Card Hemorrhage Set Completion Report

2020's been the big year of card collecting for me, my previous dribs & drabs of collecting supercharged by a global pandemic; a temporary job loss (and thus free time for collecting); and a steady stream of Paypal income from selling off a bunch of records. I'll admit that I'd never completed a set before this year, though I'd never actually bought a set in full, either. In 2020, I've done it both the easy way and the hard way - with my biggest and newest collecting goals a long way off.

What you see pictured here is a team set - which counts, far as I'm concerned. It's the 2005 Topps Emerald Nuts San Francisco Giants 30-card set, something I didn't know existed until Fuji sent me my first few cards and I was dazzled by 'em. Look at these. Oh, I know it's hard to truly look at them since I got lazy and took a camera phone photo on a rug, instead of scanning them individually for you - but trust me, they're nice. This particular team corresponds to one of my peak years for "watching the Giants on TV", as we had a toddler and there was a lot of nightly Giants baseball going on while we cared for him. My poor wife. 

Here are the full card sets I've completed this year - and admittedly, it was by buying them outright:

• 1981 Kellogg's 3D Superstars
• 1986 Fritch Negro League Baseball
• 1949 Bowman Pacific Coast League 1987 Card Collectors Co.
• 1994 Upper Deck All-Time Heroes of Baseball

Here are the full team sets I've completed by buying them one by one, or two by two, or by getting them in trades etc:

• 1969 Topps Seattle Pilots
• 1971 Topps San Francisco Giants
• 1972 Topps San Francisco Giants
• 1975 Topps San Francisco Giants
• 1981 Topps San Francisco Giants
• 1981 Fleer San Francisco Giants
• 2002 Topps Chrome Anaheim Angels
• 2005 Topps Emerald Nuts San Francisco Giants
• 2010 Topps Heritage San Francisco Giants
• 2011 Topps Heritage San Francisco Giants
• 2012 Topps Heritage San Francisco Giants
• 2014 Topps Heritage San Francisco Giants
• 2019 Topps Heritage San Francisco Giants
• plus every single Oakland Seals/California Golden Seals Topps hockey card, from their debut in 1967 through their demise in 1975-76. Just nailed my last two cards a couple of weeks ago.

I've also completed a few small Giants Allen & Ginter and Gypsy Queen "sets" - a few other 3-8 card team sets snatched from other series, too - but that's really not quite the same thing as cobbling together 20+ cards. I also bought the 1983 Renata Galasso '69 Seattle Pilots card set in one fell swoop, and I'm glad I did. I have several Phoenix Giants minor league sets from the 1970s and a 1985 Mother's Cookies SF Giants team set that I also purchased this way (and man, they were cheap; if you had told me that they could be had for $5-$8 two years ago, I'd have scoffed and instead paid you $35-40). 

It's the thrill of the hunt, the sense of completion - all the things that make an oddball collector an oddball collector. Wear it with pride. Now - in addition to team stuff I'm trying to complete like the 1970 Topps Seattle Pilots and quite a few other SF Giants sets, my laser focus is now turned to 4 sets I'd absolutely love to complete someday:

• 1965 Topps baseball
• 1971 Topps baseball
• 1972 Topps baseball
• 1976 SSPC baseball

Of these, SSPC seems very attainable, followed by 1972 Topps. It can - and it shall - be done, but it ain't happening this year. The other two goals are barely off the ground; 1965 Topps are amazing, but I have exactly three of them right now. So yeah. That's a bit of a reach. But I know some of you folks have done this and other amazing things with your collection. Maybe tell us all about it in the comments if you wouldn't mind?