Nailed it!

One of the approaches I take to deal with the fact that funds are not unlimited is that I buy a few cards that I've always wanted, enjoy them for a few months or a year or two, then sell them and take the proceeds and start all over again with a different group of cards. Although I've so far held onto all of the sets I've built, there's no reason this approach would not also work for sets. I save all my scans of the cards I once owned, and it's fun to go back and view them every once in a while. No regrets, fortunately.

I do have around 6-10 cards that I consider untouchables and never intend to sell, but who knows.

One thing I do tell myself quite often is to not overthink all of this, or dwell on any aspect of it too much. It's just cardboard and it's just a hobby. It's not meant to be difficult.

Once upon a time I tried to do a D303 Mothers Bread set. Talk about a lesson in futility? I think I gave up at around 20-25 different. For the regular sets it just takes money. For rare ones it takes patience and time.

Not me, I love collecting a set

Decisions
 

Hmm, a timely thread for me indeed. I recently dug out the cards of my youth, and I’m now deciding whether or not I should try to complete my 1963 Topps baseball set. I have over half - but I’m missing a lot of the high series cards - including Rose.

The good news is that I have about a thousand 60, 61 and 62 star cards and commons to sell or trade. Decisions, decisions.

^^This.... I completed a t205-t207 Reds subset and had a blast doing it. Finished out the 33-34 Goudeys recently and have slowly started working on caramel cards. Due to the history and them being my hometown team even the commons are fun to collect. I'm also working on the complete T205 set but it isn't nearly as fun. Am considering a mid 50's Topps set that is manageable (200-300 cards) but it's hard to get excited about the commons. At least with prewar you get to collect a bunch of characters. All one has to do is look at the stories of people like Larry McLean (Died in a barfight) or Bugs Raymond (quit during the end of a season to become a bartender) to get a kick out of collecting anyone from that era. Would love to do a junk wax set of autos at some point. Have seen others collect sets like 87 Topps autos and it seems like a good challenge and the cards are actually really good looking with the sigs.

This is a very interesting (and relevant) thread for me. I’m in the process of deciding whether to complete my half finished 1963 Topps baseball set. These posts are all insightful - even the one that describes the run of graded Bob Eucker cards.:)

I really like the ideas in your post - especially the one about taking quality scans of your cards before selling them - so you can view them later. And, I note that you state “no regrets” with this approach so far.

Like you, I would also have a small number of cards that I’d consider “untouchables”. These are the ones that never fail to make me smile - and I’d want to hold onto them. It’s psychological no doubt - but they wisk me back for a moment to the carefree days of my youth. Priceless in a way.

My sad tale.
 

I’m afraid I’m a lost cause. I can’t seem to settle into anything, although now m101s occupy most of my energy. I was born and raised a set collector, and still have much of that in my blood, but I have few sets anymore, and do not really chase them, much less runs of them covering consecutive years. Here’s a peek at my decades of drifting (dates are approximate):

1966-1982. Topps sets only, until 1981 made me realize I had to have Fleer and Donruss and that this was only going to expand, not contract. Soooo..

1982-1992: collect all sets but no inserts unless they really caught my eye. Started player collecting–picked 10 players from 50's/60's and tried to get all of their cards.

1993: stopped collecting modern cold turkey, and have not gone back. Started team collecting: Minnesota Twins, with regionals. Getting stuck on player collections–those early cards in my required nm-mt range were pricey.

1995-1998: started regional collecting: North Stars and Vikings w/other oddball Minnesota stuff. Also, I had always collected all four major sports so I started to go back and try and start or fill some non-baseball sets from the 1960's and early 70's. My 10 player set was being sold off bit by bit for other projects–unrecognizable today.

Around this time I began to dabble more in prewar. I had always been willing to drop $$ on anything that interested me over the years, with no focus, but looked at it more seriously now. Problem was, I was always a high-grade guy only, the rest turned me off, so I had to take a reality pill.

1999. Now I’m more into sets again, this time professionally graded. Childhood sets are disassembled and sold as I convinced myself only “pack fresh” cards would do. One of many mistakes. Kept my 1961 raw set though--but decided it not worthwhile to submit these for grading by the dozens just so I could have slabbed cards and get affirmation of my grading prowess.

2000-2012 Mostly prewar thank you, although not afraid to drink and bid at auctions on anything that catches my eye (still true). Begin type collecting and like it. Kept set collecting though–m101, Colgan, Sweet Cap pins. Start and abandon at least a dozen other set projects--remnants remain.

2008-2014. HOF set, mostly focused post-war. Rules were only one of each player and every major set had to be represented but could only have one card, with occasional regionals. Fun for awhile–then abandoned for $$$.

2016- present. Still chase m101s. Still have a few prewar sets as projects. Still have types, but not a type collector. Most post-war graded cards gone. Started collecting nice raw cards from 1950's and 1960's when the mood strikes. No hurries, no worries. And as is obvious, no clue.