The name of the game is completion

 

I joined this hobby, was sucked into it, in the mid-1970s. Not too long into my time in the club, maybe a couple of years, I caught on to the one primary goal of card collecting.

 

The name of the game was completion, set completion.

 

That's changed in the nearly 50 years since. Sure, there are still set collectors, but we're a much smaller percentage of the entire collecting scene, unlike when I was a kid, when it was just about 100 percent.

 

Still, I can't get that goal from the '70s out of my blood. It's there forever. It is THE reason why I collect -- to complete the mission, to finish the set, whether it's a team set or a set set. This is what makes sense to me in the hobby, and no matter how much I try, I still can't fully grasp what the heck other collectors are doing if they're not trying to finish sets. What does it even mean?

So, my second Sportlots order of the year arrived recently, the last cards showed up today. Without even thinking about it when I was ordering, just about all of the cards had to do with attempting to complete some set or another -- the quest I've been on since approximately 1976. (I'd say 1975 was me just buying the cards because I liked them with no real sense of what I was doing).

There were a lot of Dodgers, trying to finish some team sets, and there were a few other cards to try to get larger sets finished. And I did finally complete one of those larger sets.

These were among the final cards that I needed to wrap up 1985 Fleer. Three of these I'm sure you can understand why they were among the last. But Mike Brown?

 

 

This was the final card to finish the set. It arrived today. I am not surprised it was the final one. I had to put it into my cart four times because it kept getting swiped.

 

I know I could have avoided that by finding a cheapish complete set to purchase, but, again, that's not the model I was taught when I first started in the hobby. I'll do it for sets that are smaller or dirt cheap but not for something I enjoy building. 1985 Fleer is probably my third-favorite Fleer set from the '80s, so I chose the longer way.

 

With '85 Fleer done, the only Fleer flagship sets from the '80s I need to finish are 1986, which is fairly close to done, and 1987, which I haven't even thought about.

 

The other cards from this order that were related to flagship-set chasing rather than team-set chasing are four cards from the 1969 Topps chase. See if you can see what they have in common:

 

Yeah, four Red Sox. That wasn't even planned. All I did was pick out four cards that I sort of remember seeing in the past (there are still cards I need that I originally had back in the day when I thought I wasn't trying to complete '69 Topps).

So all the Red Sox from the set are mine except for the pesky high-number Reggie Smith card. That's good progress.

Now let's get to the Dodgers team sets since, outside of the '85 Fleer cards, was the primary mission this time.

Really random stuff, like why would I even think about what I need from 2007 Bowman Chrome? I must've realized I still needed these two at some point late at night, jolted out of bed screaming "2007 Bowman Chrome! Where Is Kent and Ethier????" Now the team set is complete.

More shiny. These three cards finish the 2021 Chrome Platinum Anniversary team set. I still really like this thing and part of my brain still wants to chase pretty parallels. But it's going to have to be happy with the team set finished for a spell. Maybe seeing them all together will calm it down.

That's a Major team set. 32 cards! A lot of other team collectors can relate with this set. Then there are the Rockies. Just 14 cards.

Each of these cards completed a team set for me, or at least completed the non-short-printed portion of the set. In the case of 2015 Gypsy Queen and 2017 Gallery there are still SPs in the team set. I have never liked either set so who knows when I will find the drive to chase down those SPs.

 

Neither of these finished a team set but got me very close. I need just the Hideo Nomo card to wrap up the 2003 Chrome team set, and I need two more cards to finish 2003 Upper Deck Vintage, which is lucky I even latched onto that set for completion -- there are so many sets from that time I have no idea what I still need.

 

Speaking of a team set that is Almost-But-Not-Quite-Yet-Complete, there is the matter of 1963 Topps. 

For a long time I thought I was done with the team set here, except for the semi-impossible to impossible Rookie Stars cards, of which there are FIVE for the Dodgers. But I totally glazed over what I need from the league leaders cards.

I had some of them already but not the key Strikeout Leaders card, which is now mine. I still need card No. 1, the Batting Leaders card, which contains the Tommy Davis floating head, as well as the floating heads of someones named Musial, Aaron and Frank Robinson.

So this'll do for now.

There was just one card from this lot that didn't really have to do with any completion, it's related to the closest I get to player-collecting.

I like to pick up Kershaw cards at random when I can, mostly because he's been my favorite player for a long time, but also I guess to keep up with the major Kershaw collectors, who have scads more than me, two of whom I'm well-acquainted.

But that is way down on the priority list as there are still so many more sets to complete ... including the 2001 Topps UK team set.

In fact I've just established a new major set chase, which you'll see in a couple more posts. That one is probably doable but also kind of ridiculous.

But nobody called set-chasers normal. That's probably why there are so few of us now.