[tonyo]

I started almost 2 years ago and am at 468 including all but 2 hofers (Plank and Wagner) and including 37/48 SLers. Need the other 4 of the big six, also need Dahlen Brooklyn and Elberfeld Washington. The remaining 37 are commons.

These are all low grade with "good enough for me" eye appeal. Some are slabbed, but I prefer raw. Just yesterday I bought an old wooden cigar box at an antique store that will probably be their home soon. I'll probably put them in sleeves and maybe the smaller top loaders since some are a little on the fragile side. I just like holding them and flipping through them like I did with my cards as a kid.

I have about 50 doubles right now and would love to trade with you guys who have low grade dupes.

When I first started I was only going to get the HOFers and found myself buying random beaters here and there. That got slightly out of hand so I decided to sell the beaters thinking I would only collect HOFers then stop. That was the monsters best attempt to get me to stop. As I approached finishing the HOF set, I decided to make a slower go at the set and raised my standards slightly above beater to Fair/Good/VG and tried to limit myself to 150 subject backs only. That didn't last long and the ball has been rolling with an eye on 518 for several months now. My pick ups seem to come in waves, but overall the number is steadily rising. I'm hoping to join the 500 club relatively soon.

Different backs interest me slightly, but not too much. However, I have been thinking lately that it would be neat to have each back represented in my set in the same percentage that they seem to exist in reality. At this point in time though, I can't really see myself paying several hundred dollars each for the more rare backs........we'll see.


Tony