The true cost of a full mint set of 1970’s Topps Baseball

By the 1970’s, the Topps baseball card machine was operating at full capacity. Pumping out 700+ card sets every year, releasing them one series at a time over the course of a season, Topps kept their customers happy while also keeping their profits fat.

Though the 1980’s spelled the end of the Topps monopoly with a landmark court case opening the way for manufacturers like Donruss and Fleer to enter the market, the decade of colorful cardboard preceding it continues to be among the hobby’s most popular to collect.

The bold dual color splash of 1975. The stark black border of 1971. The psychedelic header font of 1972. And of course all the rookies you could want: Thurman Munson, Mike Schmidt, George Brett, Dave Winfield, and even Paul Molitor and Alan Trammell on the same card.

But what would it cost to build a graded mint set of every set from the 1970s?

More than you would think.

The true cost of building every Topps set from 1970’s

Putting together a full PSA 9 graded (Mint) set of every card from 1970’s Topps baseball would cost around $1 million. This is assuming you are buying every card at current prices and that the cards are already graded by PSA (current grading costs would make such a venture at least twice as expensive).

Here’s a breakdown of the cost per set and cost per card in that set (data from Vintage Card Prices, average of last 12 months):

As you can see, most of that cost is wrapped up in buying the tough to grade 1971 set. Not only does it have some of baseball’s most popular stars at the time, its unique design is also, unfortunately, its downfall. The black border creates chipping issues that have plagued the set for years.

This places a premium on mint copies of 1971 Topps, hence the huge jump in value on a per card basis. Common players with cards in Topps sets between 1970 and 1972 that usually sell for $20-30 in a PSA 9 see an increase in their 1971 value. Like these for example:

Of course, it’s not just the condition issues with 1971; the set is littered with Hall of Famers. Some were just entering their careers, like Rollie Fingers and Nolan Ryan, and some were putting the finishing touches on theirs, like Willie Mays and Ernie Banks.

Here’s the top 7 most expensive cards to find in a PSA 9 from the 1971 set. All of them will cost at least five figures:

1. Thurman Munson – $156,000
2. Reggie Jackson – $24,022
3. Nolan Ryan – $18,691
4. Roberto Clemente – $17,101
5. Johnny Bench – $12,000
6. Willie Mays – $10,800
7. Pete Rose – $10,200

But once you clear the 1971 set out of the way, the rest of the 1970’s sets are relatively easy to find in graded mint condition. The easiest to complete would be the 1978 set, coming in at around $22,000. Then the 1979, 1977, and 1974 sets, all at under $30,000. The toughest set to add after the 1971 set is the 1970 set, again mostly because of the names included in the set.

The 1975 set is the 3^rd toughest set to complete. Border chipping, though not to the extent of 1971, continues to be an issue. The list of popular players in the set isn’t quite as lengthy, but it does include George Brett’s rookie card.

 So there you go… $1 million will buy you every Topps baseball card from the 1970’s in mint graded condition.

One final note: This analysis uses aggregate data from Vintage Card Prices. This means it includes graded wax packs for each year and also does not include cards with zero sales data. For the most part, these sets have plenty of sales data, even among the common players. Rounding up the total sales data in the above spreadsheet to $1 million is to account for the roughly 100 missing cards in the data, plus the variation in sales over the last 12 months.

Want to get started on building your 1970’s Topps baseball sets? Greg Morris Cards always has cards from these years available in our store. Like this 1977 Topps Bruce Sutter PSA 9 or this 1976 Topps Dennis Eckersley PSA 9.