Junk Era Shiny Crap: Doing the Math

[cdn_collector]

Originally Posted by mrmopar

I think that is a losing proposition for just about any decent sized insert or parallel set. Even with perfect collation, building a set by busting packs is not cost effective, nor are the cards rarely "worth" what you'd have to pay.

I remember thinking how cool it would be to have a set of 1994 Collectors Choice Gold Signature cards. Wonder how much that would cost to build from packs! I seem to recall the Thomas having a value of around $100-150 at one point. I think you can probably find one for under $10 now. Still a great set/card and at 1 per wax box (I think factory sets had a small brick of them too), not an easy set to build.

1994 Collector's Choice was the last set I busted packs from when I was a kid. I was, and am, a huge fan of the set. Of all the packs I busted, I only ever pulled 1 gold card. I have since busted 4 boxes, and am attempting to build the base, silver and gold sets very casually. I managed to complete the base set by packs and trades, I bought a small lot of silvers to supplement what I pulled from packs and have traded my way within 42 cards of completing that set. I am at 432 on the golds but am still a long way from completion, with Jeter still missing, all of the Griffeys, Jordans and all but one Thomas also still unaccounted for.

If I were to attempt this busting packs, I imagine I'd be spending around $10-15 per series 1 "card" (realizing it's the entire box), and more like $20-25 per series 2 "card", plus shipping.

If you went the complete set route, you would get 5 gold cards per set. I imagine that's how you'd achieve the lowest "per gold card" rate, maybe around 4 bucks a card or less, but that's still significantly more than what I'm at per card so far (realizing I still have some major gaps to fill).

Thank goodness I'm not in this for the money

Richard.