Collecting sets you can't complete

[steve B]

For me most sets have become too expensive to be finishable.
I don't need many 76 Topps, and they're all inexpensive.
73 may be doable too, as I started really collecting late in the year, so I have most of the high numbers.

Not sure about 70-72, haven't checked in a while.

Older gets out of hand pretty quickly.

I sort of collect 48 Leaf, but more in the collecting different varieties and color differences. No way I'm getting even one of some cards anymore, and most have 3-4 versions maybe more.

What I've done for that set is to collect it virtually. As I find "new" ones, I save the pics and add them to a spreadsheet I made.
Even then, I'm not as close as you might think.

Some of what I collect is hard more because nobody else even cares. Crazy production differences in Junkwax era sets, that generally affect either the whole set, or a major portion of it.