What card(s) did you have to spend...
 

,,,big $ for to complete a set but you really didn't want to...For me it is the Lucky Penny, Bakep error, and Checklist cards for my '57 BB set...Silly cards to spend $ on but it has to be done....oh yes, it has to be done...

'56 topps checklists, I hate paying big $ for checklists!

The 1952 Topps Ed Mathews. I think it's one of the dullest looking cards in the 1952 Topps set and a PSA 1 still cost me $1200. Unfortunately it's kind of tough to have a complete 1952 Topps HOF set without it. :mad:

1957
 

In addition to the Lucky Penny card, I bought one of the Lucky Penny send aways itself....penny in a round metal pendant on a chain

But those 8 checklists with the Blony and Bazooka variations were a major pain

I started collecting boxing cards back in the '80's and after quickly putting together an EX/MT near set for around $1 per common, $5-20 stars, suffered some serious buyer's remorse after shelling out $75 for a '51 Ringside Murphy card - a fighter I had never heard of. But, man, I really craved that last, scarce beauty that took five years to find.

It's funny you mention this. At first I felt the same way...to me Matthews looked like he was blushing or running a high fever, and I kinda felt he was an anticlimactic way to end the set, with so many lovely cards...always thought Nuxhall would've been a nice capper, or one of the horizontal cards.

But lately I acquired this card myself, a PSA 5 dead centered, and it's started to grow on me.

My vote for worst card that costs the most will be the day I have to get the 52 Pee Wee Reese for my set. He looks so weird! I haven't seen the original photo, but I strongly suspect they pasted his head on another player's body, cause he just looks mishapen and out of proportion, and it's one of the few cards in the set that I think was botched and it's easily the worst HoF card in the set.

Reese
 

In 1982 when the Cardinals played the Brewers for the World Sries, Reese was a spokesperson for H&B, a company in which my wife and her family were large shareholders. We met Reese and he gave us tickets to 2 of the games in St Louis

great question!
 

and a funny one to try to answer.
This phenomenon is why I am not interested in collecting sets (checklists!), and it is also the number one trigger for when I switch collecting focus from time to time...for instance-it's why I stopped collecting HOF Rookies. I stopped that endeavor because I got so sick of spending money on cards and players I didn't care for...like the Rollie fingers, Hunter, Mazeroski, etc...

gotta collect what you like and limit the extraneous purchases!

Years ago I put together a Topps 1955 set. When I was down to the last card I was so impatient I dot into a biding war with someone over it. I won the card but lost my mind. I don't even remember who the player was but I know I paid more than double high book value for an ungraded vg common.
Drew

The spirit of this topic is exactly why I am almost positive that I will never attempt to assemble a vintage complete set, as I do not think I could stomach paying the price checklists and high numbered commons command. I have far too many other things on my wish list. Best of luck to all that tackle this endeavor though, it is a daunting task I'm sure. BTW thanks Patrick for checking out my 1955 bowman banks, I lost out on a couple of them I wanted over the course of a few months previously and they do not show up all that often in good shape. Very happy with the one I ended up with though.

^ THIS. And the '56 Checklists aren't even numbered!

I paid about $125.00 for this 1977 Topps common to finish my PSA 9 1977 Topps Blue Jays set. Craziness!!!!!

You said it Jarrod, insult to injury! :mad:

That's why the only way I'm going to finish the '52 Topps set is just to buy a completed one. 96 high numbers at the prices they bring is just too much and I'm just talking about the commons, not the Mantle, Mathews, Robinson, Campanella, etc! :eek:

short sets ?
 

Heres an interesting wrinkle to "not" set collecting...

I think it would be easier/cheaper/faster/etc..to put short sets together..for ex- on 3 or 4 plastic sheets you display all or most of the cards in the 56T set - Mantle,Mays,Aaron,Aparicio,Banks,etc..Im sure you could fill up 3 pages..throw in a few Yanks,Dodgers, a WS card or two, a checklist,a wax wrapper,..etc., and you have a pretty strong represntn of the 56 set.

Then in one sitting,you could thumb thru 5 Topps sets all in one binder..and enjoy the meat of the sets

I've thought about taking a similar approach where you just collect your personal top 10-15 favorite cards in a set as opposed to the entire thing. It would be a lot cheaper plus save space for those of us confined to an apartment. :) If you lay those 10-15 cards out in a row I think it would give you a pretty solid representation of the set just like you mentioned and you don't end up tying money up in a few hundred commons that you could be spending on cards you actually want.

That is exactly the approach I have been thinking of on any future sets I have an interest in. I'm currently 93% done with the '56 set so I'l see it through, but I'm not interested in building any other complete sets.

I rarely do sets because I hate 'wasting' money on commons. The sets I am working take a very long time because I am content to bargain hunt to find the commons.

Talking about the 1956 checklists reminded me of the 1963 Fleer checklist. I passed on a mint one for $40 back in the 1980's at one of the Nationals. I had paid that much for the rarest card in the set Joe Adcock! Couldn't see that for a checklist. Now it's the only card I need for the set, and I doubt I'll ever get it because I don't want to pay what they are asking for it. Sets are overrated!;)

When I opened the package that my pendant came in, then showed it to my wife, the look on her face as she said "really?!" was worth the cost.

Doug

That's classic Doug, did she buy you Legos for your next birthday! ;)

When I would buy a fairly expensive card I'd tell my dad "If you would have bought this same card when you were a kid it would have only cost you a penny plus you would have gotten a piece of gum, so technically it's your fault I had to pay this much because you weren't thinking ahead". He got me back by saying "I did buy baseball cards back then. I chewed the gum and then I put the card in my bicycle spokes to make motorcycle noises". :D