[Volod]

Looks like you're making the right kind of progress, Sam - slow, steady and careful. I think you will enjoy the experience more that way. When I was putting the '52 Bowman set together back in the '80's, getting a good look at individual cards was only possible by shlepping to a lot of local card shows. Through about the first hundred or so cards acquired, I trusted my memory of what I needed so that I wouldn't have to fiddle with checklists while jockeying for elbow room at the tables. But, at one point, while examining a couple of fourth-series commons, I could not recall if I had already picked them up, so I said what the hell, and bought them. Once I got them home, I realized that they were indeed already in the collection, but I saw something that disturbed me much more: the image registration on the two newbies was noticeably better than on the two previously acquired. Bowman's print registration was notoriously hit-and-miss, and it was sometimes so subtle that one had to see two or more of the same card side by side to appreciate the difference in image quality. These days, of course, one can study the cards in online images and easily compare and detect which is the better example. But, over eight years in the 80's, I amassed two full sets and part of a third, constantly upgrading cards after finding examples with better registration than cards I had previously been quite satisfied with. At least it was a labor of love, not to mention that the cards were much less expensive then.

Ok, i'll just read from now on...