[brob28]

Wow Ted, kind of hard to follow that amazing collection!!

I'm a little bit of both as for set builder or not. Collected as a child and like most stopped for several years (kept my childhood cards) and would just pick up a few packs here and there to see what was new. When my first child (a son) was born in 2005 life changed, less travel and going out etc. I had a lot more home-time so I decided to build a set to give to him when he was older and chose the 2005 Cracker Jack set. Around this time, while looking through my childhood collection came across a few 1956 Topps cards and I fell in love with the beauty of the set, the spark took. I have since finished '56 and '61 Topps, all the 70's and some early 1980's. My OCD spills over into condition & all variations so my sets take a while to complete (the '72 set almost did me in). I'm currently 98% finished with the Topps '62 master set.

As for why I'm a little bit of both is over the past 11 years while completing my sets, I have also been working on '33 Goudey HOF's, T206 Hall of Famers (back run hopefully), '64 Topps Standup HOF group and many of the Topps All star subsets, 1960 being my personal favorite. I also pick ups specific individual cards with no intention of completing the entire set. My collecting interests seem to meander every which way like an old river. As an example, just the other day I picked up a Topps Venezualan from a board member my first and most likely my last.

This hobby offers so many ways to enjoy it, great stories guys!