Advice on the t206 set

[mintacular]

I would think $10/card or less and you are going to get some pretty hammered/thrashed cards...If you are good with that go for it...

I would recommend before starting to really pinpoint which grade you find acceptable/meets your budget before you start buying. You will lose alot of $ if you decide later on to upgrade IMO. For pre-war stuff I have found that gd/vg cards work for me as they are low grade enough to avoid paying too much $ but not so low that I wince when looking at them...I would think that $20/card for most gd/vg t206s (w/common backs) is typical btw...

In terms of the challenge aspect, I don't think you have to worry about that with this set as there are so many variations/poses/tough backs/ HOFers, etc. Good luck and like I said really start to study cards in PSA/SGC holders and figure out which low grade condition (P-VGEX) you are happy with...Also, when start out a set it is good for you to buy a big chunk to get started so you can a better price and then from their cherry pick the singles you need.

As for graded cards, figure out if you are going for raw card set or a graded one. One thing to consider is maybe buying commons raw and the stars graded, that's what I would do...Also, in most cases you can probably save $ buying cards already graded than sending them in yourself.

[ethicsprof]

yes, a major step along the way is to realize that the Monster wants you to quit.

Don't listen to it.

all the best in your quest,

barry

[E93]

I thought of it as a marathon. I finished about 25 years after I started. Now I am doing side projects with backs. Before I contented myself with an example of each of the 16 brands. Now I going for color variations of brands and series, etc. (basically every back). I am down to BL 460 and brown Old Mill.
JimB

[Niko]

I wouldn't even begin to start worrying about the backs- I would just try to get the project underway.

I'm worried that the price will be too high for my budget, and I'll be stuck at a point where I rarely have cards incoming anymore - it will definitely take COUNTLESS years to complete.

With that said, I have read countless archived threads here on net54 and have been looking a lot into the set, and the more I look, the more excited I get.

[Luke]

I started collecting the set a few months ago with a very similar post on this forum. When you first start, you can bargain hunt a lot, because you need everything, so I have gotten a few very good deals. In my opinion, it would be very difficult to keep your average cost below $20. Even common beater lots tend to average out at around $10 per card and there are over 120 SL/HOFers that will average closer to $50 if you stick to beaters.
I have had a lot of fun so far and would definitely recommend it, but I just wanted to give you a realistic idea of what the cards are going for now as I have spent a lot of time searching for deals in the last couple months. Good luck, and let us know what you decide to do.

Luke

[lharri3600]

well my friend,
welcome to the monster club. be patient, be patient. it's fun! in fact i'm 3 cards away from completing a raw set (minus the big 4). have fun.

[Tcards-Please]

I can certainly understand the the attraction at the attempt to complete the monster. I was in your position roughly 3 years ago trying to decide what pre-war set to try and complete. I was going back and forth between T206, T205 and Cracker Jack. They all have certain qualities that I like. It finally all boiled down to what I realistically had a chance to complete in low grade. For me, there was no sense in going after a set that I know would be missing certain key cards.

After sleeping on it for a week, I made my decision and haven't regretted it one bit. I decided on the T205's and have been at it for almost 3 years now. I purchased my first T205 (Hugh Jennings) in November 2007 and haven't looked back. I've just recently hit the 60% mark and will probably take another 2 years to complete.

Good luck on your endeavor if you do go after the monster and remember it isn't a sprint, but a marathon. I've seen people hit it hard and really not enjoy what they are collecting.

r/
Frank