Hobby Thoughts: Confessions of a Set Collector

Recently on the Vintage Card Voyage channel, we discussed if collectors have a place in the hobby. My co-host Ken and I both consider ourselves collectors, and more specifically, set collectors. These days, Ken tends to focus on smaller sets, while I’ve been trying to complete the run of the 1970s Topps baseball sets for more than a year.

If you aren’t a set collector, your first question might be, why? Why would you try to collect sets that are more than 50 years old, containing cards of many players you either don’t know or have perhaps a vague memory of? A totally fair question. I can’t speak for other collectors, but a few different reasons come to mind:

• I was alive for most of the 1970s, so I feel a certain connection to that decade and thus felt motivated to eventually own each set

• As a kid collecting in the 1980s, a lot of star cards from that era were out of my price range, so I felt this natural pull toward wanting them, and now that I have a little more disposable income, it’s nice to be able to afford most of them

• Having purchased a variety of collections over the past few years, I accumulated enough cards from each year of the 1970s that I thought, “Well, I already have some from each year, sooo …” (a thought that is very much part of the set collector mentality)

• I’ve always loved baseball history and vintage cards are, for me, a unique way to connect to whatever year of baseball each card is from

• This could be the writer in me, but it’s, dare I say magical, to collect cards and most times have no idea who their original owner was, and therefore wonder who the people were, why they wrote the things they did on the cards, what type of collector they were (set, player, team, etc.), and how they got into collecting

• Oh, and there is something amazing about discovering the hair/facial hair choices that players made during the 1970s

The next natural question is, can’t you just buy each set and be done with it? Sure, I could, if I had that much disposable income and felt like spending it all at once, which I currently do not. And, honestly, that wouldn't be any fun. For me, the joy is in the hunt. Every card show I go to, every time I stop in at the local card store, every antique store, garage sale or estate sale with cards that I happen upon, there’s the opportunity to get just a little closer to finishing that set run.

And, really, doing it this way gives my collecting a bit more purpose. I have a goal and I’m pursuing it, in my own way and my own pace. It’s also a reminder of how I used to collect in the 1980s, when I would rip packs to try and get star/rookie cards and Detroit cards I wanted, sure, but also to try and eventually get every single card in the set.

With today’s modern cards and the multitude of parallels, refractors/superfractors, serial numbered cards, etc., completing a set is basically impossible unless you’re just talking about the base cards. Of course, if you’re trying to do that by ripping packs, you might as well buy the base set because you’ll be out hundreds (thousands?) of dollars.

It can sometimes feel like Ken and I are part of a dying breed, but I’d rather think we’re part of a tight-knit community that he and I are trying to grow, with our channel and that I’m trying to grow with this newsletter.

Are you a set collector? If so, what set(s)?

Vintage Hall of Fame Rookie Profile: 1975 Topps #223 Robin Yount

The 1975 Topps baseball set is probably my favorite one ever, mostly because of how unique it is, with the variety of bright border colors that just scream ‘70s to me. Needless to say, it’s also one of the best years for HOF rookies, and one of the four that year is Robin Yount.

Robin Yount - SS/CF

HOF Induction in 1999 - Named on 385 of 497 ballots (77.5%)

Standout Stats:

• Two-time MVP but only a three-time All-Star

• 10.5 WAR in 1982 was the second-highest WAR season of the 1980s (Dwight Gooden 1985 - 13.3)

• 300 or more total bases in a season four different times

• In 1982 MVP season, led the league in WAR, hits, doubles, total bases, slugging and OPS

• Career WAR - 77.4