General Forum

One of the great things about our hobby is that you can go about it in whatever way you want.  Favorite sport, favorite team or favorite player, whatever works (although why anyone would want a box full of cards of players with the last name "Martin" is beyond me).  I'm a set collector and it's pretty obvious that we are a dying breed in our changing hobby.  Cards are produced, marketed and sold as sets but for most people that's where it ends.  With today's card products, set collecting is difficult, if not impossible beyond the flagship base set.  It's a shame really, especially for us oldtimers who remember when packs were a 25 cents, lol.
I'm an active trader but finding trading partners that collect like I do is hard and getting harder it seems.  You would think that with 100,000 cards on a Want List and 100,000 cards available for trade, trading would be easy. It's actually not.  I try to accommodate the team and player collectors as much as a can but there are limits.  I review the "completed trade" list all the time looking for potential new traders but rarely have luck.
I was hoping for the this post to be shout out to fellow set collectors out there to make yourself know to each other in hopes of expanding our potential trading circle.  Perhaps we can help each other out.  For everyone else, please forgive the nostalgic rant.

I'm also a set collector, but very few of my sets are missing cards. I guess I'm less of a set compiler and more of a set buyer/trader. I have some set wants in different eras and sports (baseball and hockey). I also have a ton not listed here available for trade. It's a slow process for me.

Unless you are willing "to cross the border" in your trades, all of our matches both ways are for naught.

My favorite part of the hobby is opening new packs and seeing what is inside.  I would like to set collect, but I only have so much time and money so I feel like if I went back to finish other sets I would miss out on new ones.  I also can't imagine how much space it would require if I went back and completed all the sets I have cards of.

I only have a few complete sets.  One of them was the 2002 Topps box set I purchased, and the rest just happened organically opening a hobby box.  

I'm also a set collector (mostly 1970s/1980s baseball and hockey), and I agree that it can be tricky to find trade partners who can fill out a good portion of your set needs. But I've also put together some really good trades in that regard -- including a couple with you, Dukey!

Hopefully this thread gets a good following. It's fun to help other collectors with their set builds.

Craig, I understand the frustration, especially since we've traded a couple of times and I know you're a great trade partner. (And I know that's not the issue here.)

I don't collect base sets, maybe down the road I'll pick a few to complete, but that's down the road a bit. I do complete smaller sets and many subsets.

We have lots of matches, and I can increase it very easily by adding my common Astros, so if you get to the point where you wish to compromise a bit and trade for your set completion with a player and team collector, please look me up.

I do a combination. I am a Packers collector, a few favorite Brewers from the early 80's and I haven't given up on set collecting either. Most of my recent set collecting those has been focused on some of the early 90's junk football for me. That suits me well because I was still following football very closely, played fantasy football, and those cards are cheaper today than what they were back then. I recently completed a 1991 Pro Line Portraits set. I never bought those back in 1991. I would encourage anyone who enjoys set collecting and was a fan of players in the late 80's and early 90's to have fun with building those sets. It's a inexpensive way to set build and build some trading relationships with members here. The tough match here is you have to want to build sets and have interest in the products and players of that time. I still want to finish up a few sets from that time and I have tons to trade from that period as well so fel free to look up my collection and see if we have matches. I still have thousands of cards from that time frame that I am working to add to the database as well.

I'm a set collector as well..I have zero interest in new cards except the traditional UD hockey set with or without Young Guns or the SP cards..

It's defnitely a challenge finding trading partners and a lot of what I'm looking for resides North of the border. I'm now delving into older sets (1960's and early 1970's) which bring the "card condition" challenge but it's the direction that I want to move my collection in..

I've also had great difficulties finding that "last card" to finish off sets and have had to resort to eBay..

And as much as I hate to say this, I've bought some starter sets on eBay very cheap to kick start or knock big chunks out of some of my sets..

You show 8 cards on my want list, 7 are nickel/dime nothing cards from junk wax era. I show 24 sets with items on your want list. Propose a fair trade based upon value rather than my 1960's-early 70's card for your 1988-90 Donruss

I'm a set collector through and through. Much more difficult today when a hobby box gets you no where near a partial set, never mind a full set (looking at you Heritage and Stadium Club). I had stared with baseball and always thought that was going to be my focus, I am now on a kick where I am chasing down vintage hockey, football and basketball set (vintage as in when they still used actual cardboard). Still have some holes in modern sets to get filled.

With that said, we have A LOT of matches and would love to delve into a large trade with you. I actaully start/stopped it twice in the past. I'm trying to validate and update a few things in here and will tray again. because we have a lot of macthes actually takes a bit to go through.