Set collector, Sealed factory set or Hand collated set?

dalemurphycollector · April 17, 2008 9:43AM

Well since my 'Girlfriend pulled the goalie thread', I figured I best come back with something thread worthy. For your own personal collection, woyld you rather have a hand-collated set or a sealed factory set? That is if it happens to be a post 1986 set. I believe that is around the time that factory sets became very popular.

yankeeno7 · April 17, 2008 9:59AM

I would rather piece together a nice set by hand. Choosing the centered, sharp cards. I crack factory sets.

justmichael · April 17, 2008 10:00AM

It depends if the cards have glossy surfaces.If they do they tend to form a brick and stick together.I buy hand collated sets and put each in a penny sleeve.
mike

yankeeno7 · April 17, 2008 10:03AM

<< <i>I buy hand collated sets and put each in a penny sleeve.
mike >>

Ditto that Mike. All my 70s and 80s sets are in individual penny sleeves. Cant look at them when they are sealed in a box.

dalemurphycollector · April 17, 2008 10:42AM

I have a 85 topps factory set that I'm considering putting in penny sleeves. Will it fit back into its regular box once each card is in a penny sleeve?

yankeeno7 · April 17, 2008 10:47AM

mine are all in the normal set boxes

ymarea · April 17, 2008 11:32AM

<< <i>I have a 85 topps factory set that I'm considering putting in penny sleeves. Will it fit back into its regular box once each card is in a penny sleeve? >>

I'm afraid not, unless your box has empty space equal to the thickness of (8) 100-sleeve packs stacked together.

justmichael · April 17, 2008 11:36AM

A 900 count box will fit a 792 card set in penny sleeves.I have all my Topps sets from 1964-2008 in sleeves.I am on my 4th case of 10,000 sleeves but at $25 per case it isn't bad.
To the OP I feel your pain my girlfriend just "pulled the goalie on me too".Congrats and good luck.
Mike

bigfische · April 17, 2008 11:53AM

Hand collated if done by me, factotry sealed i guess otherewise, though i dont normally collect sets with that option.

vtbub · April 17, 2008 12:23PM

Hand collated and then transferred to binders for me.

Am I correct that Topps factory sets are not sorted in anyway?

Stone193 · April 17, 2008 1:21PM

Dale

I think it would be fun to buy a case of 86T or also a vending case and see if I could put together a mint set.

Ya can get one of each for a total of about $350 - I know ya can pick the set up for cheap but the fun of selecting ones own cards?

Definitely would be a good project.

mike

yankeeno7 · April 17, 2008 1:38PM

Another good idea is buying multiple sets (factory or HC). That way you have no dupes to try and move or that take up space. Once you have cherry picked the cards you want, you can sell the rest and hopefully retain most of the money you spent.

Estil · April 17, 2008 7:12PM

As much as people talk about the fun of busting open wax boxes and such, opening a factory set and sorting the cards in numerical order can be fun too. To build my runs of sets I've definetly busted one or three (dozen!) in my day.

Normally the sets (especially Topps) will turn up some very fresh "like new" cards provided none of the corners of the box were smashed or anything (Score sets with their thinner boxes are especially vulunerable to this). I also like how the Donruss factory sets have the cards "shaved" to make a neater appearance than the wax box ones.

metalmike · April 17, 2008 7:18PM

I put my Reds team sets in sheets and binders. I wonder how many people don't even bother looking at their cards? Makes for a fun afternoon during a game passing the binder around with friends.

Estil · April 17, 2008 8:57PM

I'm starting a similar binder for my wife's Red Sox!

Here's what she has so far:

1980 Topps
1981 Fleer
1993 Topps
1994 Fleer

mrclean08 · April 22, 2008 2:22PM

I love factory sets. Especially those old Donruss factory sets from the 80's where bricks of cards were cello wrapped. Brings back memories.

dontippet · April 22, 2008 2:32PM

<< <i>I love factory sets. Especially those old Donruss factory sets from the 80's where bricks of cards were cello wrapped. Brings back memories. >>

I rememberthe first time I saw those bricks (1985 Donruss). The owner of Bob's Coin Shop in Morton, Illinois opened up a box just to show me the interesting packaging. I was 1 at the time. Great memories.

metalmike · April 22, 2008 3:02PM

update: This thread got me looking, I have a 1981 Fleer star stickers set in pages and the Mike Schmidt checkkist card has a part of the sticker loose. Now, I am going to card saver the whole set.

Set collector, Sealed factory set or Hand collated set?

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