Saturday, February 18, 2012

I have completed my first ever insert set!


I consider myself a new collector, even though I've collected baseball cards for many years.  In fact, like many of you out there, my collecting dates back to a time when cards were numbered 1-796, and you simply bought pack after pack trying to get close to completion - or at least close enough until trading with your friends in your neighborhood got you even closer!

The reason I feel so new is the change in what is out there for the consumer to ummm... consume.  Specifically, I am referring to insert sets - and it appears that this is where the "value" in cards lays.  I don't really care about value, but I liked having all the cards, and for a budget-conscious collector, inserts make this basically impossible.

I THINK I understand why they exist, but that doesn't mean I love it - or love what choices they force me to make.  For the last couple of years, I've simply admired the few inserts I received, and not bothered to do much about them.  But this year, probably inspired by many of the bloggers out there - and also inspired by a Topps design which reminded me of my early baseball card days, I decided to try to complete a set.  And inspired by Nick at http://baseballdimebox.blogspot.com/ I decided to attend a card show.  More on that in a future post, but for now, this became my opportunity to actually complete an insert set!

At one vender, I picked up a loose pile of about 20 minis, 17 of which I needed.  And then, as I was getting ready to leave, a vender had stacks and stacks of minis, allowing me to pick up the final 18 cards I needed for $4.

I left happy, and enjoy looking at my COMPLETED stack!  Now - how do I store them?!?

3 comments:

  1. Congrats! That's a great set to have finished up. I used to store inserts in the clear plastic cases, but have gone to binders lately. With these minis, though, I have no idea how to store those guys. I've got them in a box right now with all my other 2012 inserts, but when I get around to the binder, who knows.

    (Lifetimetopps)

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  2. yea, the size is throwing me a curveball... should i just try them in a traditional 9-slot sheet?

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  3. The 1975 minis are the same size and I store them in 9-pocket sheets, just because I haven't been able to find anything that size.

    There used to be sheets advertised for minis that size back in the day and I KNOW they're out there somewhere. I just don't have the time to look.

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