Near miss...Cards that you've personally taken out of existence...

[familytoad]

I once pulled the 72 topps high number series aside to see which ones I still needed, as it seemed like I had most of them. Then I brought them to an ex-gf's house and shortly afterwards we parted ways and I needed the whole series and some new furniture
Fortunately, several years later my pals in OBC helped me rebuild that psycho set from those psycho days.

Then, just last week, flooding from Hurricane Irene took about 100,000 cards out of circulation from mom's basement in central Vermont. Some good stuff in there too...no prewar that I know of. It makes you wonder how many cards were lost in "Acts of God" instances over the years...
In fact, when you think about it, its simply amazing that we all have cards that are over a hundred years old or more!!! wow!