1955 Topps Set + Help

A while back I decided on going for the 1955 Topps Set, ideally in PSA 5+. I bought 20 cards and quit, not having the interest and determination. Tonight, I went with a bit of an impulse buy and bought a lot of like 100 cards that were Ex/ExMt but raw for around $400. First off, I have no idea if this is a good buy. Second, I'm considering grading them all through PSA. Do you guys think that grading them if they came out on average at PSA 5 would enhance the value, granted the $7 (or however much it is) that I would have to pay to grade each card. Any help or advice is appreciated, but at this point, I'm pretty committed to going for the rest of the set, though it will take some time.

I will be buying all the biggies already graded, to avoid problems with fakes, trimming, etc.

Thanks,
Zach

This is just my opinion so take it with a grain of salt but why go through the agrivation of grading them and having some come back as 4's and be out $700 in fees. For mid grade commons i'd save the fee's and spend it on either getting the star cards in psa 5 or using the money that you were going to spend on grading to get higher grades. For the grading fee's on those commons you could buy a psa 5 clemente rc. The main reason i'd approach it this way is i have limited funds and have to make the best use of them also I collect cards not plastic cases telling me my commons are mid grade (this I already knew lol). If I had unlimited funds I think it would be cool to have the set uniform and all in psa cases but that would be just too expensive for my budget and if you're collecting psa 5's I'm assuming your budget is probably similar to mine since I think 5's look very nice for the money. Good luck with the set, if it were me I'd put the commons in a binder and get all the star cards in psa 5, but that's the fun of collecting you can do it however you want.

Well, just to put in my 2 cents and I am talking through exerience on collecting this colorful set. Are you going to try and collect the set "raw" then have all 210 cards graded? If that is the case then I would recommend that you buy graded cards. It will keep the cost down vs buying ungraded and then have them graded at $7 a piece. Its a great set to collect. Good luck on whatever you decide to do.

Sounds like you got a pretty good deal on the lot ($4/card.)

Skip the grading and save the $$$ to purchase more cards. $700+ in fees could land you a few big ones. Don't worry about the condition, either. Go for the set first and upgrade later.

First off, I'm committed to having the set uniform, in PSA cases. It would bother me too much personally to have some raw, some slabbed.

Apparently PSA occasionally run specials, one of which would allow me to submit at around $5 per card. That would mean I'd end up paying 8-9 per PSA card, and I'd get to slab em all myself. I plan on doing that for the lot that I bought, and then getting the other 80-90 cards that I need to complete the set one by one (for the most part).

Time to save some $$



zach

Update.

I'm going to have all the cards from the lot graded at a deal of $5 per card + shipping, insurance etc.

It's going to come out to approx. $9 per card to have them graded. I am aware that I could pick up PSA 5's and 6's along the way for around this price and maybe even cheaper, but I would likely have to pay a ton of different shipping costs. I also enjoy grading and it will be exciting to see if I can come up with good results. If some come up less than 5, which I'm SURE will happen, it won't matter much.

I truly do plan to keep this set for as long as possible. I am not at all looking to just flip for profit. If at some point I need $$, a complete PSA mid-grade 1955 topps set would be nice to have. Until then, it'll be a keeper. Also, the grading will put me a bit over half way through the set, so there's no turning back here, I'm definitely going to go for it.

Wish me luck. Hopefully the grades take less than 45 days.

Hi, welcome to my nightmare..lol I collected the set back in 1992 as a kid since it did not have a Mantle I thought it would be affordable...HA! When PSa came out I decided to have all my nm-mt commons graded, (I posted my grades below for a laugh) to my shock they came in much lower than I expected. I ended up buying more raw lots and selling a graded/raw set and collecting a PSa 7-8 set instead. If I had to do it again I would look for grading specials ( right now it is 5 bucks or less maybe) and collect the set in PSA 5 or raw with stars graded. It really is a great set and feel free to PM for any info on weird errors or intricacies you may notice. After a brief look my grades werent that bad for a kid collecting cards



18 1 11929758 EXCELLENT 5 1955 TOPPS 91 MILT BOLLING Card US
19 1 11929759 NEAR MINT 7 1955 TOPPS 83 TOM BREWER Card US
20 1 11929760 EXCELLENT 5 1955 TOPPS 210 DUKE SNIDER Card US

1 1 11969186 EXCELLENT 5 1955 TOPPS 103 CHARLIE WHITE Card US
2 1 11969187 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 18 RUSS KEMMERER Card US
3 1 11969188 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 65 RAY BOONE Card US
3 2 11969189 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 65 RAY BOONE Card US
4 1 11969190 NEAR MINT 7 1955 TOPPS 75 SANDY AMOROS Card US
5 1 11969191 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 30 VIC POWER Card US
6 1 11969192 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 13 FRED MARSH Card US
7 1 11969193 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 205 GENE FREESE Card US
7 2 11969194 EXCELLENT 5 1955 TOPPS 205 GENE FREESE Card US
8 1 11969195 EXCELLENT 5 1955 TOPPS 140 MEL PARNELL Card US
8 2 11969196 NEAR MINT 7 1955 TOPPS 140 MEL PARNELL Card US
9 1 11969197 EXCELLENT 5 1955 TOPPS 131 GRADY HATTON Card US
10 1 11969198 EXCELLENT 5 1955 TOPPS 162 JOE COLEMAN Card US
11 1 11969199 VERY GOOD-EXCELLENT 4 1955 TOPPS 50 JACKIE ROBINSON Card US
12 1 11969200 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 44 CORKY VALENTINE Card US
12 2 11969201 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 44 CORKY VALENTINE Card US
13 1 11969202 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 128 TED LEPCIO Card US
13 2 11969203 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 128 TED LEPCIO Card US
14 1 11969204 EXCELLENT 5 1955 TOPPS 41 CHUCK STOBBS Card US
15 1 11969205 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 68 JIM DAVIS Card US
16 1 11969206 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 151 RED KRESS Card US
17 1 11969207 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 149 RAY CRONE Card US
18 1 11969208 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 142 JERRY LYNCH Card US
19 1 11969209 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 130 MAYO SMITH Card US
20 1 11969210 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 111 BOB MILLIKEN Card US
21 1 11969211 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 95 PRESTON WARD Card US
22 1 11969212 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 161 CHUCK TANNER Card US
23 1 11969213 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 173 BOB KLINE Card US
24 1 11969214 VERY GOOD 3 1955 TOPPS 1 DUSTY RHODES Card US
24 2 11969215 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 1 DUSTY RHODES Card US
25 1 11969216 EXCELLENT 5 1955 TOPPS 143 DICK SCHOFIELD Card US
26 1 11969217 NEAR MINT 7 1955 TOPPS 54 LOU LIMMER Card US
27 1 11969218 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1955 TOPPS 62 THORNTON KIPPER Card US
28 1 11969219 NEAR MINT 7 1955 TOPPS 71 RUBEN GOMEZ Card US
29 1 11969220 EXCELLENT 5 1955 TOPPS 28 ERNIE BANKS Card US
30 1 11969221 NEAR MINT 7 1955 TOPPS 24 HAL NEWHOUSER Card US
31 1 11969222 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 22 BILL SKOWRON Card US
31 2 11969223 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 22 BILL SKOWRON Card US
31 3 11969224 N1: EVIDENCE OF TRIMMING 1955 TOPPS 22 BILL SKOWRON Card US
32 1 11969225 VERY GOOD 3 1955 TOPPS 172 FRANK BAUMHOLTZ Card US
33 1 11969226 EXCELLENT 5 1955 TOPPS 52 BILL TREMEL Card US
34 1 11969227 N1: EVIDENCE OF TRIMMING 1955 TOPPS 155 ED MATHEWS Card US
35 1 11969228 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 35 DAVE JOLLY Card US
36 1 11969229 VERY GOOD-EXCELLENT 4 1955 TOPPS 47 HANK AARON Card US
37 1 11969230 EXCELLENT 5 1955 TOPPS 87 FRANK HOUSE Card US
38 1 11969231 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 93 STEVE BILKO Card US
39 1 11969232 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 152 HARRY AGGANIS Card US
40 1 11969233 GOOD 2 1955 TOPPS 164 ROBERTO CLEMENTE Card US
41 1 11969234 EXCELLENT 5 1955 TOPPS 115 ELLIS KINDER Card US
42 1 11969235 EXCELLENT 5 1955 TOPPS 194 WILLIE MAYS Card US
43 1 11969236 EXCELLENT 5 1955 TOPPS 207 BILL CONSOLO Card US
44 1 11969237 EXCELLENT 5 1955 TOPPS 201 SHERM LOLLAR Card US
45 1 11969238 EXCELLENT-MINT 6 1955 TOPPS 198 YOGI BERRA Card US
46 1 11969239 EXCELLENT 5 1955 TOPPS 124 HARMON KILLEBREW Card US

Youre going to get many different opinions...

Mine is to buy Raw and keep them Raw, especially if you are only going midgrade. The $400 deal is right up my alley... (bulk buy, then upgrade)

Its a small set by Topps standards and Ive seen some nice full sets displayed on walls under glass, w/o all that overrated modern plastic crap entombing each and every card.

The fee to get them entombed is as much as 75% of them are worth IMO

But thats the reason Im oldschool with my cards. I collect cards..... not high number plastic slabs made in China