Set chaser

 

I'm no skirt chaser. I'm no storm chaser. I don't chase ambulances or dogs either.

I'm a set chaser. A proud one, too. I pursue lots of different cards in this hobby but above all is the quest for completing sets. I have a list of all the ones that I've finished (that needs updating).

And here's a list of ones I'm currently chasing:

1970 Topps baseball (update on that soon)

1970 and 1971 Fleer World Series

1969 Topps baseball

1967 Topps baseball

1979 Topps football

1983 Kellogg's (update on that soon, too)

1985 Donruss

1987 Fleer

1988-90 Pacific

1989-91 Swell

1975, 1977-79 Hostess

1981 Fleer Stickers (update on that one coming, as well)

2024 Topps Heritage

1980s Traded Sets

 

There are probably others that I can't think of right now. But, trust me, they are TOP PRIORITY.

 

And that doesn't mean there aren't other down-low sets that I like to pursue, you know, casual-like, when I don't want to spend a lot of money or chart my progress.

 

That's where the baseballcardstore.ca comes in handy. I can find stuff there that I like, that isn't necessarily No. 1 on my list of sets-to-get, but they're cheap. And over time that builds up and before I know, it is a top priority set!

 

Let's see what I grabbed casually.

 

My chief Fleer Sticker Set Chase has been the original one, from 1981. It's the first one I saw and it's astonished me ever since with how large it is. Then Fleer kept putting out those sticker sets and those were just as large, too. I don't have the stomach to chase all of those as vigorously as 1981 (they don't look as good as that one, frankly). But I will add them here and there, because they're Fleer and they're stickers and they have players from my younger days.

The BBC Store had a lot of the 1988 version -- those gray borders, I don't know about those -- but, yeah, I'll grab them cheap.

And here's just one from 1987. It's the first one, too. I don't know about these green borders either, they seem like something Donruss would come out with in the early '90s, a little too kiddie for me. But the subject matter is solid!

While I'm on green borders, here's one of the football cards I added, from the 1986 set. Since there were no Dodgers to get (Steven usually alerts me when there are Dodgers that I need), I went with the Bills -- just the one though. I'm accumulating a fair amount of Bills, too.

Staying with football and going one year earlier, I added just one 1985 Topps card -- I've found a fair amount of '85 football on this site and they're all in good shape for having black borders.

I need to be careful with sets like these. There are decent amount of football sets from the 1970s and 1980s that I like, but with baseball taking up 95 percent of my time and money, there is no room for chasing football, too -- I mean look at how long it's taking me with 1979. But the '83 set looks SO COOOOOL. So just a four-pack and then I'll be good.

This is more of what I should be chasing from 1983. The O-Pee-Chee sets from 1977-86 are the ones that I find the most interesting, mostly because the design colors change depending on the team switches and that's always been fascinating to me. That Rich Gale card I had in my COMC cart fairly recently, for a much more expensive price. This time it cost me 20 cents.

OK, here is a set I'm actually seriously chasing right now, this is from the first Pacific Legends set. I'm kind of unclear on how many cards I need for each of the Pac-Legends sets, but I'll get a handle on it.

1987 OPC isn't as interesting, but it's a card of Dave Parker, of course I'm going to add a Cobra card.

I'll grab '90s cards here and there, but there needs to be a good reason. Both 1993 Select and 1997 Topps are sets that I like and am pseudo-chasing. The '97 Chrome Garciaparra card seemed like a no-brainer add, and the Sammy Sosa will go to my eventual 1992 pursuit, which will probably be just one lump purchase.

Speaking of which, just get that 1991-92 Pro Set finished already! But I couldn't help it. GOALIES!

Here is another 1990s set that I like, 1994 Post. Some of the Post sets around this time are a little too basic for me, but I've always liked the '94 set (more green borders) and I have about half of it now.

 

The Baseball Card Store is my go-to site for the 25th anniversary McDonald's Expos set. I have like seven of the cards now. I always go for the lesser-known guys because anyone can grab an Andre Dawson card.

A couple female athlete stars, I look for these on that site, too. The Lexi Thompson card arrived on the same day she announced she was retiring. I don't thing the two things are connected.

 

I've kind of wandered away from set-chasing here with random pick-ups. But I will complete that Swell set. And, who knows, the Fleer Greats set could be a completion quest at some point. Retired Signatures, though, seems too tough. I still need Dodgers from that set.

Now here's a set I'll be working on over the the coming months/year or two. I found a decent amount of 1983 Donruss on there. I have no intention to pay the price that set is going for as a complete set, especially since I have two of the three big rookies in there already.

That leaves me to adding cards randomly, or maybe trading through TCDB, although with the way my 1985 Donruss chase has stagnated over there, maybe that's not the greatest tactic.

You can see how many mug shots are in this set -- gracious, no wonder we loved Topps so much in 1983.

That's a better-looking lineup. The Dan Spillner is an error -- I knew right away that wasn't Spillner, that's Ed Whitson. Donruss never corrected it.

 

Picked up a few 2024 flagship needs, too. This is the route to take, instead of overpaying through retail buys that will produce endless doubles.

All of this, plus a handful of other cards I didn't show, cost me 16 bucks, which again is about the cost of a hanger box with half of them dupes. This got me a nice cross-section of sets I've admired, but maybe won't hard-core chase ... at least for now.

You saw that list up top. I'll be busy for awhile before I get to anything else.