General Forum

Truly an outstanding accomplishment.

Let's not get carried away. You've probably had that complete set for years. But thanks for the sentiment.

v3

Congratulations.

Well, 1968-1970 aren't so bad except for the Nolan Ryan RC (which I'm still missing), but I'll be stuck on 1966-1967 for a while (benn going around it).  1970 is fun for all of the insert sets (Books, Posters, Scratch-offs).  After completing 1971-1972, finishing off the '70s decade becomes almost a sure thing.  It's certainly a big deal.

1970 is very close to done. I don't do the insert sets. I think '68 and '69 won't be too bad. I'm looking forward to shopping around for a decent price on the Ryan rookie.

Since this thread has been revived, let me just take a moment give a few comments about 1971 set.

1. The airbrushed hats and numerous spring training shots are very noticeable and mildly annoying. I wasn't keyed into these issues as a 6 year old, or a teenager, for that matter. But now I see these things, and it's pretty bad. The action shots, however, are very nice.

2. The black borders and the difficulty in keeping them pristine don't bother me.

3. I love the teams cards, with history of the team on the back, and the proper manager cards.

4. I hate the stats. Previous year and career stats, without even telling me what team the person was on last  year. Frustrating.

5. The player blurbs on the back are ok. Pretty focused on minor league and high school accomplishments. (Man, so many pro baseball players were outstanding, multi-sport high school athletes.

6. The set's a bit short on special sets. I like the post season stuff and the league leaders, but I like to see some other special set, like '75s MVPs or Father/Sons or In-Action cards.

7. But, oh how I love having 25-30 players per team. I can actually see who played all the positions and who was on the bench. There are cards for people who didn't play at all in 1970 because they were injured. There are cards for guys who played 14 games and had 12 AB. Each team set really shows the team, especially with the team cards and managers. I know there are more teams now, but what a pleasure to have the whole team, rather than a few hand-selected players, in a set.

Ok, now this thread should quietly die.

v3

Congrats on an awesome accomplishment!

Don't be surprised if you change your mind while collecting the 1968 and 1969 Topps sets.  I never used to do insert sets either, but I couldn't get away from inserts while collecting '60s sets.  Just about every $0.05 pack of cards in the '60s came with an insert set advertisement on the front, so where they might seem like extras these days, inserts seemed almost like an integral part of the base set for much of the '60s.  They will constantly nag at you when performing online searches for base cards in your wantlist.  

Everyone with a 1969 Topps set  has to include the Deckle Edge insert set (in my opinion), but hoow anyone not include the Game inserts with their 1968 Topps set (which is based on the legendary '51T design).  Then there's the Poster inserts for the 1967 Topps set.  I'm admittedly not interested in the Rub-off inserts for the 1966 Topps set, but then there's the Embossed inserts for the 1965 Topps set.  

 After that, there'll be no turning back, which brings us back to the '70s inserts.  There's 1970 Topps Booklets, then the Posters, and finally the Scratch-offs.  The 1971 Topps insert sets are extremely overpriced, while the scratch-off only replicate the previous year's, so I did skip those.  1972 Topps really didn't have any inserts, but how can you forget about the '73T and '74T Team Checklist/Autograph insert sets.  These are must-haves that lead-off each of my team sets.  The 1974 Team insert set (purchased complete) is much more affordable than the 1973 Team insert set (purchased individually).

The "bug" has now been planted.  I'll be interested to learn how much longer you'll succeed in avoiding the inserts.  Maybe you'll have better luck than I did.  Note: This all relates to completing the 1971 Topps set--the end of vintage insert sets.

congrats!

this is one of my favorites, so much so, that I may start a second one in the near future

mark

Oh RTD87, you've made my point for me. Inserts, then and now, are a rabbit hole I refuse to go down. Too much stuff. Base sets alone for me. I will probably get the 1971 coins someday, because I've had four of them for 46 years and I'm not dumping those. So I might as well complete that set. As for all the rest, no thank you. I'll just keep moving back through the years. 

Oh, and I have the 74 checklists, because they were true inserts that I almost completed by 1975. The 73 checklists, I think, were mail-in and it's not gonna happen. Gotta draw the line. 

V3

Congratulations on the completion! How many sets have you completed thus far?

Go for it on the coins! I'm still considering the 1988 Topps coin set. That's the year I started collecting :)