Over the years I have completed my collection of the TOPPS 1977 Star Wars cards (All 5 Series, both Cards / Stickers)

Normally I will see the sets valued around $50.00 each (Usually a little more for Series 1)

But now I am seeing some of the individual cards and stickers (Graded) showing up for sale for upwards of hundreds dollars

Not sure if they are actually selling but was wondering if they do, would that increase the value of the full sets, or do I need to look into grading some of the cards / stickers

I'm not looking to sell or breakup my sets at this time, and have never really looked into grading but just wondering what way to go in the future?

quote:

Originally posted by AWR:
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Normally I will see the sets valued around $50.00 each (Usually a little more for Series 1)

As far as I know, sets have been in the ~$50 region for the last 20 years. There was a huge supply of them back in 1977, but now there is comparatively very limited demand for them.

There is no problem at all getting minty condition cards and stickers for these sets so i would have thought grading would be a waste of money however if the graded cards actually start selling for hundreds of dollars i may change my tune.

If you do an ebay search for "Star Wars" + PSA on sold items, and sort by price descending, you can see that the only ones that have actually sold for "hundreds of dollars" are PSA 10's and a couple of PSA 9's.

PSA 10 is an extraordinarily hard grade to get -- most of these cards are in populations of only a half dozen or less. To pick one more or less at random, look at this card. It sold for $400, and is one of 4 PSA 10s. There are 46 PSA 8's out there, and 38 PSA 9's. So, while high-grade examples of the card are out there and available, PSA 10s are truly scarce, and the high prices reflect that scarcity.

But your average set of 1977 Star Wars cards is still pretty common, and won't bring anything like these prices.

Did you see me change my tune there. I'm off to get all my cards graded and retire to the moon.

This card sold at auction for $2,843.09.

The key to that one, in addition to getting the very rare PSA 10 grade, is that it is the #1 card in the set.

When these Star Wars cards were made there was none of this future collectible investment value going on. They were just cards that often got rubber banded together. As a result, the first and last cards in a set often saw the most wear, damage and rubber band marks. So if it is incredibly difficult to get a 10 grade on any of these 1977 cards, think of the likelihood of trying to find it on #1.

Not saying it makes it worth $2,843.09, but at least there is a rationale for it.

Yep $50 for a used set is the normal price for these. These cards were very roughly cut when they were brand new as well, so finding a #1 that is perfectly centrally cut would be rare.

Great point about the 1st and last cards being more prone to damage. I used to have me sets held together with rubber bands until finally putting them into binders. I am going to take a look when I get home to see if I see any visible damage just for fun

On a different note - Say you got some of these graded and got lucky with a 9 or 10. You could then try and sell them and make some money. But then you would be left with some gaps in your sets. So would you then need to go out and try to replace the ones you sold with new ones to complete your sets again. So will we see the value of regular ungraded cards start to rise as people start selling them back to the people looking to re-complete their sets.

quote:

Originally posted by AWR:

On a different note - Say you got some of these graded and got lucky with a 9 or 10. You could then try and sell them and make some money. But then you would be left with some gaps in your sets. So would you then need to go out and try to replace the ones you sold with new ones to complete your sets again. So will we see the value of regular ungraded cards start to rise as people start selling them back to the people looking to re-complete their sets.

I once read a Topps promotion for the Empire Strikes Back release in 1980. It claimed that over 100 million packs of the first five sets were produced. If distribution were even, that adds up to over half a million boxes per series.

Even considering our collecting habits back then, I think there was just too much of it produced to see any crazy price increases any time soon.

The high cost of these graded cards make sense because many cards back then would not grade a 10 even if it went straight from the press to the grader. Not that I would spend $2800 for one but I do understand it.

Would agree. These cards may be closing in on 40 years old, but they were so overproduced they are never going away.

The average Star Wars base card is not going to increase because a very few might sell high as graded 10s. They would leave gaps in sets that can be easily replaced if desired.

The only thing that will happen if more collectors send them in for grading is that more 10s and 9s will be found. As the population list of higher graded Star Wars cards from the first 5 sets grows, it will be the graded cards that experience a decrease in value because they won't be perceived to be as rare as they are thought now.

As long as new movies come out, the cards for the original will get a popularity bump. I hope they keep on coming. I only need 31 more PSA 10s to complete my collection, although about 10 of those have no PSA 10s even graded. I'm number 3 on the PSA Set Registry for the set. I'm also building the ESB and ROTJ sets as well.

quote:

Originally posted by Capt Jon1:
As long as new movies come out, the cards for the original will get a popularity bump. I hope they keep on coming. I only need 31 more PSA 10s to complete my collection, although about 10 of those have no PSA 10s even graded. I'm number 3 on the PSA Set Registry for the set. I'm also building the ESB and ROTJ sets as well.

Just for fun - Are you collecting all * or **, or do you not care