Any other set builders undertaking an impossible task?

[sbfinley]

Originally Posted by sabrgeek

Do a true 1991 Topps Master Set and get back to me in about 10 years. And I'm including "parallels" of Desert Shield, Tiffany, Micro, etc and of course all the variations.

Rich

Unfortunately this is me....😕

https://www.blowoutforums.com/showpo...7&postcount=15

[bberns]

Originally Posted by Thor34

Yessir. Cheated a bit though and bought a complete set a few years back before this set really took off.
I am guessing I'd pay 3X what I paid back then now.

Here's my current progress:

Base 220/220 Complete 100%
Refractor 220/220 100%
Xfractor 208/220 94.5%
Orange 157/220 71.4%
Purple 212/220 96.3%
Blue #/199 220/220 100% Complete
Black #/100 109/220 49.5%
Sepia #/75 90/220 40.9%
Gold #/50 220/220 100% Complete
Red #/25 93/220 42.3%
Camo #/15 60/220 27.3%
Atomic #/10 19/220 8.6%
Pink #/5 38/220 17.3%
Superfractor #/1 5/220 2.3%

This is awesome. Congrats!

[mattglet]

Originally Posted by sbfinley

Unfortunately this is me....😕

https://www.blowoutforums.com/showpo...7&postcount=15

That's a special kind of crazy right there. I love it!

[dcaudle68]

Originally Posted by Thor34

Yessir. Cheated a bit though and bought a complete set a few years back before this set really took off.
I am guessing I'd pay 3X what I paid back then now.

Here's my current progress:

Base 220/220 Complete 100%
Refractor 220/220 100%
Xfractor 208/220 94.5%
Orange 157/220 71.4%
Purple 212/220 96.3%
Blue #/199 220/220 100% Complete
Black #/100 109/220 49.5%
Sepia #/75 90/220 40.9%
Gold #/50 220/220 100% Complete
Red #/25 93/220 42.3%
Camo #/15 60/220 27.3%
Atomic #/10 19/220 8.6%
Pink #/5 38/220 17.3%
Superfractor #/1 5/220 2.3%

Doing great sir, keep going. Lot of great rookies in 2013.

[dylan1018]

My endeavor was in Football. 2012 Absolute Spectum Gold Autos (80 cards) and Black /10 Autos (50 cards). Only need 1 for the gold set but only 2 were made. Demaryius Thomas /2.

https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1117898

[jamesodo]

I have 327 of the 350 2009 Allen & Ginter silk/cloth numbered to 10.

[Archangel1775]

Originally Posted by dylan1018

My endeavor was in Football. 2012 Absolute Spectum Gold Autos (80 cards) and Black /10 Autos (50 cards). Only need 1 for the gold set but only 2 were made. Demaryius Thomas /2.

https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1117898

Originally Posted by jamesodo

I have 327 of the 350 2009 Allen & Ginter silk/cloth numbered to 10.

Wow, way to see it to the end. Only a few more for each of you.

[wood minis]

Love this thread.

I started back collecting in 2004 and worked on the Cracker Jack blue mini set which I finished. Same in 2005 but the blues were numbered to 50. I know of one other complete set besides my own. The added feature from this release was the grey minis numbered to 25. Four of us made the attempt, and the other three gave up and furthered my cause. I was stuck on needing ten for a long time but gradually made it down to one, my biggest white whale and player up for the proverbial cup of coffee, the Giants Merkin Valdez.

Also in 2005 I started working on the Turkey Red baseball parallels. I finally finished a few years later when the Delmon Young gold /50 showed up. Little did I know when I started that Topps would do the second half of Turkey Red in 2006, so I was all in on those too. A little disappointed that they didn't serial number the golds, but they were clearly limited to 50 as well.

I finally woke up to the fact that every release was going to have a variety of parallels so I had to simplify my approach to building serial numbered sets, or simply be OK with building lots which is what I decided to do with A&G.

I did try for the Brooklyn back set in 2018 because of the wood mini fiasco, and am down to needing 9 more. Unfortunately one is the cryptocurrency card which I should have grabbed early when there were some BINs under $20.

My lowest serial numbered success was just completed, 2017 Goodwin Champions magician backs serial numbered to 17. I've heard of a magician back collector who got close to finishing a number of times, but always fell a card or two short. I suspected that was my fate too, but the last card I needed finally surfaced and I picked it up as part of a trade.

This year I'm attempting the Heritage white chrome /71s. Need four more to finish so keeping my fingers crossed.

Good luck to everyone. These are some amazing collections you are posting.

[mfw13]

I assembled the 1969 Topps Team poster set in NR-MT condition (i.e. no pinholes)....not impossible, but difficult. Completing the 2018 Heritage Team Posters is actually proving to be more difficult!

Also completed NR-MT 1970/71/72 Kelloggs sets (i.e. with no cracks), although I don't have all the statistical variations.

[Thor34]

Originally Posted by jamesodo

I have 327 of the 350 2009 Allen & Ginter silk/cloth numbered to 10.

Anything numbered #/10 is an insane accomplishment.
327! Wow!

[bswhiten]

1982 Topps “Blackless” Set...It took me 5 years to acquire 20% of the set, but I lucked out in 2019 and bought an entire set.

Some of the C sheet cards are impossible to find in the wild.

[mouschi]

LOVE this - there is something about watching others put together something magnificent. Oh, I also hate it because some of you have Canseco cards that I'll not be able to get

Good luck everyone - may the rest of this year prove to be quite fruitful for you all in coming closer to your goals!

[Cliffroach]

I've been working on the 1997 Donruss Signature Series autos(base autos) for a while. I'm not sure it will ever be finished primarily because I've just never seen some of them - Boggs, Roberto Alomar, Klesko, Larkin, Renteria, Mo Vaughn. I sometimes wonder if the checklist is wrong. And then the Oritz auto is always very high priced.

[Drew3000]

Cool thread, I really want to try something impossible. I did try going for the entire print run of the topps black 2019 Jesse Winker. Think I have 16 of the 67, haven’t seen one pop up in a while

[togaman]

Updated 5/22/2025 (Four years later)

Loved the inks in 2012 Bowman Platinum baseball in the 100 card Purple, Blue #d to 199, Green #d to 399. Gold #d to 50 and Red # 25 Refractors. Finished the Purple, Green and Blue 100 card refractor sets and slowly plugging away on

2012 Bowman Platinum Gold #d to 50 Refractors 96/100 so far
2012 Bowman Platinum Red #d to 25 Refractors 73/100 so far

Also down to a Griffey 221 and 334 Wainwright to compete a 1-354 2006 Topps Chrome Black Border Refractor set

I completed the 8100 card 1998 Topps TEK set (all 90 pattern of all 90 players) back in 2004 and five sets of the 2000 Fleer Focus Masterpiece mania #d to 300 set (250 card set with each card numbered to 300). Also completed 2005 and 2006 Turkey Red White Border sets last year for my tough to complete sets.

[Yankees2020]

The entire set of 250 cards of 2020 Topps 206 Ty Cobb 1/1 backs

[Saraste]

I have been working on the 2007 Fleer mini die-cut gold parallels. The problem is that 2007 was a retail only set. While the silver die-cuts were 1 in every other pack, the golds were much tougher. The base checklist was 400 cards (not counting the 25 extras that were only in factory sets) but both die-cut sets did not have cards 371-400.

In all of these years I am only about 45% complete. I'm paying $5.00 each for commons but they just don't show up often. I have numerous extras (including Jeter, Verlander, Chipper, etc), but will only trade them for ones I need.

[Thor34]

Incredible efforts all here.
Keep'em comin'.

Everyone appreciates a challenge.

Embedded in the 2013 Topps Chrome Master Set I'm working on is my first "Rainbow".
I've now completed Gerrit Cole from Base all the way through Superfractor.
I'd show it off but have failed a number of times to figure out how to post scans here off my computer.
Attached is a pic I took recently of some of the Cole cards.

[tdubs1010]

Hoping this thread will lead to the white whales to show up for those hard to fill sets.

[creasecollector]

Originally Posted by Thor34

Incredible efforts all here.
Keep'em comin'.

Everyone appreciates a challenge.

Embedded in the 2013 Topps Chrome Master Set I'm working on is my first "Rainbow".
I've now completed Gerrit Cole from Base all the way through Superfractor.
I'd show it off but have failed a number of times to figure out how to post scans here off my computer.
Attached is a pic I took recently of some of the Cole cards.

A 19 card rainbow.... well done !

[Daddo333]

This is such a great thread.

My impossible goals are all related to the 2006 A&G set. Here are the subsets/cards that make up the overall collection that I'll be searching for my entire collecting life:

1. 10% of all printing plates (currently at 38/150)
2. 1 1/1 Auto Postcard (total long shot to own one of these one day)
3. Arod Red Ink Auto (have the Wright red ink)
4. Full NCC promotional set (missing 1)
5. Full EXT mini set (missing 11)
6. Full A&G back mini set
7. Full Black Border mini set
8. Full Rip card set (missing two)
9. Any more of the Framed Originals

When you write these things out like this it becomes both daunting and exciting

What makes most of this impossible is that Ginter nuts like myself seem to be very reclusive. However I've made some amazing connections here and on Instagram that give me hope that I'll eventually find my treasure.

[YouTheManNick]

Originally Posted by Daddo333

This is such a great thread.

My impossible goals are all related to the 2006 A&G set. Here are the subsets/cards that make up the overall collection that I'll be searching for my entire collecting life:

1. 10% of all printing plates (currently at 38/150)

Geeze. I just looked these up on Ebay for the heck of it.

Zero current listings. All recent sold went for $90+

So I'm guessing you're not the only one after these.

Best of luck. Definitely a fun chase.

[Ksandle1028]

I’m currently working on getting the Topps living set cards all signed and slabbed. Since cards are being released every week I don’t think I’ll ever complete this task

[mouschi]

I'd love to see pics from some of yall!

[Daddo333]

Originally Posted by YouTheManNick

Geeze. I just looked these up on Ebay for the heck of it.

Zero current listings. All recent sold went for $90+

So I'm guessing you're not the only one after these.

Best of luck. Definitely a fun chase.

Haha, yes, such a grind but very fun overall. I've been buying pretty much everything I can get my hands on that comes up on eBay but they rarely show up there unfortunately. Thanks!