General Forum

I don’t know about rules but the funnest way I’ve found to build a set is to trade for it. 

I've been collecting since '68 and have always bought boxes to complete sets.  At the time I thought it was a good idea, but now I kind of regret doing it that way.  I will admit though I have traded a rookie Mike Schmidt for 3 complete sets of cards back in the mid 80's.  Sure it's all been fun but it's not too smart to go house buying and one of the items on your "must have" list is another bedroom just to store all these cards.  As I've said before, you can't take them to your grave (I guess you could but not realistically).

But this is what I really like about this site - instead of buying those boxes and boxes to finish a set, it's nice to trade for what you need and the trading partner needs what you have extra's of to complete a set(s).

To many definitions is right     

Back in the day  ( Pre 1984 stock market crash)  and  baseball cards came with gum and Coin and stamp dealers were making money with their hobbies and all the grades that came with it, and Beckett was published once a year over the winter.    There was 5 grades  Poor   Fair    Good    Very Good    and  Excellent.     Then the coin and stamp dealers   got  involved. buyers they cheated on coins found out  that that coin graded high  was not when it came time to sell.  Then we got mid grades  and NM and MT   

I loved the day looking at a table at some Redman cards and  dealer wanted a premium over book because .....  They  30 to 34 years old.   I carefully handed them back to him  asked  really?    then wished him luck with them 

A set builder was someone that bought cards to assemble a set  be it  100 or  500 cards of a 598 card set.  then you decided quality you wanted  and filled in the holes.     If  your local dealer was going to a show  out of town  you gave him a list of what you needed and what you can spend.  

Dan (Vrooomed) said it very well. For me personally, I I have found building a set to be fun, buying one- either factory set form or hand collated by someone else- takes a lot of fun out of it. I've also found it's not really too reliable...almost every single set I've bought, including factory sets, have been missing cards. 

A large part of the fun to me is making the memories of chasing the cards. When they all arrive at once, yes, there is some memory of that, but it's not as endearing a memory nor do I end up with the same nostalgia for a set I worked hard to complete. 

Even when I buy a box, which is a rarity these days, I don't open it all at once. I still have packs from boxes I bought in the 2012-13 season I have not opened yet. To me, it prolongs the enjoyment. 

Another factor...which impacts each collector differently...if you just buy a set, you don't have any chance to pull inserts or parallels. For me, I enjoy parallels immensely, inserts not as much anymore as in the 1990s, but sometimes they are still fun. If I just bought the set I wouldn't get them. 

The only thing I see that hasn't been mentioned in this thread yet: the set investor.

If you buy a factory set, do you open it to look at all the cards or leave it sealed and store it away in a closet somewhere? The latter is an investor hoping that one day someone in that set becomes a Hall of Famer and makes the set worth way more than was paid. The former is a collector who enjoys the cards. It doesn't matter if you are a builder or a collector. As long as you are getting the cards to enjoy looking at them, touching them, reading them and having fun owning them, then I don't care how you acquire them or what your goals are with the cards you have or obtain. If it's not fun, it's not a hobby! If it's not a hobby, it's a chore or a business decision.

I’ll just pile on. People have already expressed my thoughts very well. So I’ll express them more crudely: with all due respect, who cares? Builder, collector, whatever. Get cards you like, in the way you like to get them, and enjoy them. 

Period. 

I think the longer you collect, the more you become aware of the different options out there and that you might have to try lots of approaches to accomplish your goals and even just to keep enjoying the hobby. Experiment. Play. Have fun. Don’t worry about how others define you or how to define yourself. 

And welcome to the site. 

V3

you also forgot Master Set Collector, you can either go the set and get just one of each card or with me collecting Pro Set a master set also contains all the errors and variations as well, with my master sets i dont go into minute details like some collectors - check here to see what i mean, if i get some of these small errors i keep them, some like the clipped lines, different coloured lines i have but i dont go looking for them.

https://junkwaxgems.wordpress.com/2010/01/07/complete-1990-pro-set-error-variation-and-oddity-list/