It’s been a lonnng, and slow journey. A basic fact is that not all the cards needed are on the major markets at any given time, or even long stretches of time. By major markets I mean the major online ones- eBay, COMC, sport lots, here, etc. I don’t even consider card shows since these types of cards are almost nonexistent there in the sea of ultra modern (and vintage).
Current tally,
Bronze:
Complete (200/200)
Silver:
Complete (100/100)
Gold:
Complete (50/50)
Silver Embossed:
Complete (100/100)
Gold Embossed:
Complete (50/50)
Bronze Refractors:
Complete (200/200)
Silver Refractors: 98/100 (2 gosh darn ones away)
Gold Refractors: 43/50
Silver Embossed Refractors: 50/100 (half!)
Gold Embossed Refractors: 6/50 (long ways to go)
One of the hardest to make any progress in is believe it or not the regular gold refractors. Ghost town out there for those. Of the 7 I need, basically none of have been on the market most of the year. A couple reasons for this- they aren’t as flashy as the comparably priced silver embossed refractors so don’t seem to hit the market as much. I’m also limiting myself to with-peel only, which eliminates maybe up to 30% of the run of a card. That said, I picked up this beaut gold ref that I needed,
The following may not look like a flashy pickup being a mere regular silver ref, but it was one of the 3 I still need for the silver ref set, and
thankfully it had the peel. Other 2 I need are nonexistent.
I picked up this Proof (test) “GER”. I do not collect these, but I wanted one as a curiosity piece to go with the set. Also wanted to inspect one of these in hand. Indeed, it is not die-cut and is also not embossed. It’s basically a regular gold ref with the wrong ref pattern. It was not expensive.
But I also found an actual GER. The difference in price is night and day between real ones and proofs.
