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Set Registry Building: Tales of Triumph and Frustration
RynoandBo
Posts: 393 ✭✭
Many of us attempt to build very high end sets and display them on the PSA Set Registry. Some of them are large Master Sets, others are Basic Player Sets, Rookie Sets, or maybe a complete Topps Sets. There are many strategies and completion rates for such sets, and competition for a top 5 spot, or even better, the #1 set can drive some peculiar human behaviors needless to say.
I thought we could share some entertaining stories of success, failure, and craziness in our pursuit to build our favorite sets.
I am a modern player collector, Ryne Sandberg Basis Set, and finding Gem Mint 10 worthy submissions can be challenging. Ebay is a gamble. Although rare, buying a 99 cent raw card and subbing for a 10 is a great feeling. 4SC is nice, but you are limited to what they sub, and a card you need may not come up for sale for a few years. Not complaining, they have supplied my set with a good number of cards.
The other option is buying fresh wax. Last night I opened 2 boxes of 1997 Select, Series 1. I am in search of a fresh Sandberg to upgrade my current PSA 9. I pulled all of the Sandbergs, identified one as a candidate to sub. Great! The funny thing is I also pulled a Jeter Artist Proof and did not even notice it until after all the packs were busted! The card is beautiful, yet I was so focused on the 25 cent Ryno, that I almost missed it!
Frustration sets in when you buy fresh wax, and the card you are chasing comes out of the pack with a nasty corner ding. UGH!
Trades: I really like this part of the hobby, especially when both sides are very pleased with the results. The part I do not like about myself is when I get into desperation mode and I wind up trading may too much value away for a card that may not be quite equivalent. That said, getting that much closer to a perfect 10 set has a lot of appeal to me, and worth it in the end.
So, do you have any tales of glory or dismay? There are tons of great high end sets out there, let's hear some stories!
I thought we could share some entertaining stories of success, failure, and craziness in our pursuit to build our favorite sets.
I am a modern player collector, Ryne Sandberg Basis Set, and finding Gem Mint 10 worthy submissions can be challenging. Ebay is a gamble. Although rare, buying a 99 cent raw card and subbing for a 10 is a great feeling. 4SC is nice, but you are limited to what they sub, and a card you need may not come up for sale for a few years. Not complaining, they have supplied my set with a good number of cards.
The other option is buying fresh wax. Last night I opened 2 boxes of 1997 Select, Series 1. I am in search of a fresh Sandberg to upgrade my current PSA 9. I pulled all of the Sandbergs, identified one as a candidate to sub. Great! The funny thing is I also pulled a Jeter Artist Proof and did not even notice it until after all the packs were busted! The card is beautiful, yet I was so focused on the 25 cent Ryno, that I almost missed it!
Frustration sets in when you buy fresh wax, and the card you are chasing comes out of the pack with a nasty corner ding. UGH!
Trades: I really like this part of the hobby, especially when both sides are very pleased with the results. The part I do not like about myself is when I get into desperation mode and I wind up trading may too much value away for a card that may not be quite equivalent. That said, getting that much closer to a perfect 10 set has a lot of appeal to me, and worth it in the end.
So, do you have any tales of glory or dismay? There are tons of great high end sets out there, let's hear some stories!
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+1
Currently collecting 1934 Butterfinger, 1969 Nabisco, 1991 Topps Desert Shield (in PSA 9 or 10), and 1990 Donruss Learning Series (in PSA 10).
I depend on ebay to build a lot of my sets because I don't have great luck with wax. My main problem is that I don't have an unlimited supply of money. I'll go a year and not see any important cards come up for sale. Then one day I'lll log in to Ebay and there will be 3 or 4 of the super rare, super expensive cards I need at the same time.
I can't afford to buy them all. Arghhhh!!!!!
Bernie Kosar collector
Margaret Thatcher
Collected cards as a youngster in 1971 and 1972, mainly baseball, my favorite player was Harmon Killebrew. For some reason stopped collecting.
About 20 years later, I began collecting again, when I found out you could go to "card shops" and buy the individual cards of your favorite guy from years ago. Continued to collect almost exclusively Killebrew, and built up quite a large and diverse (can you say oddball?) collection. Card shops closed up, SCD dried up, and eBay took their place.
Along the way I began to purchase some graded cards, perhaps 30% of my cards were "slabbed" by PSA the rest were raw. Joined the Killebrew Registry and was very surprised to find I was in the top four in the registry! Got all my raw cards graded. Thank God I was very picky about the cards I had bought. Most of my cards came back 8's. Now I am in second place. The top guy has an impressive set, almost all 9's, but he is missing a lot of those "oddball" cards. I requested about 20 or so cards to be added to the set and I soon had the #1 All-Time Finest Harmon Killebrew Master Set! TRIUMPH!
About 1 week later a "new" collector entered his set and blew me completely out of the water. He not only had better basic cards but his "oddball" stuff was WAY better than mine. Doesn't look like I will be able to ever overtake him. FRUSTRATION!
At least I can say I had the finest set for a week!
Joe
Frustration= I have started a few sets in the last few years (1934 Goudeys, 1961 Golden Press, 1925 Rothman's Cinema Stars, Post War HOF Rookies), but something always seems to come up that has made me decide to sell them off before completion. To add to the frustration, I didn't always get my money back on some of the cards.
But a couple of years ago when I started a Post War HOF Rookie collection & than sold them, I did very well with the sales. So, this Feburary, when I started another set, it was easy for me to decide on another Post War HOF Rookie collection. This is the most fun set I have ever tried to put together, no commons, all HOFers, all rookies of the game's greatest. Along with the good chance of turning a profit if I have to sell in the future (which is not going to happen this time!).
Triumph= So, after starting in Feburary & with only a $500 monthly budget, I am up to number 85 on the Set Registry & moving up!
I can't speak of triumph though without telling this last story. It is a little off the subject but I think you will all enjoy.
I use to search Ebay for listings that were not listed in a way to maximize the sale of an item. Sometimes the descriptions were not full, or they had poor pictures, or they had some type of major mistake. One day I came across a 1966 Topps listing of Sandy Koufax, but I could see on the back of the card "Made in Canada". Knowing that was the rarer Oh-Pee-Chee, I bid on it and won the bid at $48. When I received the card, I was surprised to see it was in much better condition than the pic appeared. I sent it in to PSA & received a NM-MT 8, which at the time the population was only 3 with 1 better. I put it back onto Ebay, hoping for somewhere between $300-$500. I nearly fell off my chair when I watched it go in the last 10 seconds for $4150.00
<< <i>The aircraft carrier guy that Joe describes, who shows up out of nowhere and drops a huge set into the registry all at once, is just the worst. >>
I guess I should add mine to the registry. I have held back because of some others saying that when you get close to completion, others on the registry will bid up the cards you need to exorbitant amounts to prevent, or at least pay huge sums, to catch up to them in the registry.
Margaret Thatcher
<< <i>
I use to search Ebay for listings that were not listed in a way to maximize the sale of an item. Sometimes the descriptions were not full, or they had poor pictures, or they had some type of major mistake. One day I came across a 1966 Topps listing of Sandy Koufax, but I could see on the back of the card "Made in Canada". Knowing that was the rarer Oh-Pee-Chee, I bid on it and won the bid at $48. When I received the card, I was surprised to see it was in much better condition than the pic appeared. I sent it in to PSA & received a NM-MT 8, which at the time the population was only 3 with 1 better. I put it back onto Ebay, hoping for somewhere between $300-$500. I nearly fell off my chair when I watched it go in the last 10 seconds for $4150.00 >>
Now that's a nice score right there!
<< <i>
<< <i>
I use to search Ebay for listings that were not listed in a way to maximize the sale of an item. Sometimes the descriptions were not full, or they had poor pictures, or they had some type of major mistake. One day I came across a 1966 Topps listing of Sandy Koufax, but I could see on the back of the card "Made in Canada". Knowing that was the rarer Oh-Pee-Chee, I bid on it and won the bid at $48. When I received the card, I was surprised to see it was in much better condition than the pic appeared. I sent it in to PSA & received a NM-MT 8, which at the time the population was only 3 with 1 better. I put it back onto Ebay, hoping for somewhere between $300-$500. I nearly fell off my chair when I watched it go in the last 10 seconds for $4150.00 >>
Now that's a nice score right there! >>
+1
<< <i>I use to search Ebay for listings that were not listed in a way to maximize the sale of an item. Sometimes the descriptions were not full, or they had poor pictures, or they had some type of major mistake. One day I came across a 1966 Topps listing of Sandy Koufax, but I could see on the back of the card "Made in Canada". Knowing that was the rarer Oh-Pee-Chee, I bid on it and won the bid at $48. When I received the card, I was surprised to see it was in much better condition than the pic appeared. I sent it in to PSA & received a NM-MT 8, which at the time the population was only 3 with 1 better. I put it back onto Ebay, hoping for somewhere between $300-$500. I nearly fell off my chair when I watched it go in the last 10 seconds for $4150.00 >>
Sweet story!! I recently had a similar score - but nothing on that level. I love hearing stories like that.