[begsu1013]

i'm an 80's radio child and military brat. moved around a lot so never really had a "home team", i just loved baseball in it's entirety. playing, going to games, the peanuts/cracker jacks, cards, the whole damn thing.

so like most others of that day i was a rookie/prospect chaser w/ canseco (jose and ozzie), gregg jefferies, walt weiss, todd van poppel, ricky jordan etc. but naturally a fan of pete rose, nolan ryan, mantle, berra etc due to dad's and grandfather's stories. gramps did a stint on a farm team w/ the cards before the war, but "never claimed to be all that good anyways"...

being of that gen w/ the mixture of getting the car coupled w/ massive over produced era i lost interest...girls and gas became more important! but my dad collected cards as well and our collection was pretty good. we actually still have it. dad was smart enough to wrap and box it all up properly and pay for the controlled storage all these years. however i have not gone thru it in close to 20 years. it's up in atlanta and would probably take a good 2 weeks straight just to go thru and relive everything...i cant wait to go thru it but then again i like the fact that it's dusty as well, ya know?

sorry for the backdrop, but got back into the hobby after college and started making some expendable income. eventually ended up starting 2 of my own companies and with that "business" cents (sense)...started reading about and studying the tpg. it was something new to me and i liked the way the cards were preserved. naturally "my" guys weren't really worth collecting. don't get me wrong, i did go ahead and purchase that Jefferies and Walton card again but i didn't want those to be the cornerstone of my collection per se. ...and yes i did buy a few bccg cards starting out thinking i was getting a deal, but luckily they were the cheap rookie guys of my youth.

getting to your original question: i decided to pursue nolan, rose and mantle (and ric flair) initially and agreeing w/ you looking at the master set made me noxious. i decided to simply stick w/ the basic topps/bowman cards but go at them with a vengeance! i do have a few of these, but not having to get all the highlight, record breakers, score/pinnacle cards, if applicable etc just meant more money and more focus on the basic cards. some don't like collecting duplicates. i, for one, love it! not as overboard as the guy w/ all the 64 floods, but i do admire his tenacity.

as time transpired, i started venturing into other players i was fond of growing up but actually had above average careers...phil niekro, vida blue, eckersley. then moved on to the greats...berra, aaron and a few ruths.

as for succession of cards purchased...from day 1 back into collecting i focused on centering, so i didn't really go by order or anything. if a stunning centered example w/ decent corners arose at a fair price (and on some occasions a not so fair price), i snagged it. sometimes the rookie cards came first, other times it didn't as i was particularly picky on the rookie. now don't get me wrong, i am a set registry participator and have had to buy the flip vs the card on certain occasions. but getting back to my duplicates bug, i am prouder of some of my 8's and 9's.

as for how long it took to complete my basic set collection, the first ryan set took me about a year. but this is to where "i" considered it complete, not the set registry. naturally i coulda filled in the 71 w/ an oc example or something at anytime, but i had to wait til i found "my" card that "i" was happy with. and it had to be from a seller i liked. there are a few consignors out there , one in particular that i will not mention, but i wont bid on any of their auctions anymore. it sucked because i needed the card, but stuck to my moral fiber first. ironically enough, i have noticed said consignor moving to more "buy it now's" versus auctions as the shilling has become more dubious and people are starting to notice. (sorry for side tracking there).

with that being said, i don't ever consider it complete...as i still love picking up dups!