General Forum

Base cards only.    No errors, no var, no inserts, no intentional SPs.

I personally collect all of the errors and variations and won't consider my set complete until I get them all.  I usually don't care for the inserts.  I'm looking only for cards with the same backs as the "base" set.

I doubt you'll get ripped, CAD. You've just said that you define your own sets sometimes. I think that's anyone's right. I have the complete Merkle's Boner "set." It's an original card of every player on the field ("Oh, god, he's not going on about THAT again!"). Of course, there could be hundreds of variants. There are other "sets" from that era. I could have collected only T206s, or only T205s or whatever. It is what I say it is. Similar reasoning applies to player collections. Or to my "Last Topps Card of Every Hall of Famer with a Topps Card" "set." It's what I define it as.

I realize that this reasoning doesn't apply to pre-defined "sets" in the world. All that matters there, though, is that you're satisfied with your definition and, if you're talking with someone else, you both understand what you're talking about. A bit like rookie cards, to bring in the other thread.

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I could make a joke about Germany's president, Angela Merkle, but I won't.

What type sets are we talking about? Team sets, player sets, HOF sets, Merkles' Boner sets? What set registry do you want to use? PSA, Beckett, SCD? Master set or Basic set?.......some people like to chase sets that way.....not me. I ignore all of it.

I use the card manufacturers checklist and I only need one card per slot. So I ignore errors and variations, unless they are on a manufacturers checklist. Concerning inserts, since by definition they are not part of the numbered set; they don't count toward set completion. I do chase at least one card from each insert set for all basic sets I collect, but I don't consider them a part of set completion. There are some insert sets I want to complete, but I treat them like a seperate set and track them as stand alone set.

I figure you either buy-in to the industry standards and choose one to follow or you define your collection your own way. I choose the later.

BigO.. welcome! I agree completely. For me, when I have each number in the set, that's when it's complete....most of the time. There are, of course, exceptions. For example, 2003-04 Victory accidentally issued two cards #17 when one should have been somewhere in the 30s. Both of those are required for me, and luckily I pulled them both from the box I did new. For 89-90 Hoops I didn't consider it completed until I got both versions of #353 but the other errors/corrections I'm good with one...they appear, or did, on my wantlist here but I consider the set complete.

When I entered my tradelist here back in 2014, I found more than a half dozen variations that I had thought were duplicates because my records showed I had that number already. Everything from a misspelled name to different color text to entirely different card backs. They all count as part of my collection now.

If I were a set-builder, I would consider 1989 Fleer complete with any version of Bill Ripken. If I were a Bill Ripken collector, I would want one of each version. That may be completely illogical but it's how I view things.

The base set and one of each number. Each insert set counts as It's own set and it would have to be something special for me to try and complete it. IE the Micky Mantle home run set.

I had to stop collecting modern hockey cards, because of the Young Guns being short printed by Upper Deck and O-Pee-Chee rookie cards being inserts in the Upper Deck set.

For my collecting purposes, base set is one of every card number - so if the base is cards 1 - 400, whether you have an error version or variation, one of each would make it complete.

I consider a "pure base" to exclude any short print, auto, mem, or similar cards of the base numbering. For example, if cards 201-300 are short prints and 301-400 are autograph cards, I consider the pure base to be 1-200 only.

I had to find a way to justify not caring about insert like cards than pretend to be part of the base set.