Friday, November 9, 2018

Trade Recap: Cards With Gum

"To finish, or not to finish? That is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the knowledge of a set close to completion, or to take up trades and by opposing end it?" - Shakespear's card collecting younger brother probably

Recently,  Jon from Community Gum offered up a lot of 2016 Topps Archive for trade. It's a set I've always liked, and the one Archives set I actually have a decent amount of. I looked at what he had available, and saw most of the base cards listed I didn't have, including the remaining Red Sox I need from that set. I figured what the heck, and sent him an email. In exchange for a bunch of cards for his Cubs players collection, he was kind enough to send me 71 cards from the set.


With those cards, the set is now 89% complete. I'll be honest, I wasn't planing on finishing this set. I was never fond of the concept of chasing short prints to complete any set, and Archives tacked on 10 hard to get cards right at the end. Not something I want to put much effort into.

Yet...89% is really close. I haven't completed a set since the early 90's when I was in high school, and it might just be cool to complete another one. Of course, I have other older sets that are above 70% complete that I could concentrate on without having to worry about acquiring higher valued cards.

I guess for now I'll stay on the fence. I won't actively seek the remaining cards out, but I'll keep it in the back of my mind for future trades. For anyone I may end up trading with, it'll be something else to consider besides the always welcomed Red Sox cards.

Here's what's left:

1 Albert Pujols
13 Jason Heyward
25 Kyle Schwarber RC
29 Russell Martin
30 Manny Machado
47 Jorge Lopez RC
59 Robinson Cano
83 Satchel Paige
95 Jim Bunning
126 Yu Darvish
129 Mike Trout
149 Brian Dozier
150 Kris Bryant
169 Jorge Soler
183 Salvador Perez
201 Jackie Robinson
204 Miguel Cabrera
229 Billy Butler
237 Miguel Sano RC
257 Giancarlo Stanton
264 Luke Jackson RC
268 Carl Edwards Jr. RC
299 Hector Rondon
300 Sandy Koufax
301 Kenta Maeda RC, SP
302 Randy Jones SP
303 Tom Gordon SP
304 Al Kaline SP
305 Steve Garvey SP
306 Tito Francona SP
307 Phil Nevin SP
308 Charlie Hayes SP
309 Kris Benson SP
310 Sandy Koufax SP
(For it's worth, I also need just one more card for the Father Son insert set: #FS-FF Tito & Terry Francona)

Anybody else have a set they're unsure they want to complete or not? Does the presence of short prints factor into your decision to finish a set?

2 comments:

  1. I hate modern short prints! I recently stopped collecting the 2012 & 2013 Cooperstown sets, primarily because I finally came to the realization that I don't want to shell out $1 or more for each of the remaining short prints.

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  2. I was just thinking about this question yesterday when I stumbled across my 1986-87 Fleer basketball set. I have a really clean set without the Jordan and was debating on whether or not I'll ever actually finish it considering a PSA 8 Jordan will set me back more than $1,200.

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