When I first started collecting cards the large sized cards from 1952-1956 were my favorites. They had a uniqueness about them that appealed to me. Standard sized 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inch cards were everywhere but the ones that were just slightly bigger were uncommon and special. The slight increase in size meant bigger pictures, better designs. They just had a different feel to them as well. As a result my 1953-1956 collection got a lot of attention while '57-'59s got the shaft. One reason for this is that the card shop I went to regularly as a kid sold lots of bricks for cards from the 60's and 70's, but anything from the 50's went in the case and were sold individually. Bricks bulked up my 60's collection, but when cherry picking cards from the case or the occasional bargain bin, I'd almost always choose the big cards over the regular ones. I was also a sucker for Topps Big and '89 Bowman, what can I say.
Twenty cents a pop for oddball sheets to house a set is well worth it. I don't like going into a shop and dropping 20-30 bucks on supplies at a time, but 3 or 4 bucks a trip builds up a lot of sheets real quickly. I just got the 1954 set in a binder and it really looks good. Those colors just pop out at you when they are all together. I used to have them all in top loaders in a 3200 count box with the rest of my '50's stuff, but shuffling through a pile of hard plastic isn't nearly as rewarding as opening the binder and soaking it all in. The '54 set was printed a little strangely with some cards upside down on the sheet so the top would have no border. As a result the backs are all mixed up when you put them into sheets, half of them are upside down. You might strain your neck a little trying to read the backs but the fronts make up for it.
Out of the thirty-two sheets in the binder, I haven't managed to completely fill out any yet. I also don't have any completely blank sheets either though! Here's a sheet that's almost complete that I can show off and it's got some cool names on it too...
The one card missing on the page is #10, Jack Roosevelt Robinson. So pretty much unless I raid my '54 Archives set, this is about as complete as this page is going to get for the foreseeable future. I got the Billy Martin card though, even if it does look like it got ran over by a truck! Click on the image to enlarge the scan so you can see every crease and ding in glorious detail.
5 comments:
Watching a set come together as you fill in those empty pockets with the cards you have been looking for is what I find so enjoyable about collecting.
Getting the last card to fill a page, and then getting a few complete pages in a row gives you a sense of accomplishment as you work your way towards building the set and tracking down those remaining cards you need.
Thanks for sharing the '54's.
Jon
Awesome cards! I love the '54 Topps set. It is rough spending money on supplies versus actual cards, but it's always worth it in the end, especially for cards as cool as those!
The good thing about this project is that by spending about 7 bucks on sheets, I freed up about 130 or so toploaders. I've already used about 25 of 'em on my Heritage SP's.
You are right it is more appealing to turn pages in a binder than to fan through top loaders. Plus it is kind of impressive when you can sit down in the living room with a sports fan that doesn't know cards and have them ooh and ahh as he turns the pages.
I started to put all my 50's cards into toploaders but couldn't find any for the 56's. I agree, the cards look better in pages. Now I need to find some pages for the 56's. Thanks for sharing.
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