Whats your opinions on an unlimited set that has 1st edition cards scattered in it? Is the set still complete, or only complete with all unlimited or all 1st edition?
I was always curious what other collectors thought on the topic. Thanks!
Most serious collectors would consider 1st Ed. an entirely separate set. So you’d need all cards in 1st Ed. for completion.
Creating a special subset of cards just for collectors was one of the main reasons, if not the only reason, why 1st Ed. cards were printed in the first place.
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Thats way i am leaning. I have had a string of purchases lately where i purchased an unlimited and got upgraded to a 1st edition from tcgplayer sellers. Not sure if its lack of seller knowledge or what. Im never going to complain about it i was just curious others thoughts in case in the future i ever decided to sell them. Thanks for the response!
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If you’re just collecting a set (base, fossil,
etc) for fun, it doesn’t matter if the cards are mixed between 1st ed and unlimited. You still have all the cards that go with that set. Down the road if you decide to sell the set it’ll depend on the buyer if they want a mixed set. A serious collector would want all 1st ed cards. If you sold it to locally you might find someone that just wants the cards.
The example you gave is fine. If it were a 1st Ed set with unlimited cards, I’d have more of a problem with. Of course in both cases it’s not really ideal and you will have to disclose it to possible buyers if you decide to sell.
I just want to add I’m talking raw cards here. Some unlimited cards in high grade are near impossible to find, I’d kind of consider it cheating going for the more available 1st Ed copies.
If you’re speculating on if having a complete “set” will allow you to add a premium, I don’t think that it will. I think people will basically price out the 1st ed cards and expect the unlimited’s to be bulk-buy freebies. If you want to sell a “complete” set, usually the prices for those go by if it’s a complete unlimited, shadowless, or 1st ed and then the premium/sale factor beyond it being complete is in the overall condition of the cards/main holos.
You guys are not reading the OP properly. It’s the other way around. He’s building unlimited sets and has a few 1st Edition cards included.
It’s still a set and he’d probably get a premium if some of the 1st Eds are holos/significant cards from that set.
I know I paid one when I purchased a Base binder with Shadowless and 1st Ed cards included.
It’s personal preference, You should collect however you want. For me, I would not be satisfied with a mixed set like this but that’s just me.
Im not collecting as an investment. I genuinely love and look at my cards almost daily. I was just curious about if people would be upset if they purchased a base set that had some 1st edition scattered in it. I cant say i would never sell as i dont know what life has in store.
Thanks for the responses it seems people want all unlimited or all.1st edition and not a mixture.
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That is the best way to collect! I am in the same boat with having a mixture of 1st and unlimited versions in my old WoTC binders. That is how I collected them initially years ago, and it makes the collection more personal. However, in the base set the print difference is very notable, so I would make an exception here. I personally have no desire to upgrade my unlimited cards to 1st editions, or to have a complete set of both versions (at least for now). It can sometimes be a slippery OCD-like slope as a collector to want everything in all versions (or the best version and best condition) just for the sake of it.
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If I’m understanding right and taking it up a notch, which would you choose if it had the same price tag:
- A complete Unlimited Set
Or - A complete set with both Unlimited and 1st Edition cards.
Respectfully, anybody who would pick #1 would have to be some kind of a goofball;)
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The value would certainly be increased with some 1st edition cards included. If I wanted to collect a full unlimited set, and I could buy a full unlimited set or a partial unlimited/1st set for the same price, I would surely buy the latter, sell the 1st edition cards, and buy the unlimited equivalents.
An unlimited set with 1st editions mixed in would make the set more desirable, but only because the 1st editions are more valuable. I see the 1st edition and unlimited prints as different sets to collect, but if you are collecting for yourself, then do what looks best to you!
If I understand the question correctly, I think the post is just taking a poll and seeing what people generally think. I won’t assume you are trying to sell them or anything you are just genuinely curious as to what people do with their collections.
As a buyer, I’d agree with Gary’s comment above. If I was buying an unlimited set and it had scattered 1st edition cards throughout it, I most likely wouldn’t mind. For the reason being, If I truly wanted the unlimited version and only the unlimited version for example of a Base Zapdos but was sent a 1st ed version, I would simply sell the 1st ed version and replace it. Why not buy higher priced/ scarcer cards at low prices?
As a collector (this is the question I think you were asking)…and this is my opinion. I have to say that I have been in that same boat where I’ve been collecting a binder set and If I’m doing an unlimited set then I ONLY want unlimited cards. On tcgplayer, even if the shadowless and the unlimited base card are right around the same price, Since i’m looking for unlimited I personally don’t want the shadowless version so I won’t buy it. That being said, and I don’t think you were trying to go this route, but obviously if someone sent me a high valued 1st ed card in place of the unlimited card, I wouldn’t include it in the unlimited binder set. To me it just throws off the aesthetics of the set. On top of that it doesn’t match up historically because they aren’t from the same print run. I would simply put the 1st ed card in my binder collection that goes with the 1st ed set and if I didn’t have one then I would start one. That is actually what happened to me a few years ago when I started collecting. I thought that there was no way that I would ever collect shadowless or 1st edition cards and then slowly, they just appeared in collections that I bought and then the desire to finish collecting those sets came… In the case of the Base set, It was completed within a year and by that time I think that I had over half of the shadowless cards, and when I finished that set a year later, I had a few dozen 1st ed cards. It was all more or less by accident but it pushed me to set new goals. I’m still working on the 1st ed base set to this day.
