The 2011 MLB Playoffs are here! My new PSA card sets.

It was a wonderful summer filled with some quality vacation time with my wife, kids and grand-children. We spent August in Hilton Head, SC with the entire family! I have started some new PSA set projects!

I have started these new PSA projects:

1959-1969 Decade of Cleveland Browns FB cards
1968-69 Topps Hockey
1971-72 OPC Boston Bruins
Baseball Hall of Fame Players and Managers
Don Baylor, Derek Jeter and Barry Bonds player sets
1960-1970 Topps Master set run
1971-72 Topps NBA

I'm making a dent in the % of completion, but there's a long way to go on most projects which is fun!
I love the PSA holders and i don't really care that much about the grade as long as the cards are bought reasonably.
You may be surprised that I have never submitted any of my cards! they were all bought graded. In many instances I paid less than the grading fee for the cards. Someone took a loss when submitting them.

In the past 40+ years I have collected cards and 95% of my collection is not graded and will stay like that. I will keep buying PSA cards for my new projects as I can afford them. It's nice to get the cards and register them on PSA's web site. I love doing that every day after the mail comes.

The MLB Championship round is ready to commence. It's been an exciting year in Baseball. I am looking forward to the Tigers and Rangers series and no matter who wins I'll enjoy the games. The NL contest between the Brewers and Cardinals is my favorite of the 2 series. I'm really pulling for the Brewers to win! I am hoping that the Brewers can go the distance.

In closing, I'm proud to say that Becky and I are expecting our third grand-child any day. This will be our second grand-son.

Pictured is my 1982 Baseball card!

I hope you all enjoy the fall and the MLB Playoffs!

Thursday May 19, 2011

It's Thursday morning and I am waiting for the mail. I have a half dozen cards coming a a nice deal with my friend Sgt. Bruce for 4 more cards on Monday. Every day I check my auction finder to locate 1968 Topps Football PSA cards being offered.
Some of the big cards in this set include Bob Griese's rookie card, Joe Namath, Bob Lilly, Gale Sayers and Mike Ditka. I have most of the stars, but I am waiting for the right grade and price on the Griese and Namath cards. These key cards should be especially nice for inclusion in my set.
Storing my set has developed into a simple yet protective project. I take each card and place it in a zip lock poly bag that fits the card and has a little extra room. These bags serve to protect my cards as well as gives me the option to write notes on the bag if needed. The bags with cards are then placed in numerical order in my long white storage boxes. I label each box as to the contents.
I keep track of the cards i have as well as ones I need with the PSA web site's set registry. When a card arrives I enter the serial number and then make notes about the purchase such as price paid and purchaser. I enjoy this simple process and it is a great way to track your inventory.
As a seven year old, I watched the 1968 Football season with my Dad for the NFL games because he was an old school NFL fan. I watched the AFL games with my Uncle Louie because he was of the younger generation and a fan of the fairly new AFL. The day of the Super Bowl came and I was happy to watch the game with my Dad, Uncle and several members of the press from our local newspaper, The Marlboro Enterprise. My Father worked there after the Korean War was over. It was a great game.
As I look back and watch the game at age 49, I realize that the Jets ability to control the ball and thus the clock was a key factor in their victory.
Some of the players in the Super Bowl 3 are represented in this set including Namath, Maynard, Lammons, Snell, and Gordon.  Among the Colts are pictured with Unitus, Matte, Richardson and Mackey.
My good friend and price guide author, Bob Lemke, has made some cards in the 1968 design of missing players from the set including Brian Piccolo. I plan to add these to the set, too.. Feel free to leave comments. Thanks, Bill

Here's a picture of the 1968 Topps Test Issue of Team cards!

1968 Topps Football set

Last month I decided to make a complete set of 1968 Topps Football cards. This set is one that i had collected as a 7 year old out of packs. I purchased the 5 cent packs at Marlboro, Mass stores such as Marlboro Rexhall Drug (Mel Shear was the great guy who owned it), Delaney's News Stand (Jimmy Delaney was an interesting guy) and Spurrie's Market (nice people), and Estabrook's (mean guy who acted like he was doing us a favor taking our money).
Some of my favorite cards in this series are the Green Bay Packers and Oakland Raiders players. These cards are horizontally designed and feature members of the AFL and NFL Champions of 1967. Bart Starr is the #1 card. This is the first Topps set to have both the NFL and AFL players included.
I wish this set was bigger and had more players from teams like my home town Boston Patriots! It is a very nice design that Topps used this year. The series one cards have green print on the reverse and series two has blue on the reverse. It's interesting that the check list card # 219 is available in both colors!
 So, as of today, I have about 75 of the cards graded. That's not a bad start. Along the way I have learned a lot about the pricing and availability of certain cards in certain grades. I've found a few dealers with fair prices and a couple that want way more than the card is worth plus an insane amount of postage per card! I will stick with the nice dealers that I've bought from thus far.
So, as we wrap up Wednesday, May 18, 2011, here's a card I got today.
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Thanks,

Bill Hedin