Thursday, January 28, 2021

Climbing Over the Brick Wall

Every collector seems to have their own opinion on the latest hobby boom.  Personally... I love it.  I think it's great that national attention is being drawn to the hobby I've loved since I was nine years old.  But it has come with a few drawbacks.  One of which happened to be the ability to find reasonably priced baseball cards for my 1978 Kellogg's set build.

Last summer, I ran into a brick wall and gave up searching for the last six cards I needed to finish my set.  I had been searching for clean, non-cracked copies and couldn't find any sellers with reasonable prices.  It became so frustrating that I literally deleted my saved eBay searches.

Then right after the new year, I decided to see if prices had settled.  It's hard to say whether or not they have or haven't... but I did manage to find a pair of auctions I was interested in.  One was for a complete set, which I didn't bother bidding on.  The other was partial set that included all six cards that I needed:

1978 Kellogg's #1

1978 Kellogg's #2

1978 Kellogg's #3

1978 Kellogg's #25

1978 Kellogg's #51

1978 Kellogg's #52

You might have noticed that the Eddie Murray has a tiny crack in the upper right-hand corner.  I was a little bummed to see that, but at this point... I'm gonna force myself to live with it.

When I pulled my 1978 Kellogg's set out, I was actually able to upgrade five cards... including this Don Sutton:


I'm not sure why I even had this Sutton in my set build.  It's totally cracked and in very poor shape, but thankfully the replacement is pretty clean.


I'm even more thankful to finally be able to cross these six cards off of my wantlist and put this set behind me.

I now have a complete run of Kellogg's baseball card sets from 1976 to 1983.  I also have  complete 1972 Kellogg's and 1972 Kellogg's All-Time Greats sets sitting in the collection.  I'm in the process of putting together the 1970 and 1975 sets... but don't anticipate finishing them anytime soon.

Right now... I just happy to be able to pull out this beautiful 1978 set whenever I want...


With the
shortage of top loaders within our hobby, I've had to settle on Card Saver 2's.  Hopefully these semi-rigid holders are sturdy enough to keep these from curling.

There are plenty of other Kellogg's collectors out there...

How do you store your lenticular cards?

And to all of my readers...

Have you managed to complete any challenging sets during the latest hobby boom?

I look forward to reading and responding to your comments.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

15 comments:

bbcardz said...

Not really challenging sets but I'm pretty happy that I've completed 2020 Topps flagship and Update, lol. For me that's a win.

RunForeKelloggs said...

Congrats on completing the set. Are you not attempting the 1973 Kellogg's set? That one seems easier since it doesn't have the cracking issues.

I use 9-pocket sheets if they are curled a lot already. Top loaders have worked fairly well for me.

Jongudmund said...

Forgive me Fuji, but I don't like lenticular cards.

CrazieJoe said...

Congrats on the complete set - very nice!

SumoMenkoMan said...

Nice! Congrats. The very few that I have are stored in 9-pockets. The boom has hit Japan as well and cards are hard to find at reasonable prices over there, but it has brought collections out of the woodwork and to auction so that is a positive.

night owl said...

You completed another one before me!

But I'm a lot more patient. I was able to get some of those '78 cards you showed pretty easily. I'll wrap up the set in the next few months. No rush.

My Kellogg's are stored and displayed in top-loaders. It's the only way to go.

And I am plugging my ears over Jongudmund's comment. Heresy.

Steve at 1975BaseballCards.com said...

Those are fantastic! Congratulations. I still have some sets I'm completing - 1975 "subsets". Almost got one but got outbid as it was out of my reasonable price range. I'm ok with the boom just wish it happened after I got the cards I needed.

sg488 said...

I have all the Kellogg's BB sets except for 1971,I keep them in toploaders in a box,they may curl but they won't crack.

Fuji said...

bbcardz - congratulations. i am tempted to grab a factory set if i can find one in the $40 to $50 range.

runforekelloggs - i'm not attempting to build the 1973 set. i might buy a complete one at some point though. we'll see

jongudumnd - no apologizes needed. we all have our likes and dislikes.

craziejoe - thank you sir!

sumomenkoman - it's good to try to find the bright side of things. well... at least for me. i do have some stored in 9-pockets, but for now most of the 70's sets are in top loaders or semi-rigid holders

night owl - yeah, i like using top loaders too. my only problem is that i'm a little crazy and need to use new ones and right now they're super expensive. so my 78 set will have to settle for semi rigids

steve at 1975baseballcards.com - i know, right? that being said i'm glad i started grabbing a lot of certain cards a few years ago before this book. otherwise i would have been kicking myself more

sg488 - nice thanks for the feedback. top loaders are definitely my favorite way to store them, but right now they're so expensive. can't wait until supply prices return to normal.

cardboardhogs said...

i've always kept my lenticular cards in top loaders, but i go a size or two up. i have a 71 Kellogs Chris Hanburger is a super thick TL cause of the severe curve.

no completed sets, but definitely chipping away at my 60's topps sets.

Matt said...

Congrats on completing the set!

Nick Vossbrink said...

Honestly I keep my lenticulars in binder pages. But mine are almost all already cracked.

Peter K Steinberg said...

Hey Mark! I may have close to a bajillion top loaders. May I please send you some? Email me and let me know how many you need. Please. And congrats on completing the set!! Bravo.

Matt said...

Congrats on the set completion!

Fuji said...

cardboardhogs - yeah, top loaders are my preference as well. although if they're super curled, i don't usually bother. best of luck on those 60's topps sets. never even attempted any of those flagships. if i ever win the lottery, i'll just go out and buy the ones i really want

matt - thank you sir! it's nice to cross this one off the list.

nick vossbrink - if they're from the 80's and part of player collections, i'll put them into binder pages too. the ones i store in top loaders and semi regids are my vintage sets.

peter k steinberg - thanks for the offer, but shipping would be way too expensive. i actually have a few boxes filled with slightly used top loaders reserved for when i decide to sell at shows... but for my personal sets i prefer to use brand new ones. lol. that's the life of someone with ocd

matt - thank you sir! i'm very happy to be finished with this one... and even happier that it's such a clean set.