Collecting and completing sets

[tonyo]

Originally Posted by Bruinsfan94

One of my favorite parts of reading post on this site is seeing people post about their set collecting adventures. I have been collecting slowly but surely the 1957 topps set, the 1960 set, and t206. I don't have any scans on hand, but I'd love to see some pictures and hear some stories of set collecting. Be it now or when you were a kid. Would love to hear stories about sets that took a long time to complete, must be quite a great feeling when you finish!

Don't really have any stories per se, but I'll relay my set building successes anyway.

Although by nature as an adult I like to collect complete sets of "anything" I never really had the urge to complete any of the sets I collected as a kid in the 70's. The first time I truly remember wanting to collect all of any set was in the early 90's with some of those silver signature parallel sets.

Anyway late 90's I took a few years off while my family grew and got back into collecting in 2009. Collected the 09 UD Goudey base and the '09 A&G base and mini set. This is when I discovered pre-war & net54 by searching for 09UD Goudeys on ebay.

Since then I've collected the following sets (all in F/G/VG condition):

1. t206 (520) took me about 4 years to get to 520, although I believe about a year went by between Monster number jumping from 519 to 520. Still working on replacing some of the cards with more interesting versions (less common backs, backstamps, writing, etc)

2. 1933 Goudey (minus Lajoie and 1 Gehrig) got all the hofers in 09 and 2010, then took me about a year and 1/2 to fill out the remainder of the set, upgrade a few cards, and sell off all by doubles in 2012/2014

3. 52 bowman. started this set in december 2010 and sold my last double in january 2012.

4. 72 topps. This was the first year I collected as a kid and I kept my cards from this set when I foolishly sold the rest of my collection around 1990. I think I needed about 100 cards mostly last series. So, I wrapped this one up in 2011.

5. 73 topps. I saw a thread on net54 about "favorite cards from the 70's" which prompted me to pick up a 73 Clemente. 73 was my second year collecting as a kid and brought back a lot of fond memories. So I decided to put this set together by buying lots on ebay. It was a whirlwind taking about 4 months from start to finish and probably the most fun I've had putting together a set these past few years. I won 38 auctions on eBay, 4 lots of greater than 350 cards. Bought over 2000 cards in those 38 lots then sold about 1400 doubles in one shot. I loved receiving the boxes of cards, flipping through them, remembering those I used to own, and stopping on those I knew I'd never seen before and studying them for an extra minute or two.



Those are the only true sets I've "completed" since I started collecting again. My M.O. over the last 2 or 3 years is: I create "subsets" to give me something to complete. Some are; Topps/Bowman regular issue HOFers 1949-1979 (still need 6); t207 Recruit series bat, glove, belt - got to within 1, then decided to sell some. Now I've narrowed my t207 pursuit to recruit 2nd series. Down to 13 needed on those; 1900 thru 1945 pre-war type set 100 different with all hofers represented at least once. Still need a Delehanty and Burkett; early e card clouds and sunset backgrounds - recently completed that one!


I've recently decided to go for the t205 set (one card per player - no variations). I got all the hofers a few years ago and have been slowly acquiring the others with a strict $$ limit. Since starting in July I'm plodding along slowly for me but have successfully stayed within my price limits! Currently at 67 commons, 1 short print, 1 minor leaguer, 25 hofers

That pretty much sums it up for me.

Thanks to anyone who read all that, it took me longer to type than I expected.

Have a great week and Happy Collecting!

Tony