Anyone else deliberately collect Partial Sets?

JackLondon · Aug 7, 2011

Hi all,

I have noticed that a tendency I have is to knowingly collect Near Sets of things I like. There always seem to be a couple of cards that I KNOW I will never spend the money on. Either that, or the cards pop up so infrequently, I resign myself to being satisfied with (and purposely aiming toward) Partial Sets.

Since the sets are being put together for my own enjoyment (and definitely not monetary reasons), I find that with a little shifting of my goals, I can be perfectly content with having, say, 18 of 20, or 97 of 100.

Anyone else able to "settle" for incompleteness? Anyone else think that "close enough" is good enough?

miguelcabrera · Aug 7, 2011

i have started collecting a few 90s sets, and i know i will never fully complete them
for instance, i will never buy the yankees in the baseball sets, and i will never buy the lakers in the basketball sets

darrend505 · Aug 7, 2011

JackLondon said:
Hi all,

I have noticed that a tendency I have is to knowingly collect Near Sets of things I like. There always seem to be a couple of cards that I KNOW I will never spend the money on. Either that, or the cards pop up so infrequently, I resign myself to being satisfied with (and purposely aiming toward) Partial Sets.

Since the sets are being put together for my own enjoyment (and definitely not monetary reasons), I find that with a little shifting of my goals, I can be perfectly content with having, say, 18 of 20, or 97 of 100.

Anyone else able to "settle" for incompleteness? Anyone else think that "close enough" is good enough?

I thought that I would be able to do that with my relic set, but enough time working on it and I was able to add the final cards for a decent price! Partial sets in my collection get finished, but I only collect sets I think I can finish! I love the hunt for the last few cards that I need!

JackLondon · Aug 7, 2011

darrend505 said:
JackLondon said:

Hi all,

I have noticed that a tendency I have is to knowingly collect Near Sets of things I like. There always seem to be a couple of cards that I KNOW I will never spend the money on. Either that, or the cards pop up so infrequently, I resign myself to being satisfied with (and purposely aiming toward) Partial Sets.

Since the sets are being put together for my own enjoyment (and definitely not monetary reasons), I find that with a little shifting of my goals, I can be perfectly content with having, say, 18 of 20, or 97 of 100.

Anyone else able to "settle" for incompleteness? Anyone else think that "close enough" is good enough?

Click to expand...

I thought that I would be able to do that with my relic set, but enough time working on it and I was able to add the final cards for a decent price! Partial sets in my collection get finished, but I only collect sets I think I can finish! I love the hunt for the last few cards that I need!

Yeah, Darren, there are a couple of sets that I know I can finish some day; just a matter of finding the last few and paying for them. But there are others that the last two or three cards I need are almost impossible to find. When those cards DO come up, they go for around $200 each. I can never afford that and am okay with it.

I am kinda like you in that I usually won't start a set that I don't think I can finish. However, with a couple of my sets, I had no idea how EXPENSIVE the last cards would be when I started the set!

DeliciousBacon · Aug 7, 2011

If I'm close enough to completing a set, then I'll go for it. However, I won't pay money for certain players, not even a penny. Most Yankees are on that list, so if I need an Alex Roidriguez to complete a set, and I can't get it in a trade, I just won't complete that set. I just feel dirty intentially paying for players who I hate unless it's a rare card that I can turn around and flip for something useful to me. It's pretty much limited to Rodriguez, Jeter, Teixeira, Cano, Sabathia, Rivera, Posada, and Luke Scott, who isn't a Yankee but is an idiot.

uniquebaseballcards · Aug 7, 2011

Yes I collect sets that are impossible to complete, I try to set target completion rates and get a nice mix of players and memorable cards from said sets.

bcubs · Aug 8, 2011

I will collect partial sets with the hope that someday I'll find those tough to get or cost prohibitive items. If not, I'll enjoy what I have.

RL24 · Aug 8, 2011

The life of a player collector.

I have lots of cards from 1 set, but it's only the 1 player. I have seen some cards included in a lot with certain Rickeys (mostly Broder type cards) and only then realized there ARE other cards in the set. (Hope that was intelligible).

Then of course, there are the dozens of incomplete "rainbows" where I have almost all the cards, but the 1/1 either never showed up or I lost it.

ronzo · Aug 8, 2011

Now that I'm nearing completion on my Topps 205 and 206 AU/GU sets, I've been searching for new sets to work on. I've come across several that I liked but they had some extremely SP'd cards I couldn't imagine buying.

Maybe I'll start doing partial sets, it feels so wrong though!

vwnut13 · Aug 8, 2011

~ I collect lots of sets. But I refuse to collect cards of anyone that isn't on the Yankees. ~

rsmath · Aug 9, 2011

JackLondon said:
Anyone else able to "settle" for incompleteness?

I do in two ways:

1) If a set has a lot of SPs and the SPs are too numerous or too expensive average price/per for me to acquire them to complete the base/SP set.

2) If it's an insert I like, I can usually live with incompleteness. I've put in number order 2007 UD Series 1 Monday and while sorting, I cam across old time superstars in the 1989UD design inserts. I like the inserts enough to keep them in the PC and not put them up for sale like I do the inserts I don't like much. The players I like the most in the checklist I already have and I don't care much about some of the players I don't have, so I'm happy with the lot I already have and won't bother trying to complete it.

bowmanchromeandorr · Aug 9, 2011

miguelcabrera said:
i have started collecting a few 90s sets, and i know i will never fully complete them
for instance, i will never buy the yankees in the baseball sets, and i will never buy the lakers in the basketball sets

you are now, officially, one of the smartest people in the world

George_Calfas · Aug 9, 2011

I often like a group of cards within a set. This yer I have been buying Allen Ginter non-baseball autos, I hVe thought about buy Pre-War GU cards and blowing off the modern players.

darrend505 · Aug 9, 2011

George_Calfas said:
I often like a group of cards within a set. This yer I have been buying Allen Ginter non-baseball autos, I hVe thought about buy Pre-War GU cards and blowing off the modern players.

This is the direction I am heading. I am nearly done with all of my "modern" sets. I am really enjoying post-war! Though as some of the sets from the period are rather expensive, I think I may be to the point where I just pick up cards that I would like to own.

JackLondon · Aug 9, 2011

Prime example for me is the Topps Heritage Heroes history set. I have the complete base set, chrome parallel set, inserts, 100% of the American Heroes autographs, 99.9% of the American Heroes relics and I have put together 95% of the American Heroism historic relics. I did not go after the Heroes of Sport autos or relics, but I do have two of them. I only have about 60% of the Heroes of Spaceflight relics. My realistic goal was to collect the ones that I could afford. The set is probably my favorite one of the last ten years and I am happy with my collection.

There are a couple of history relics I will NEVER be able to afford, or probably even find, so I am calling it "complete" for my pc. I don't even search for the few I am missing any more.

Brewer Andy · Aug 9, 2011

I think you're a quitter with no apsirations thats what I think Andrew

But no, if I don't think I'll be able to "complete" a set, then I don't even try. So count me amongst the "afraid of a challenge"

JackLondon · Aug 9, 2011

Brewer Andy said:
I think you're a quitter with no apsirations thats what I think Andrew

But no, if I don't think I'll be able to "complete" a set, then I don't even try. So count me amongst the "afraid of a challenge"

You know me pretty well!

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