Sets that aren't worth completing

[whitehse]

Originally Posted by buymycards

It isn't always about what a set is worth. It is more about the enjoyment of putting the set together, one card at a time. In some cases, full sets are not available. In my case, I have been working on my T213-2 set for nearly 10 years, and I have 128 of the 185 cards. To the best of my knowledge, there aren't any full sets available to purchase, and if I do complete my set, there probably isn't anyone out there who would buy a full set of T213-2's. But, I don't care. I look for cards at shows, I look for cards on eBay and Net54, and I love the chase.

Financially, I look at it as if I am playing golf or going fishing. If I spend $10,000 over a 10 year period playing golf, I don't expect to sell anything to recoup my "investment", but if I enjoy playing golf, the cost is worthwhile. If I enjoy fishing, and I have an assortment of fishing poles and tackle, and I have an $8,000 boat, and travel expenses for travel to and from fishing, I don't expect to recoup my investment. I use the same "logic?" for my Louisiana cards. I enjoy collecting them because I love Louisiana, and I realize that I will never sell the cards for the amount of money that I have in them, but that is OK.

I take the complete opposite view when I am purchasing cards to resell on eBay or to sell at cards shows.

I am a hopeless set builder and I think we all know that set building for profit is something that does not happen. I am in agreement with what Rick said above....building the set is about the experience and not the financial return. I have been building a '56 Topps baseball set for two years and have probably spent more on it so far than I would have buying a full set outright but I enjoy the hunt and knowingly realize I will likely never recoup my investment. But I cannot put a price on the enjoyment I received in building the set so there is that.

[trambo]

For me, I'd say 1960 Fleer ATG provided the comment with "worth" relates to value. I'd say that about any most sets, really, if you're referring to resale value if you're buying one card at a time,. Then again, if you're plan is to hold them for the long-term and you're buying most vintage or pre war stuff, then it may make some sense.

From a value perspective, if you're patient, I do think you can both build and sell as set and make a return on the investment, even in the short term. In the past two years, I've put together a 41 Play Ball and 48 Bowman set. In both cases, I've sold them as complete sets and returned more than I paid for the parts. Patience and a little good luck on both ends of it was what paid off. I didn't buy at full value on all the cards but did on a few. In both sales, they were purchased to either upgrade an existing set or break up. Not sure how either ended from the buyer's perspective but do know they got pretty good stuff (48 Bowman was an overall 7 and 41 PB was a low 5 overall grade).

[seanofjapan]

I'm a set builder, its just how I get enjoyment from this hobby. My vintage sets are all "mid grade" and raw. I can't be bothered to care much about condition, except for not wanting true beaters in my sets, which helps given my limited budget for cards.

My general rules before starting a set project are:

1) No sets with insanely high value cards in them (if I can't get, or at least aspire to one day getting, the key card in the set for under $300 in mid grade, the set is off my radar completely. If it has multiple key cards in that price range its also going to be off the list).

2) No sets with series that are scarce enough that mid grade commons are going to cost more than 10$ each, unless the overall number of cards in those series isn't too big, in which case I could go a bit higher.

3) No sets where the scarce series make up more than about 25% of the total.

4) No ugly sets.