How do you build your sets, single or all in?

[BradH]

This past summer I took my 7-year-old son to his first card show. It was amazing and the dealers treated him great. He was fascinated by the early 70s basketball cards because of the big hair and great uniforms.

He used his money (with some help from his Dad) to purchase about a dozen 1971-72 Topps basketball. We've since gone to a couple more shows and for Christmas I bought him a nice lot of 30 cards from the set, mid-grade, mixed with stars and commons.

We are going to a show today and he asked me how I do my sets. I told him that I've done it both ways over the years, but with some of my expensive sets I have no choice but to do it piece by piece.

He said he wants to finish his set a few cards at a time because, "I can't wait to go to the next card show with you and find a few more cards for my set."

Made me realize that for him it's the process, but that the time we share is the most important part.

BTW - he refers to the 71-72s as the "George Peeples" set because that's the first card he bought. Crazy kid.

[tonyo]

Originally Posted by BradH

This past summer I took my 7-year-old son to his first card show. It was amazing and the dealers treated him great. He was fascinated by the early 70s basketball cards because of the big hair and great uniforms.

He used his money (with some help from his Dad) to purchase about a dozen 1971-72 Topps basketball. We've since gone to a couple more shows and for Christmas I bought him a nice lot of 30 cards from the set, mid-grade, mixed with stars and commons.

We are going to a show today and he asked me how I do my sets. I told him that I've done it both ways over the years, but with some of my expensive sets I have no choice but to do it piece by piece.

He said he wants to finish his set a few cards at a time because, "I can't wait to go to the next card show with you and find a few more cards for my set."

Made me realize that for him it's the process, but that the time we share is the most important part.

BTW - he refers to the 71-72s as the "George Peeples" set because that's the first card he bought. Crazy kid.

Congratulations, you are very lucky......I hope you can continue to nuture that common interest as he grows older.

[brob28]

I'm generally working on several sets at one time. I like to buy large lots of the commons to fill out the sets, but I purchase the high dollar cards individually as I like to get them graded. I have found that when looking for nicely centered quality cards at reasonable prices it can take some time to get "the card". Buying this way, I'd have too much down-time between purchases if I was not working on mutiple sets or other interests.

I have to say that as I've completed several sets, I'm finding it more unpalatable to spend my cash on the high cost commons. Once I finish my latest sets, I think I'll start moving more towards individual cards of interest instead of complete sets. Of course I'll probably change my mid tomorrow!