Monster? Really?
 

I noticed in another thread that someone put a T206 (-2) together in six months. Even collecting every card (excluding backs) all you need is money to make it happen.

How could this set be called a "monster" if it can be assembled so quickly? Of course, I do understand part of the reason is because of how many cards are in the set.

I'm not trying to minimize the accomplishment for the collectors going after the set (I may even try it myself someday). But what sets are really a monster? What sets would take many years or even decades to complete?

N172 - N175, actually all of the sets from the 1800's?

Dan

E107 set would certainly take a long time to assemble. It would take a huge amount of money also. (In addition to the sets you mentioned).

I probably should have asked:

Who's been working on a set that even if you had access to unlimited funds you still don't know if you could complete it?

If your set falls into this category, what is the set?
How long have you been working on it?
How close are you to completion?
What are the key cards you are missing?

T210 all Series is also a monster

It didn't get it's name because of the 524 card set, but rather the number of possible front/back combinations that make the cards number into the thousands.

Not really a monster by number...

but I would say the 1947 Bond Bread Jackie Robinson set is one that could take years to collect due to scarcity. (of course it's not pre-war, though).

Personally, I love the T206. I am a really busy guy with family and a lot of things going on in my life besides collecting. If assembling a set were to take months in between cards, I honestly wouldn't have the time.

I knocked out the T205 (fronts only) in less than six months, the 1941 Double Plays in about six, I figure it will take me about 2 years to finish the T206s...as far as I want them to go with it.

The hardest set I ever finished was the Ashland Oil Marshall set. I have a 61 set on deck. I could just buy it, but I am going to assemble it which is what makes it a hobby.

A large set like the W600 cabinets might fit the question - large number of cards, many with few copies known - so even with unlimited funds, you are not going to assemble the set in six months.

since..
 

Since there are no known complete sets of E107 or W600, yes, I would say they would take a long time. :cool:

Part of the beauty of the T206 set, among many other things, is that it can be completed quite easily. Despite its enormous size, the only real challenge is having the money to do it. If you want to complete the set of 520, no card will present a great challenge. With enough funds, one could pretty easily get it to 522. The real challenges would be the Wagner and Doyle.

Now if you want to go after the master set, that is a lifelong endeavor, and virtually impossible to complete. The master set is a monster, but the basic set of 520 is misnamed.

Nonetheless, it's a cool accomplishment. I'll bet less people have finished a T206 set than have reached the summit of Mt. Everest. Again, you just need a good level of health and the money to go on the tour. Something over 2000 people have done it. I had a friend who tried and lost a couple toes for his trouble. Even if you do either, it shouldn't be your biggest accomplishment in your life...

I think the "monster" nickname was probably more true before ebay and all the auction houses.

The Old Judge set is truly still a "monster".

Im working on the e105 mello mint set as a long term project with a couple other set projects (t206, e95, e96, t200). Not sure if ill ever be able to finish it but its a fun challenge.

a master E98 set with all 4 of the background colors would probably take a few years

Been working on the N284 Buchners for over 5 years and have seen virtually everyone offered, so if $ were flowing it would be just about complete by now.

M116 is an issue that's certainly doable, but also tougher to put together then a T206 set, though in a 2-3 year span, every card should come up for sale. V100 is another toughie - before 2 partial sets that sold in the past 12 months, it has been a few years since some of the cards were available for sale.

How about a BB HOF RC set, maybe need two lifetimes to complete...........

The 'Monster' term was given before the Net54, eBay and the internet. But I'm not speaking bad of the 'Monster' - I'd never do that! My nightmares will continue....

Want a real monster? Try the E94 master set (6 colors of each card) :eek:
Or how about the 1911 Zenut set because with lots of time and lots of money you can get close but never get all variations and most glaringly, you AREN'T going to get the Bohen card. That makes it a fanged monster.

I have been insanely attempting a small "monster" : N167. Slowly I am getting there.
JimB
P.S. Any help or leads are greatly appreciated. :)

In my mind there have always been two monsters -- the master T206 set and a master N172 set. The thought of trying to complete either makes my head spin.

Two other 'mini-monsters' to me:

1913 Voskamp's Coffee. Even if you focus only on the 18 known cards, you're in for a challenge. This set seems to be one of those ones where it's easy to get an example, but not so easy to get a specific card.

E105 Mello-mint. I'm sure somebody has completed this set, but I can't imagine there are lot of complete sets out there.

Regards,

Richard.

Cuban Monster
 

If you are in to negro league/latin american cards, the monster is the 1923-24 Tomas Gutierrez set. It has 85 cards. Most subjects have less than 4 graded between PSA and SGC. The most have about 7-8 copies graded. It is super tough and, in fact, there is still one card that is unknown.

SGC recognized the difficulty of this sets' completion by bestowing upon me the best "baseball set" for 2010 while I was still missing a handful of cards.

While money helps, the true difficulty is in finding the cards! At a minimum I would project that this set would take 5+ years to complete at 80% if you started from scratch today.

That is a challenge!

I would think it depends on the condition of the set.
Even if you have unlimited funds, just tracking down
the cards in, say, PSA6/7 above would be a very big challenge.
But if it's a lesser condition set the cards are out there.
I still think it would be difficult just tracking them all down.

For some sets it's a matter of the card being available for sale. I have been working on a Boston store set for 4 years or so. About 85% there but some cards like the Ruth are just not for sale. I suppose with unlimited funds I could pry one loose but it would be tough. Also at times for sets like this common cards are rarer then the HOF which is certainly true with T206 and Cracker Jacks.

As far as I am aware a master set of N172 isn't possible. Perhaps you could do a set of one pose for each player I really don't know enough about the set, how many cards would that be?

James G

Monster's...
 

The T210 set is the real monster 600+ cards, 8 series... And several in that 8 series you would wait a decade or so for...

Also the 75 card T211 set would be a tedious task. It took me 10 years to get all 17 Nashville players and I was about as aggressive as one can be assembling them one by one. The recent surge in T211's on the market the last year is not indicative of how hard these are to assemble. (It seems once the near set was sold in REA, some bricks fell, but it would take many years to get all 75 cards.)

Finally, the T213-1 Type 1 68 card set would be near impossible these days. Generally they come up one by one with a grouping of the cards coming to auction about every 5 years.... Most of these are put up in collections...

As I've said before the moniker of "The Monster" was given to the T206 set due to it's thousands of possible front/back combinations. A true master set given unlimited resources would be impossible to complete.

If you want to look simply at the 524 card set without regard to the backs there are more posts in this thread than there are 524 card T206 sets.

I understand that a majority of people don't expect to complete the set of 524 and that most set their collecting goals at 518, 520 or 522, but this reduction while reasonable does not make a complete set or reduce it's difficulty.

There are many sets that are scarcer or rival T206 in numbers and variations, but none that come close IMO to it's popularity, availability and size, combined with it's difficulty in completing whether a basic or master set.

Well said Tim.
JimB

Tim said it best. The front/back combos are the real "Monster" of T206.

I found the Polar Bear backs subset, which is "only" 250 cards, to be much more of a challenge than the 520 card typical set, even though Polar Bears are only slightly scarce. At one point I was really questioning if McGraw Portrait with Cap really existed with a PB reverse (it does).

Another challenge of this "Monster" is to attempt a subset of all the backs for a given front, especially if it includes Drums, Uzits, or BL460's! Jamie completed his regular set in 6 months. But ask him how long he's been working on the Seymour Throwing subset :D

Best Regards & Happy Collecting
Craig