Has a Set Grown on You Over Time?

[JollyElm]

I know the title of this thread seems to be asking if you've had some sort of cardboard borne malady overcome you, but I digress.

For the longest time, I had always hated the 1960 Topps set. Its crowded, horizontal design was a nightmare, virtually all of the player photos were dreaded headshots, the rookies had the terrible circle design of the 1959 set, and the manager cards didn't fit into it at all. They looked like they were stolen from some other never-produced set and just thrown into the mix...but then something very enlightening happened. When Bobby was organizing one of his PSA group submissions, I started flipping through my 1960 album to see if I had anything worthwhile (ended up getting a PSA 8 Whitey Ford, a PSA 4.5 Yaz RC, a PSA 8 Gene Conley variation and a PSA 5 Mantle), and I kept flipping, and then going back and forth really looking at the players and BOOM!!!!!!! I suddenly realized that I actually loved this set. Headshots always bother me terribly, but these are coupled with the (often weirdly cropped) inset photos, so there's an oddly comforting portrait quality to them. Sort of like your mom getting professional family photos from Sears back in the day. Plus, a huge number of these pictures were taken inside the old, magnificent stadiums. The crowds are very sparse (obviously due to the pics being taken during warm-ups), so you see the structures themselves and not just a muddy sea of blurry faces in the background. Since the sky isn't prominent in too many shots, it really brings the viewer right into the ballpark itself. I find that fascinating. And the color treatments of the cards - the backgrounds of the inset photos paired with the alternating hued letters of the player names - along with the cool logo placement, creates a real dynamic look and feel to the cards. I frickin' love them!!!!

Here's a bunch of random screengrabs from ebay...

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Has any set you formerly hated ever grown on you to the point that you really enjoy seeing the cards now? If so, give the initial reasons for the hate, and (not to sound too much like a hippie) the reasons for your newfound love.