1986 Topps Complete Set Missing Cards

[ALR-bishop]

With the exception of my Topps Heritage sets 2001 to 2021 which are all in binders, all my Topps regular sets post 1992 are still in the boxes in which they came. I will likely never know if they suffer the same problem. That must have been pretty vexing

[Mike D.]

I bought a case of 1993 Fleer Final Edition sets a year or so back. Of the 20 sets, at least 5 were missing and/or had extra cards. The collation and packing process is clearly imperfect.

[Bigdaddy]

Yes, Topps sets in the '80s were known to sometimes have missing/duplicate cards in them. I never understood the premium on unopened factory sets because of that. I'd much rather have a hand collated set that a) you could open the set and see for yourself any prominent cards, b) any grossly miscut or otherwise poor cards would probably be weeded out and c) you can actually look at and touch the cards without worrying about breaking some seal.

I always assume '80s Topps factory sets are not complete. I have no idea when they got their act together and significantly bumped up the chances that you'd actually get the full set.

Were the cards in order in the box?

[Cmvorce]

Originally Posted by Bigdaddy

I always assume '80s Topps factory sets are not complete. I have no idea when they got their act together and significantly bumped up the chances that you'd actually get the full set.

Were the cards in order in the box?

The cards were not in order - they were completely random. Several years ago I bought a sealed Topps complete set run from 1986 - 2009. I would not recommend doing this. So far 86 is the only one that is missing cards (I haven't gone through 1989 - 1991 yet), but the more frustrating problem is the condition of the 1997 - 2001 sets. Many of the cards in those factory sealed sets were stuck together and when they were separated they peeled and chipped to varying degrees. The 2001 set was completely worthless - the cards were destroyed trying to separate them or could not be separated at all. To your point, definitely better off buying hand collected sets.