I finished my Cracker Jack set
 

My journey is complete, I have all 180 Cracker Jack cards that I was seeking…it’s over.

In May 2010 it all started with correspondence to Anthony Nex and Rick Rockwood via the Collectors Universe board. I was absolutely hooked and decided to go full bore on these cards. With that and some research I made my first two purchases being a destroyed Peckinpaugh from ebay for $35 (overpaid and have since upgraded) and 3 commons from Rich which were beautiful to my eyes. As I picked up a card here and there, I won my first big CJ lot. I learned this worked well and scored some bigger cards in the Plank and Alexander.This score brought the count into the 30’s on the 176-card set.

The holiday season of 2011 came in and so did the CJ lots. Over the course of December through February I made 3 large purchases including a rather large “raw” find from a 1914 guy. In these lots I found the power in upgrading my set from these huge buys, selling and having quite a bit of control in what I want in my set and what to sell. I had to decide what qualities were more important to me in a CJ. I decided I wanted to rid the set of cards with pinholes, writing, pieces missing and trimming which were a few.

I started placing a premium on overall color and then looking at registration. When I was said and done with these 3 large lots I had 140 cards and the 1914 Chance. I decided to get a card for every player that Cracker Jack ever produced totaling 180. I also decided to get a couple other 1914s if the price was right to add to the set, mixing and matching my set.


October of 2012 was a good CJ month. I went into a large lot of CJs with a buddy that netted me 52 more cards which I used as 23 upgrades and 6 new cards including the mighty Joe Jackson. I had also decided to ad the Bresnahan no #. I had 13 cards to go including the Cobb, Wagner, Rickey, e145 Cashion and 9 commons.

At the National of 2013 I picked up my Wagner from Glenn Mechanick and then the Cobb through another board member that also came from Glenn…I was only missing J McGraw, a card I had owned 5 copies of at various times and sold all of them! Then today I finalized the deal, with card in hand for the McGraw...Thanks Edward. My wife was amazing during all this and I met so many great friends through this. Barry, Jared, Pete, Tony, Ken, Mac, Rich and Anthony have all helped me so much along the way, thanks fellas.

Congratulations! Absolutely an astonishing feat of a beautiful set.

Great job!
Drew

Wow, great job that's one nice looking group of CJ's!

Congrats Steven! What's next?

Great set, congratulations Steve.

Steve, congratulations on the accomplishment and sharing the story of how you accomplished it.

Congrats!

Amazing, congrats sir!

Beautiful Set - congrats! Show some more pictures!

I finished my Cracker Jack set
 

Congratulations Steven! I'm glad to be a small part of your quest & success.

Glenn

What, you threw out the caramel corn and the toys?

Congratulations! That's an amazing accomplishment. Very envious!

thats unbelievable i mean i seriously had my jaw hit the ground....

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Congratulations buddy. Well done!

congrat !!!!!!!!

Congratulations!
 

Wow, yes - congratulations! Great accomplishment, something to be proud of for sure!

ok! Thanks guys.

I LOVE that Wagner!!!

Congratulations Steven, quite an accomplishment, the cards look great!
RC

All my horizonals...

All my 1914s...

Wow, such a great looking set! Congrats!

Congratulations on an amazing accomplishment.

Runner up goes to your wife. Equally lucky man to have such an understanding wife!

You betcha! She wasn't to happy with me tonight as I have spent all but about 12 minutes in the man cave.

Congratulations, Steven. That's a whole lot of eye candy...literally. What a beautiful set.

Steve, that's a great set. What is next?

Congrats on your accomplishment! Very nice set. I hope to finish off the 1915 issue hopefully within several more years.

Congrats on your Jacks!
 

Steve,
Any time a fellow collector completes a project it is time to celebrate by all! I love the look of those Cracker Jacks and they look so good all together like that. Congratulations on a job well done. You have a great eye!
Tim Kindler

Congratulations Steven, that's a serious accomplishment. One of my favourite sets for sure.

Thanks for sharing scans; looks like a nice evenly graded set. And I like that you mixed in a few '14s and rounded up to 180.

Cheers,

Richard.

Thanks guys, not too much on the horizon...need to save some money.

I had to do this, 180/180.

Simply amazing! I hope you will be able to keep and enjoy the set for the rest of your life. Congrats!

Steve, you climbed the Cracker Jack mountain!

Way to go, dude!:D

I love that shot Steve. So much fun, reminds me of when I was a kid playing on the floor with my toys. Congrats again

Congrats great accomplishment!

Ricky Y

Congrats, Steve! What a beautiful set...a lot to be proud of there.

Enjoy the set!

Welcome to the club!

Very Cool to see! Congrats on a great accomplishment.

Way to go! I'm proud to say my first CJ was one of those you sold (Clarke). I also have a handful more that sacrificed themselves for your set.

I've long appreciated your enthusiasm for the Cracker Jack Set.

Enjoy!

Tony

Wow. Amazing. Well done!!

Fantastic set and great examples of Cobb and Jackson.

Congrats! Great story and pics.

Congratulations Steve... I certainly enjoyed hearing the story of how it all came together... And that is quite a beautiful set you have compiled.

The story behind the set shows how much you enjoyed the whole process. Congratulations!

Beautiful set, well done!!!

What kinda value do u put on that? Ill tell u priceless simply amazing

Probably my favorite mainstream set...such an iconic brand combined with gorgeous cards...I now officially have CJ envy!

Congrats, great accomplishment!

Great job on a most difficult feat!!

Congrats Steve on a great accomplishment!!! Mountains are meant to be climbed and you sure climbed a difficult one. It has been a pleasure for me to take part in that accomplishment, but better than that was to develop a friendship with you.

Can't wait to share more "war stories" in the future.

Best regards,

Barry

You have an understanding wife, a beautiful collection of CJs and a man cave?
I am soooo jealous! Congrats on all 3.

Congratulations! Cool and manageable way to approach this set, combining years and going with a '15 Matty. Who doesn't love the CJs?! The Shoeless and Cobb examples look amazing.

Thanks guys for all the kind words, I looked forward to sharing it within this community for awhile.

The best part of the whole thing was all the friends that were made along the trip...seemed different. I kept finding myself emailing other CJ guys that turned into those friendships, different than just card hunting. I was very odd getting home and not going to ebay first.

Next on the agenda? Save some cash and work on the man cave and my CJ posted that is about done...Ill have pics.

I finished my Cracker Jack set Reply to Thread
 

Wow, that is so great to hear!

NICE CARDS

Jimmy

great job! any idea what you spent overall?

Congrats!! Thanks again for sharing it with us.

congratulations!
 

gorgeous cards and displays.
quite the milestone!
all the best,
barry

Very Well Done!!!

Congrats!

Congratulations ! What's next ? :)

Congrats on a collecting adventure completed!
 

Nicely done, and quite the journey. One of my hobby regrets is not pursuing Cracker Jacks back in the day when they only had a slight premium over mainstream issues like T206. I love the vibrant (and consistent) background color, and especially appreciate the action poses.

Brian

Nice! Cards have great eye appeal. By my reckoning, your collecting accomplishment exceeds that of completing the Monster.

Congratulations.

Congrats Steven. I love to see what you've accomplished. I'm about half the way there myself. Hope you enjoy them for a long time.

I'm glad you stuck with it, Steve. I know you were wavering there for a little while. Great feat indeed.

Congrats on the huge accomplishment, Steven!

Wow Steve how great is that! Big congratulations and love the pictures!

Thanks Rich, just remember you started all this buddy!