General Forum

What compels you to complete an insert set? I am not asking about base sets but those cards the manufacturer made as part of that year’s production.

Is it a desire to collect all of the cards from a particular year by a manufacturer? Which for myself is all of the cards of the debut year of 1995 Upper Deck’s Motor Sports inserts.

The artwork of the cards? For me this is the 1995 Fleer Ultra X-Men. The base cards have IMHO the best artwork of any “Non-Sport” set and this carries over to the inserts.

Is it portability of the set? No counting parallel sets the fact most insert sets can be anywhere from one card up to say fifty makes it easier to store. Notice I did not say collect through that sometimes is an added advantage which is a totally different matter.

So, lets here why collect inserts.

Only do NASCAR, though everything I've collected over the last 45 years (miniatures, war game manuals)

tried to get everything, in the gaming world these people are called "Completists"...

Get everything or nothing...

Though Parallels for card sets are an afterthough, especially now that some sets come with dozens of them....

There are a few factors for me. Generally when it comes to sports I only go out of my way to collect the inserts of the players i persons collect. If I happen to buy a box or large amount of any particular set and get a good amount of an insert then I’ll usually try to finish it off. With non-sport I tend to go for style/appearance, but certain subjects, like Star Wars or some Marvel, I go for 100% of the set always when possible.

At one time,I wanted to collect every Topps card in the flagship series, including all inserts and parallels. This was in 2001.  I quickly realized id need to be a multi millionaire to accomplish this goal.  Despite this realization,  I didn't want to stop with the years is been working on so I adjusted my wants to just inserts/parallels from 96 to 2003.  There were a couple of years that had cool inserts that I ended up adding.  The tools came out with the silver pack cards in 2017 and my new plan was thrown out the window.  Oh well.

I used to love getting the small 50-ish card oddball box sets in the 80's.  Insert sets are, sort of, the modern day equivalent of those for me (although the way they're distributed is obviously much different)

I only collect hockey so first it is any player or team on my collection list. The second would be if I like the insert set like the UD canvas cards(still missing 2 from 2020-21). Third would be the size of the insert set and how many I currently own. I would much rather have the full base set over the inserts

I collect sets. For me an insert set is part of the Master set. I draw the line at parallels, autos and relics--aiming for one example of each.

Insert sets can be a pain though depending on the scarcity or Rookies.

I can agree with with you that some Insert can be a little difficult to collect as lot of ones I am looking for have zero availability here on TCDb. 

This is petty much me as well. I will clarify that it isn't all insert sets that I will go after. If it's a low SN/PR type with no realistic shot at completing then I won't add it to my wants. But yeah, I try to put together a realistic target of a master set that I can. It's the completionist in me. Why I'm crazily going after the master VAR sets too.

When I'm not chasing down vintage, I'm trying to finish my 90s inserts. While I will chase down modern too, they are so new that I can wait for the market to reset before I try to really focus on those.

Vonnegut37 wrote:

I collect sets. For me an insert set is part of the Master set. I draw the line at parallels, autos and relics--aiming for one example of each.

Insert sets can be a pain though depending on the scarcity or Rookies.

The Power of Christ,

sorry couldn't resist

Shipping costs are a deterrent, a 20cent card ends up being $1.20 or 40x 10cent cards are $9.99(rough #'s)

Provided of course you can find them at those low prices.