For me, it depends on the price point of the set. If it's under like $400, I usually will buy 3 or more complete Near Mint sets and then disassemble them and put them back together by condition so that I have one high grade set. That gives me 3 or more of each card to choose from condition-wise as I'm rebuilding the sets. So, I've done that for like '76 thru '85 Topps Baseball (after '85 are all factory sets). For 1975 and back, I build them like option 3 - "I usually buy lots and fill in the gaps to complete my sets."
For prewar sets, I just build those card by card. The only prewar set that I've done is E95.
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