Buy the full set first and upgrade. When you upgrade, consider buying another full set and swapping out the best cards. This is the most economical IMO because then you have two sets and can sell off one of them. You can do this 3/4/5 times although once you hit a certain level of condition it becomes harder. Lots can be good too. If you are committed to buying, upgrading and holding the set for an extended amount of time then I recommend this approach. For any set that I’m working on I keep what I call a “bullpen” of backup cards. When the bullpen gets too big and/or loaded up with too many duplicates I sell off lots that I think might be of interest. This keeps the bullpen from getting too unwieldy.
Be willing to take a loss sometimes as you go through the process. If you are a reasonably shrewd buyer you will win more transactions than you lose over time and it will improve the value of the set relative to your total cash outlay. The problem with buying sets and lots on line is that most sellers overstate the condition of what they are selling, even well meaning sellers can be guilty of this as it is human nature. So expect some of what you buy to be disappointing, get as many pics as you can, and celebrate those times you buy a lot that turns out to be NMT-MT as it can happen if you are patient enough and persevere.
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