Buy or not buy from a "set break"
UnsureRose
Posts: 1 ✭
Been absent from collecting for 30 years. A lot has changed since I was 15. My question is, what is the reason a seller would list a card as "from set break" or "complete set break"? I don't see how it makes a difference if a card came from a complete set or if it is a single card. Some clarity on this issue would be appreciated. Thank you
A local auction house has this as the title of an upcoming auction. 1956 TOPPS BASEBALL COMPLETE SET BREAK https://hibid.com/catalog/748081/1956-topps-baseball-complete-set-break
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In the general sense, "set break" is a key term used to attract bidders who are working on adding to and completing their own sets. It's kind of an alert to others that all cards, or most, are available from that one specific set. Over the years on sites such as eBay, the term become commonly used and abused by those who think that even a single card in their possession constitutes a set break. Kind of hard to argue, I guess. The term delivers lots and lots of eyeballs and potential buyers to the auctions. It no longer matters if there's a complete set or not. The term works its own magic.
It doesn't mean anything. Just an attention grabber
Lots of great acquisitions from the old set break days. Miss that. Some sellers had a feast of beauties on an almost weekly basis.
SET BREAK means HIGH PRICES lol. Folks think the cards are FRESH TO THE MARKET and may be high grade. Greg Morris uses that term on all their listings and get sky high prices so the practice snowballs.
HOF SIGNED FOOTBALL RCS
Meaningless.
^This. Say you need 40 cards to complete your 1956 baseball set. In theory, you can go to the seller of the set break's page and dial in on the 40 that you need by watching, placing a bid, and hopefully winning. 40 cards could take up about an hour of your time if each card is consecutive and each auction is one minute apart.
That being said, I actually found thru personal experience that the "set break" didn't really work for me. I was never fast enough on the bid button to bid on each auction if they were only 1 minute apart. A set break split up into series over a few days was more my style, or a better alternative would be to buy small lots of cards if you need a few of the cards in the lot. Dupes can be resold later to recoup some of your cash.
buying O-Pee-Chee (OPC) baseball cards
also collecting Canadian silver coins
There have been pros and cons to what you've described regarding the timing of closing the auctions. Some may recall the addition of sniping services many years ago, which helped bidders overcome scheduling issues and allowed them to bid on many cards from a set. I found, much like you have, that split auctions over a few days made it easier to pursue specific cards I wanted. However, those sellers weren't typically as high volume as sellers such as GMC. Overall, the set break idea has been a staple of card sales for decades and it ain't going anywhere soon as long as it works.
Buying lots, sets, shoebox collections, etc. seems to be making a bit of a nudge in my stuff. I agree with you on that. Nice surprises when it happens.
Just call it a "BLAZER"!
Old timers will understand.
Folks that collect a certain set are likely to be looking for multiples from the same set to complete or upgrade their sets. This cuts down the wait time and shipping.
https://kennerstartinglineup.blogspot.com/