ERLING HAALAND #BEH

Featuring an absolutely loaded set and inserted only in hobby packs at a rate of 1:216, the first Beam Team soccer set and has only increased in interest. Picking one card from the set is tough. The checklist includes Haaland, Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi, and several other stars. But Haaland reigns supreme here, if only because the Superfractor 1/1 parallel recently sold at auction for $8,500 in PSA 9 condition.

By Eric Shaw

The interviewer and the subject paused for a moment together. “Is that a word? I don’t even know if it’s a word, but if it is, that’s what I would call myself.” Sure enough, it is a word—by definition, “an obsessive and typically indiscriminate collector of something.” The unintentional gap created between the complete 1958 and 1964 Topps Hockey sets was the genesis of the self-proclaimed completist Robert Meyer.

Meyer is a Northeast native and long-time Boston resident. While his humble collecting origins could be described as indiscriminate, the journey that followed over the next half century was anything but.

PSA: I SUPPOSE WE’LL START WITH THE QUESTION EVERYONE ALWAYS WANTS TO KNOW AND DISCUSS: WHERE DID YOUR COLLECTING PASSION START?

ROBERT MEYER: Well, the collecting part was easy. As a kid, like so many others, I would take whatever spare change I had in my pocket, walk down to the corner store and buy packs of whatever they had. Typically, it was baseball or football, maybe some hockey or basketball. But I just loved collecting cards as a kid. To this day, I remember pulling a 1972 Topps Brooks Robinson from a pack and being absolutely thrilled. Fast forwarding a bit, several years later, I remember seeing a box of basketball cards on the counter, and it refreshed my curiosity. I thought I’d buy a pack of basketball cards and see what they’re like.

PSA: YOUR STORIES OF COLLECTING IN YOUR EARLY CHILDHOOD AND LATER ON IN LIFE BOTH START WITH A WALK TO THE CORNER STORE. WAS THIS THE POINT WHERE YOU WERE BACK INTO COLLECTING?

RM: I went home and opened that pack, and from that point on, I went pretty hard at it for three to five years. That was probably in the early 1990s, and card companies were producing sets upon sets, so I became pretty disenchanted. It was just too much. I didn’t know what to collect. And I’m a completist, I guess—if that’s even a word. I like to complete things, and with so many sets, manufacturers, and player cards, it was just too much. All that went right up into the attic, and it’s still up there to this day.

PSA: YOUR COLLECTION TODAY IS PRIMARILY HOCKEY, SO HOW DID THAT STICK?

RM: When my oldest boy started playing hockey, I started to learn about the game. I was never really a hockey fan. But I lived in this incredible hockey town, so I started playing hockey myself and became infatuated with the sport. I learned everything I could about the game. Now, this all preceded me collecting hockey cards, but around this time, being from Boston, the two aspects started to blend. I thought to myself, “It would be cool to get a Bobby Orr rookie card; I wonder how much something like that is,” so I bought a raw, full 1966 Topps set. Then I was reading a book about the formation of the World Hockey Association (WHA), so I bought a 1972 set, the year the WHA formed. Then I was introduced to the concept of grading, and I think the first graded set I got was a 1957 Topps set. And I thought, “This is kind of interesting.” Then it just took off from there.

PSA: WAS THIS YOUR FIRST INTRODUCTION TO PSA?

RM: Well, going back to the early 1990s, I was telling a guy at a card shop about some of the early basketball cards I had, and he suggested I grade them. PSA and card grading were in their infancy, and honestly, like a lot of people, I just didn’t understand it. But as I started collecting these graded hockey sets, I started to understand it a little more. This led me to send in my own sets for grading. I think I started with the 1964 Topps Tall Boy set and got back a lot of varying grades and thought, “This is harder than I imagined.” I was trying to build these sets in middle grade or higher, and eventually, I learned about the Set Registry. But as you can see, I had the 1957 Topps, the 1964 Topps, and the 1972 set. This created these gaps, so I started building these sets, mostly from scratch, filling in these years. And that led to building out the bookends all the way through 1980 and all the way back to 1951. After that, I was satisfied with what I had accomplished and felt like I was done.

PSA: AFTER YOU BUILT THIS PART OF YOUR COLLECTION, WHAT WAS THE NEXT ASPECT THAT INSPIRED YOU TO KEEP WITH THE HOBBY?

RM: Well, I was happy with what I had built, but then I started looking at the pre-war stuff. I’m also a history buff, so I was reading some great literature on the origins of hockey. I was reading a book about Eddie Shore, one of the great early Bruins. So again, I asked myself that question related to collecting: “I wonder what his rookie card is.” Shore’s rookie is a 1933 O-Pee-Chee, which is the first of the five years in which O-Pee-Chee released a set that decade. And that spawned a whole new era, if you will. Then, the more I got into the pre-war stuff, the more I saw how cool it was. Learning the intricacies of that is pretty similar across all sports in collecting. It was fascinating to learn about and identify the different manufacturers, which sets were important, which weren’t, and so on. I became a little more disciplined with the earlier stuff because of how collectible it was and how much I wanted to chase certain items or sets. I focused on the pre-war O-Pee-Chee sets and then got into the C55, C56, and C57 sets, and that’s the course that I meandered down.

PSA: GOING BACK TO YOUR COMMENT ON THE SET REGISTRY, CAN YOU SPEAK A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH THAT?

RM: Yeah, when I started working on a few of those original sets, I initially looked at getting all these cards graded as PSA 7s or better. I was slowly accumulating cards; then somebody mentioned the PSA Registry, and I was like, “Oh, what’s the Registry?” Then it was like wildfire; I was hooked (both of us laugh audibly). I thought, “Okay, this is really cool; there is a way I can stack up my sets against other guys’ sets.” I just started going hard at it. The main thing the Registry did was connect me with other collectors and let me see who the top dogs were at the time. I was able to reach out, make contact with these guys, and get to know them pretty well. So many guys were super helpful, and I’ve developed great friendships with them— expensive friendships at times, but helpful with my focus and the quality of my sets.

PSA: NOW WE COME TO THE PROVERBIAL QUICKFIRE QUESTIONS THAT EVERYONE WANTS TO KNOW. IS THERE ANY PARTICULAR CARD IN YOUR COLLECTION THAT YOU’D NEVER PART WAYS WITH UNLESS BECAUSE OF DIRE NEED?

RM: Yeah, I’ve been asked that before, and I always say that’s like people asking, “Which is your favorite kid?” I’d probably have to pick some of the old prewar stuff because—artistically—they’re such great cards. The Sweet Caps set, the 1924 Champs set, and the 1936 OPC have always been my favorites. They are just so great to collect and look at. But ultimately, if I sell one thing, I’m selling it all. It’s all or nothing.

PSA: ARE THERE ANY ELUSIVE CARDS THAT HAVE BEEN A BARRIER TO COMPLETING ANY OF YOUR GOALS—REGARDING COMPLETING ONE OF YOUR SETS—OR ANYTHING IN PARTICULAR THAT’S BEEN REALLY HARD TO FIND?

RM: Well, that’s a dangerous question too. There’s not necessarily anything new or different, just upgrades of cards that I already have. I’m always looking to upgrade when I can to make those sets better. Just this last year, I was able to upgrade my Bryan Trottier and Mike Bossy rookies from PSA 9 to PSA 10.

PSA: WHAT ELSE CONTINUES TO DRIVE YOU AS A COLLECTOR; WHAT KEEPS IT DYNAMIC AND ENGAGING FOR YOU?

RM: Well, I’m a pretty competitive person in general, so pursuing top sets on the Registry has been really helpful in that regard. Early on, it helped with making connections and creating a community. But it also helped me create want lists and use the checklists for what I was looking for. Even recently, having the app available while I’m at shows has been really helpful for me as a collector. I can pull it right up and see if the card I’m looking at is one I’m looking for or an upgrade for one I have. When I first started building that 1966 Topps set, I specifically remember watching my set slowly creep up the rankings, which was a lot of fun. And I've developed friendships with these people that I compete against, as I’ve said. We go to these shows together, grab dinner, and catch up. It’s a great time.