Almost five decades ago in a house not that far away... sat a little Japanese boy on his family room floor. His parents had just bought him a few packs of 1977 Topps Star Wars trading cards at the grocery store in San Jose's Japantown.
That's how my card collecting journey began. Those original cards from my early childhood are long gone. But when I started collecting again in the late 2000's, I decided to go after stuff I enjoyed from the 70's and 80's which included that 330 card set about a galaxy far, far away.
I ended up using the cheat code known as eBay and added that dream set to my collection with a few clicks of my mouse. The stickers were purchased a few months later.
Fast forward a decade or so when I stumbled across a small storage bin of Star Wars cards at the De Anza Flea Market.
My first instinct was to purchase these for the sake of nostalgia and a good bargain. But after hemming and hawing, I made the decision to relive my childhood and do an old fashioned set build.
I knew that I had pretty significant stacks of 4th and 5th Series singles... and much smaller stacks from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Series. But after compiling my list, I was pretty satisfied with my starting point:
Series 1: 27/66 (40.9% complete)
Series 2: 13/66 (19.7% complete)
Series 3: 18/66 (27.3% complete)
Series 4: 63/66 (95.5% complete)
Series 5: 59/66 (89.4% complete)
Complete Set: 180/330 (54.5%)
Although this set carries a lot of sentimental value to me, it won't be high on my priority list. I have come across some cheap singles at the flea market over the years. If I come across them again, I'll grab them for this set build. I'll also look for some 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Series starter lots on eBay at some point to put a dent in my wantlists:
1977 Topps Series 1
1977 Topps Series 2
1977 Topps Series 3
1977 Topps Series 4
1977 Topps Series 5
Happy Monday and May the 4th be with you!
Post Credits Scene
Sorry that I've been away from the keyboard for such an extended time. The end of the school year is always a little hectic (much like the start of the school year) with projects, state testing, and leadership gigs (like the final spirit rally and the 8th grade graduation dance).
That doesn't mean I have taken a break from card related activities. I've been to a couple of flea markets in recent weeks, plus went to a private sale at this lady's house. I'm currently sitting on bunch of material for future posts. However I made myself a promise that I won't touch any of that stuff until I'm completely caught up with care packages from Reader X, Woody, John, and Rod. Plus Greg over at The Collective Mind helped broker a purchase that boosted my Rickey Henderson collection. In other words, I've got plenty of blog post fodder. I just need some time to scan and write.
John: As soon as I have some free time (probably the start of summer break), I will package up the Star Wars duplicates (probably around 200 to 250) and send them your way. Like my set build, the majority will be from the 4th and 5th Series.
11 comments:
SWEET! and for your set build: you can cross these offf of your need list:
2, 6, 12, 18, 28,
80, 91, 107, 114, 122.
They are in your stack now.
Whenever I find time I really need to sit down and put my set needs down. I have most of the key cards, except that very happy c3po lol
LOL the infamous C-3PO card! Good luck with this set build. And of course I look forward to seeing all of your trade packages. I hope the end of the school year goes smoothly for you!
Very cool. The only way I'll be able to add those classic Star Wars cards to my collection is if I stumble across them at card shows, their prices online are too inflated.
Star Wars collections are so cool. Hope you had an awesome May The 4th.
Good Job! 👍
Good luck with the sets. We had a lot of star wars stuff in our house. Pretty sure my brother had these complete sets plus some other types of ephemera and collectibles like posters and comics. I only collected figures and vehicles.
Good luck with the set build! Did you already say why you no longer have the original cards?
Is awesome. I bought a page's worth a few years ago. Could be tempted by a second page (since I somehow didn't get any 5th series) but I'm going to be picky about which scenes I get.
Happy belated Star Wars Day.
I like how each series has a different color as it makes it easy to sort but my question is can you find a different color say a green color series in a yellow color series as in a printing error??
johnnys trading spot - appreciate it. i have your star wars cards boxed up. i'll ship them out once summer break begins.
matt - the c3po error is actually easier to find then the corrected version. but the error's demand is much higher
dennis - the trade packages are slowly rolling out. and the school year is slowly coming to a close :D
night owl - i'm sending john all of my dupes. maybe he'll put together a starter lot for you
john sharp - if i had more space, i'd totally go all out on star wars. i do have two book shelves dedicated to it though in my office.
gcrl - when i was little the figures and vehicles were more important to me than the cards. but these days, the cards are easier to store and take up much less space
jafronius - i honestly don't remember what happened to my original collection. i'm guessing they were sold at a garage sale or possibly donated. i'm trying to think back to my high school collection and i don't remember having my star wars cards back then, so i bet i got rid of them in middle school or earlier. the same thing can be said for all of my star wars action figures and vehicles.
nick vossbrink - there are some cool cards in the 5th series. it's cool to see george lucas featured on a few of them
big tone - hope you enjoyed your may the 4th
rr - i've never seen or heard of that kind of error. if they exist, i'm guessing they're very rare and something topps employees messed around with at the printing press.
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