How long do you keep a set??
 

Everyone is different and has different tastes and levels of income they can devote to their collection. My question is do you guys eventually (or quickly too, I guess) sell off sets that you have built or have purchased? I still like what I have, but my interests are also changing (from postwar to prewar) and getting more expensive. In thinking about projects I would like to do, I am going to need $$ and I have limits. Do you guys eventually reach the point to where you feel you've enjoyed whatever it is you have and you're ready to move on to something else, or do you focus on just accumulating and never sell??

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Much to the chagrin of my spouse, I just accumulate. If you are looking to pivot out of post war sets into pre-war, I still need to knock out 52-53 topps 48-52 Bowman as well as some of the smaller sets such as 55 double headers 64 giants etc...

I sell a set when I no longer enjoy owning it.

I too am an accumulator only. I keep saying that my wife and her new boyfriend can buy a really nice house when I am gone :)

complete set say what? What's that?

I only have 19 more Helmar Stamps to go (out of 180), but it'll probably still be another 10 years before I am able to complete the set. If I did finish the set, I will probabbly keep it as it has been a labor of love for me. But ask me again in a few years (after I have completed a set).

It's probably different for everyone. The last "Set" I completed was a 1970-1979 Yankees PSA 8 decade set. I had a lot of fun building it but once that last card showed up, I lost interest in it and it just sat in a few boxes and now I've listed it on ebay to help fund the never ending chase of T206 front/back combo's. For me, the time building a set is most enjoyable. It brings me back to 1985 when I built my first Topps set one wax pack at a time.

While I have been almost exclusively a stars and HOF'ers collector, I am currently focused on one set from my youth, and have no intentions of parting with it upon completion.

Best wishes,

Larry

Kevin--I am usually an accumulator myself. The thought of unloading a set is really pretty foreign to me. It's just that I am wading into new and pricey territory and anticipate needing funds to pursue it. At this point, I am not looking to move much in terms of baseball. I would likely be selling a complete '65 Topps Tallboy football set which is 100% SGC graded. Never been much of a football collector so it doesn't hurt as much I guess.

Sean--I totally agree. I could stand losing the football, I believe.

John--I have told my wife the same thing. :D

Derek--Keep going, sounds like you are about there!

Ronnie--Anything that I might sell would, like you, go to fund prewar baseball so I have an idea of where you are coming from.

Larry--I understand the idea of wanting to keep what you are working on. Even with entering prewar, I don't anticipate letting go of most of my postwar baseball for quite a while. The prewar I want to pursue would be for keeps.

Until death, and I will have to be gone for so long before the wife and kids can sell them off.
I've never sold a set in fact only 3 cards ever, I'd never say never but can't imagine selling them, I guess I am just an accumulator as well.

I've built the same set multiple times, multiple times. I also collect other things and have been known to sell off cards to buy comics. Then a year later sell them to buy records. Then sell those to buy cards. Can't make up my mind on anything...

To me, this is now the right answer. I didn't always to feel that way. But I finally realized that if I didn't even care enough anymore to look at a set for several years, it really didn't need to be taking up space in my house and I could go ahead and get rid of it. Fortunately for me, I'm really not focused in collecting sets anymore so with a couple of exceptions for the 1920's Cuban sets, it is mostly a theoretical issue for me.

No need to respond, but I wonder if folks would answer the same way about their spouse(s) that they do about cards.

If my spouse got more valuable over time...

Just kidding. I've never been married. :D

As a type set collector it was time to look to something new when I had acquired all but a few of the cards I needed. Plus by the time I paid for our daughter's college, which was always a plan with the cards, it was going to take a good chunk of them so the time was right to just start over. I am a happier collector today by far..Plus some of the first collection has made it back to the second one. And a few other new additions have kept it exciting. The hunt is always exciting and maybe more so than the long term ownership, for me.

I have a set of W572 cards that is maybe 14 or 15 cards from being complete. Have not found anything in nearly 2 years so I am on the bubble with this set. They are rather plain and not finding anything loses the excitement of the set. If I could get out of them what I put in, they would go to fund other projects.

This is turning out to be more difficult than I had thought. It turns out that I might be more greedy than I had thought. [emoji16] My interests are shifting to prewar, especially the PCL. I am troubled that I am having difficulty wanting to let go of some of my postwar collection. I appreciate your insight and the insight of all who have responded. It really does help me think it through.

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I've never owned a complete set, but I assume the answer is different for everybody. As for me, I like the hunt the most because I collect cards that are hard to find. So if I completed a set I don't think I would keep it for very long

Collect a set, sell it, and then repeat
 

I met a fellow years ago who only collected 1959 Topps Baseball sets one card at a time. When he finished his set, he would sell it and start over again. He said it kept him happy and into collecting and it kept his wife happy because there weren't thousands of BB cards lying around the house.

I can't say that anything I've got holds a candle to what most people on this board have, but in general, I used to be too sentimental with my possessions. It used to be so difficult to part with something I cherished, but it also meant that when I moved a couple times, it was really a bear because I just had too much stuff.

I've learned that selling/parting with things is really part of the process, and it's gotten much easier over the years the more I do it. Now there are the select "heirloom" pieces that I'll hold on to and cherish, but everything else can be dispersed with in due time.

I only collect a few sets, from my youth, and those in lower grades. The one I've 'finished' so far (1969 basketball) I just keep revising (not upgrading necessarily) to add cards that are visually consistent in place of cards that stick out.

I prefer to start with a base set that mostly meets my acceptable criteria and work from there. That's what I did with the 1969s. I had a handful from my childhood including a Chamberlain, bought a lower grade set at auction, blended it with my existing cards, then targeted about a dozen cards to replace so the whole thing looks similar.

I also like to do subsets. My next project will probably be the 1960-61 all star subsets or the 1961 MVP subset. Plus the 1975 MVP subset.

I also put together every Clayton Kershaw from the 2016 Topps Now issue; I enjoy the modern issues too.