Ultimate Topps team set?

Not that I need another collecting project, but I was thinking today about how cool it would be to have every Topps flagship base card of the Orioles (or any team, for that matter). I guess I could just do cards in the normal numbering scheme or all the cards with that year's design, which would add Traded/Update.

Doing some quick math I figured it'd be somewhere in the ballpark of 1,500-2,000 total cards, and the result would be an incredibly cool history of the team. But how hard would it be to find checklists for each year broken down by team? Has anyone here tried a project like this before?

Obviously it'd vary greatly depending on how long the team has been around, so the Rays or Diamondbacks would be much easier than the Yankees or Cardinals.

I'm starting this exact project for the Giants. There are blogs dedicated to checklists and team checklist. I was able to find Giants ones just by googling it.

Here's a start for you. I'm thinking about throwing an offer in on his Giants lot.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Baltimore-Orioles-T ... 3366dc94f4

kdailey4315 said:

I'm starting this exact project for the Giants. There are blogs dedicated to checklists and team checklist. I was able to find Giants ones just by googling it.

Here's a start for you. I'm thinking about throwing an offer in on his Giants lot.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Baltimore-Orioles-T ... 3366dc94f4

Click to expand...

Hahaha I like how the lot is even called "The Ultimate Baltimore Orioles Team Set."

Well, I guess I could have done a little research before posting, eh? Thanks for the link.

You could go to beckett and type in Topps Orioles. Then use the filters to just get it to the set you want and that should provide what you are looking for. Good luck on this if you decide to put it together. I would be a very cool history of the team, especially with the older stuff.

I started doing it with the Brewers, but just did it with the base brands, no insert sets or parallels. I have a bunch of years I need to scan yet, but was able to pick up all of them very cheap on ebay.

I am doing that with the Indians for the past few years, and it has been fun. The later sets are fun and easy to get, Ebay is great and checkoutmycards.com fills in all the AS, team leader cards that people do not tend to include in the team sets.

Older sets are pricey. I started with the '52, and decided that after getting all the stars I am just going to fill the holes in the checklist with Reprints until I have the money to pony up for some of the expensive high #'er....luck for me most are common players, so I am not missing out on much. Most of the 50's is expensive, but once you get into the 60's and 70's I have slowly been buying team lots and then filling in the gaps. I not have two full three row shoeboxes filled with Indians team sets in toploaders.

of course, I don't think I would even bother with this if I was going to try to collect a decent team...the Indians had a bunch of stinkers and past a Roger Maris, Colavito and Eck rookies there are not too many big money cards past the SP 50's cards.

I bought one of those Topps team checklist on Ebay, been a big help too.

CraigsCards1 said:

kdailey4315 said:

I'm starting this exact project for the Giants. There are blogs dedicated to checklists and team checklist. I was able to find Giants ones just by googling it.

Here's a start for you. I'm thinking about throwing an offer in on his Giants lot.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Baltimore-Orioles-T ... 3366dc94f4

Click to expand...

Hahaha I like how the lot is even called "The Ultimate Baltimore Orioles Team Set."

Well, I guess I could have done a little research before posting, eh? Thanks for the link.

Click to expand...

That is what FCB is for. If everyone just spent hours researching stuff instead of discussing it on here there would be about 12 posts a day on here and it would be nothing but prospects. I'm just glad there are a few others on here that are doing this also.

I started this a few years back with the Red Sox, focused only on Topps. I am nearly complete back to 1951. It has really become an heirloom item that my youngest son wants. My older one wants my bigger, broader, but less focused and newer (1970 forward) Topps sets. It has been a lot of fun. I have focused more on completion than card quality...I may go back in the future and raise the card quality.

Good luck!

CraigsCards1 said:

Not that I need another collecting project, but I was thinking today about how cool it would be to have every Topps flagship base card of the Orioles (or any team, for that matter). I guess I could just do cards in the normal numbering scheme or all the cards with that year's design, which would add Traded/Update.

Doing some quick math I figured it'd be somewhere in the ballpark of 1,500-2,000 total cards, and the result would be an incredibly cool history of the team. But how hard would it be to find checklists for each year broken down by team? Has anyone here tried a project like this before?

Obviously it'd vary greatly depending on how long the team has been around, so the Rays or Diamondbacks would be much easier than the Yankees or Cardinals.

Click to expand...

The 71 Orioles team set would be pretty cool. I thinnk they won the WS the year before and card #1 commemorates (sp?) that. It would be cool if they were all psa 7s oe even 8s.

Your post made me think of an interesting idea for a Topps set.

As a celebration of 60 years of Topps cards, create a set containing nothing but reproductions of all the Topps base cards from 1952 - 1980. I didn't follow through with the math, but I think the master set would be somewhere around 15,000 cards.

Perhaps a case could contain 10 boxes split into decades...

2 boxes per case - 1950s
4 boxes each - 1960s & 1970's (including 1980)

Serial number each card to 299 or so and include low-numbered chrome versions and 1/1 parallels.

It could make for an interesting chase for team collectors, player collectors, and set collectors.

Or, it might be a product no one buys, since it doesn't contain Bryce Harper or the uber-prospect d'jour.

Anyway, thanks for humoring me and my idea.

Go for it! A great way to collect your team. I am working on a similar project with the Yankee Topps from 1952-present.
http://oneill21.webs.com/yankeestopps.htm

My list has approximately 2,300 cards, I am at 70% completion in just over a year after starting. It has been a blast so far. I am missing mostly 50s and 60s as well as modern day SPs and Super SPs. I've also decided to add other Topps issues such as FanFest cards, Factory Set bonus pack cards, 17-card and 55-card team boxed sets, Topps Debut, and pre-production cards.

I used PSA's team checklists for the vintage stuff and used http://www.Teamsets4u.com for the newer cards.
http://www.psacard.com/PSASetRegistry/default.aspx?c=22

I say go for it too! One of my collecting projects in the early 2000's was a complete Blue Jays Topps run, including the traded/update cards. The project has fallen by the wayside as I've been focusing my budget on my Olerud PC, but it's definitely something I want to get back to someday!

Of course, the Jays are a relatively new team and there are no major rookie cards in their Topps history. A team like the Yankees, Red Sox, Reds, etc would be quite an undertaking!

- Rod

Ive been working on my Mets Topps Master set since 2003.
I picked up a Ryan rookie over the weekend and that leaves me at needing just two cards to be complete (1962 - 2011 Series One). Im down to a Seaver Rookie and ann Ike Davis Pie card.

Its a really fun project and thankfully it continues every year that topps exists

so there are more out there like me, ive been slowly crawling into doing the Twins Topps base sets like this, i might actually get it going now more seriously lol, i have it easier i just have to 1961 to go to

i wanted to add that the sets look fantastic in sheets/albums, year after year.
with the mets, i can fit two decades in each binder