The "Why am I wasting my time/money" thread

[jchcollins]

My "What the hell am I doing...?" moments with vintage recently seem mostly related to the '67 Topps set.

Historically, I'm not really a set collector - I focus on singles and HOF'ers - but at some point in the last two years, I got the idea that it would be sad if I never tried to build a vintage set. I had already been working on '72, but for the 1960's - I decided I needed not only a set, but perhaps the most difficult one. In retrospect this seems dumb. Truth be told, I don't even like it as much as the '65 Topps design, but noooo, I wanted the "challenge" of the high numbers. And the errors and variations. Not to mention the expensive HOF'ers.

Oh well. I have a decent start because it's generally my habit to go after difficult cards first, and commons in bulk later. So I only have maybe 15% of the set, but have already knocked out the Seaver, Carew, Mantle, Aaron, Mays, Clemente, etc. etc. Even so, the remaining high numbers, especially the SP's (which will come much later...) scare me. With the bubble that just ended, even no-name players in decent shape seemed to be going for well north of $100.

[Tere1071]

Upgrading my 1953 Bowman color and 1971 Topps Baseball sets. My 53 Bowman Color overall is in excellent condition; the Mantle is a newer PSA 4 and the Reese is ungraded but also in vg/ex. I should leave well enough alone, but I am upgrading some commons and minor stars which probably won't make that much of a difference to the set, but could easily run another $500.

The same with my 1971 baseball set. I've replaced some cards three times and now have nearly 1,000 extras as a result with a list of 69 more cards to upgrade and I'll probably do the same for my 1972 and 1975 sets. Compulsive madness!