I'm predominately a set collector. I've built baseball sets from 1974 to 1979, and purchased sets from 1980-1986, 2002, and 2015-present. The sets from 1975-present are NM and better. The '74 set is EX and better.
Incidentally, I have one OPC baseball set: 1981. I was on work trip last year to Burlington, VT, and picked it up at a LCS there for a reasonable price (30 bucks). It's minty fresh with the usual centering problems, but I just love that set with the rough cuts and vibrant printing. I'm keeping it all together with no upgrading necessary.
I've built one PSA 8 and better set of 1975 Mini's card by card over about 6 years. I still have it, and occasionally upgrade the 8's with 9's as the opportunity presents itself. I also built two ungraded '75 Mini sets in EX-MT and better, one of which I still have. I really love collecting those Mini's, but I'm close to a stopping point on them.
Currently, I'm working on a 1973 Topps baseball set, which is the first time I've worked on a set released in multiple series. I have not at all sought perfection with this set, unlike almost all of my other sets. Most of the cards are VG to EX, with two, including a checklist, having minor writing. Nevertheless, they are still really nice looking cards in a binder. I'm a little over 80 percent complete, and it has been a lot less work with no fretting over bent corners, minor wrinkles, centering issues, miscuts, edge wear, and all that other stuff that I previously fretted over and which frankly, just plain wore me out. I'm finding that I've come full circle in that regard as this is how I collected back in 1978-1981 and 1992-1995. What mattered to me back then was the condition of the card face - I never bothered to look at corners and edges or compute centering, or think about resale value, etc. I'm having much more fun this way and it's easy on the wallet.
I don't know where I will go once the 1973 set is done. I'm not at all crazy about chasing after the 700+ cards sets of the early 70's or searching for short prints/high series cards. Perhaps I'll do all but the highest series of a '71 or '72 set.
|