General Forum

I'd say that about 2/3 of my collecting involves set building, so I purchase the hobby boxes, Tar-Jay blasters, and some multipacks - enough to get me 50-70% through a base.  Does anyone else use a rule of thumb to decide when to stop purchasing and when to begin trading?

I only collect OPC hockey sets and also buy 90% hobby and the odd blaster box but my average is six hobby boxes, usually gets me under 100 needed (usually about a 600 card set) with half of those being the rookie / legends cards. I have yet to complete a trade though as I have not yet even started entering any of that stuff on here. Will get there some day though lol. 

Whenever the interest in completing it wanes! That's when it's time to stop trying to complete it and start trading off or selling what you have. If you no longer care to complete the set, get rid of anything you can to make it worth having attempted it in the first place. That's my opinion on it. I'm not really a set collector though. I will only go after a set if I really like the design and/or get really close to completion though box buys (hobby and/or retail).

I don't spend much money on cards anymore. The only sets I would even consider trying to complete are the yearly Topps WWE sets, which are like 110 cards with no SPs or variations.  My brother, who lives less than five minutes away, also collects those, so we trade our doubles between us as we go. I think my cutoff point for buying packs is the first pack I buy where all the base cards are doubles.

I don't have a set limit, but when I start getting more duplicates than new I usually stop buying packs from that set. But not always, I am a collector of opportunity. If something is really cheap I may buy it even if I already have more than half the set or on occasion even the whole base set already. I have purchased repacks where the visible packs were sets I had completed. When press pass had the NASCAR license and issued the blasters where you got one relic and one retail parallel per box, I kept getting them even after I finished the base set. So to answer your question , who knows, LOL

I guess my answer has changed over time.  When i was a kid in the late 60s early 70s it wasnt so much completing a set as getting those few stars you really wanted.  when i rejoined in the late 80s it was the junk wax era and you could buy whole sets easily which i eventually sold off/got rid of.  when i rejoined collecting the last few years it was like discovering another planet and through places like here and Listia, COMC, eBay i can see a path to completing sets after reaching about 70% through boxes and blasters.  and i go out of my way to find trade bait for here for the joy of trading and watching those percentages increase. 

i find myself all over the place half the time lol. i buy enough boxes to build sets but in the end always give the base cards back to the local card shop and either keep the inserts of what i want or sell off to get what i want. i just started back with baseball this year and fiqure i build the bowman sets , although i did buy a Topps Archive box which i think i will now trade off the base cards i have (about 100 or so)--i still have them at home

On sets I build, I buy packs until I start getting more doubles than needed cards. That usually gives me about 75 to 80% of the set complete, and enough doubles to trade to complete the set if there are any interested parties.

nice thread, as usual, many people differ on their approach which is fine!

 

good to hear the varied opinions here...

 

the biggest rule is to have fun (whatever that means to each of us)

 

mark z

Since I am a set collector I can relate with many of the responses. My thing is since I'm on a limited budget I usually don't even get halfway on a set. So I go with the flow. I've gotten 2 blasters of the new Diamond Kings. Now it's difficult to find anymore so obviously I'm going to start trading to complete. But also if I am close to completing half the set I start trading. Usually depends on how large the set is too!