- Thread starter
- #1
At the Houston Tristar show a couple weeks ago, I added a big get to my 2014 National Treasures Flawless set when I found a Tony Gwynn. This was one of those sets with a little diamond embedded in the card, with 100 cards in the set numbered to 20 copies. I really liked the cards when they came out but didn't commit to collecting it for the first few months as I couldn't reconcile the unlicensedness and so missed a lot of opportunities. But I'm now down to just 5 for the set. Problem is 3 of those cards are, like Gwynn, recent HOFers with sizable fan bases, so if they ever show up online they'll likely be competitive at auction or snapped up fast at any reasonable BIN. Dealer wouldn't really budge on the price of the Gwynn, which was pretty stiff but not completely unreasonable, and I couldn't remember the last time I saw one.
I've also been working on the 2008 UD Timeless Teams Platinum set. It's also 100 cards, each one #/25 (no diamonds tho). The other day, another one of these albatrosses showed up. Burbank listed a Brandon Webb for sale, but the description said it was #/25 while the picture shown was the #/100 parallel. Burbank responded to my inquiry quickly and updated the image showing it was, in fact, the #/25. Haven't spent $4 that quickly in a while. I'm now down to 4 cards for that set.
I enjoy chasing low-numbered parallels, especially building sets. But inevitably it ends up with me at 80-99% complete while those last few cards just prove elusive, either going to other, less worthy
collectors or just never showing up at all. Some are too rare to really entertain thoughts of completing but I enjoy them anyway. Some are too obscure, which is probably a subset of the "too rare" field. And as time goes by, they all fade into obscurity with sightings of copies I need fewer and farther between. My main source of new additions is often people who also started collecting the set but are breaking it up. Maybe I should break up some of mine. No point in sitting at 50% complete on a 15-year-old set when you only add 1 or 2 per year, if that.
I've also been working on the 2008 UD Timeless Teams Platinum set. It's also 100 cards, each one #/25 (no diamonds tho). The other day, another one of these albatrosses showed up. Burbank listed a Brandon Webb for sale, but the description said it was #/25 while the picture shown was the #/100 parallel. Burbank responded to my inquiry quickly and updated the image showing it was, in fact, the #/25. Haven't spent $4 that quickly in a while. I'm now down to 4 cards for that set.
I enjoy chasing low-numbered parallels, especially building sets. But inevitably it ends up with me at 80-99% complete while those last few cards just prove elusive, either going to other, less worthy
collectors or just never showing up at all. Some are too rare to really entertain thoughts of completing but I enjoy them anyway. Some are too obscure, which is probably a subset of the "too rare" field. And as time goes by, they all fade into obscurity with sightings of copies I need fewer and farther between. My main source of new additions is often people who also started collecting the set but are breaking it up. Maybe I should break up some of mine. No point in sitting at 50% complete on a 15-year-old set when you only add 1 or 2 per year, if that.
