able to have a copy of cards I never thought I would own....I'll take a psa 1 of Mantle for $75 over paying $2000 for a nice condition one.

[mseward]

Thanks, everyone for your input. As usual, the consensus seems to be that there is no consensus! I guess that's what's great about collecting baseball cards; you can collect any way you want. If anyone else has any thoughts, please feel free to chime in.

- Mickey

[drew20]

I'm currently going for the 57 topps set in Psa 7. I like graded cards just so I know what I'm getting when I buy on eBay. I don't mind if the card is a bit miscut.

[54killebrew74]

For those of you who collect vintage, and even better of you collect a certain team/player,

Q: do you only consider those cards with a minimum grade? Why/why not?
A: Myself I'm trying to get all my Killebrew's in a grade 7 or higher and I'll always upgrade the grade for the right price. Higher the grade the more it's worth.

Q: Do you buy vintage cards for your PC raw? Again, why or why not?
A: No I don't buy raw unless I can personally look at it because you never know what crap you get off the internet. Buy graded like PSA etc and you can't go wrong IMO.