What are your set building strategies ?

General
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For the set builders out there, I’m curious of your strategies for completing sets.

I’ve been purchasing packs and multi pack promo boxes(not sure the official name), randomly for the last couple years. I’ve probably got somewhere between 100-200 packs across about 12-15 series. So not a lot in any given series. I’m planing on starting with cosmic eclipse (40 packs) and evolutions (47 packs) because that’s what I have the most of. My plan is to binder these.

I’m thinking I defiantly have enough to start these two binders for sure. But as for the others I’m not so sure. I’m thinking building up to 40-50 packs and go from there, then buy singles to complete. I’m in no hurry, although I’m debt free now so will be able to purchase more frequently.

Im curious what other strategies or processes other use to complete their sets. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

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But the best/chase/most expensive card first and try to but lots instead of singles. If you are just starting out lots tend to give very good value at buy it now or auction. When you are missing just a few cards for the set buy the singles for the rest.

It is of course more fun to open packs and fill the binder that way, but it is also more expensive. If you insist on opening packs, you might want to go to singles faster, but that depends entirely on the amount of packs you open per set.

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What I do for modern sets:
Buy two booster boxes and then complete the rest with singles. It’s a lot more fun to open boosters but it’s financially just not feasible to do more. After two booster boxes you have (nearly) every Common and Uncommon, you might miss a few rares and obviously most of the secret/ultra/etc. rares of the set. Also you probably have around 50 unique reverse holos if you decide to collect those as well.If you don’t collect the reverses you should be good with only one box as well.

Obviously the cheapest would be to buy them all as singles. But I’d imagine it would be a pain to order every single common.

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You pretty much nailed it:

  1. Outline the sets that you are wanting to complete
  2. For modern sets, I typically buy 1-2 boxes to get C/UC/R cards knocked out and to scratch the itch of opening packs
  3. Buy or trade for the remaining cards
  4. Hold yourself accountable and only buy cards within your collection goal. Don’t buy packs hoping to pull what you can buy

For out of print sets you’re looking at almost exclusively buying singles, always start with the most expensive cards. Alternatively you can look for collection lots on eBay if you can identify that it has cards you’re looking for. If you are concerned that a set’s price is going to jump and don’t want to take your time, I would suggest looking for one that’s already completed and buying it outright. This can be less fun but can save you money in the long run.

I’ve managed to complete over 50 sets using this strategy, good luck!

5

Best strategy of top collectors like myself:

  1. Refuse to buy booster boxes because you can’t justify spending $100 all at once on pieces of cardboard with fake animals on them.
  2. Spend $500 over the next 2 months on 3 pack blisters and random promo boxes at Target just to pull a few GX/V cards and maybe one secret rare.
  3. Get pissed and tell yourself to just buy booster boxes when the next set comes out.
  4. New set comes out, repeat steps 1-3, forget about the previous set and never complete it.

:sob: :sob: :sob:

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For new sets, as others have said:

  1. Buy a booster box - I only buy 1, possibly the blisters for the promos and a couple of extra packs.
  2. Buy the complete reverse set off eBay (seems cheapest way I’ve found)
  3. Buy the cards you’re missing off eBay.

For anything modern, but not new (Sun & Moon, XY, B&W to a lesser extent) your best bet is to buy people’s bulk, like the thousands of cards that someone leaving the hobby is trying to offload, not the dodgy MYSTERY BOX WOTC?! PSA11?!? crap. That should get you the bulk of the cards, then just buy reverse sets and rares/secrets from eBay.

For EX, DP, HGSS it’s a bit tougher and I haven’t found out the best way forward yet, but its looking like buying almost complete sets and finishing them, or buying complete sets outright (depending on price).

For WOTC, just buy the full sets if you can, or full non holo and the holos separately. By far the cheapest way to go now in the current crazy market is to buy complete sets because every man and their dog are hounding WOTC holos for grading potential.

Using the above I’m almost at 60% completion of everything now, still a long way to go but I’ll hopefully get there.

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Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I think this will help a lot.

While I do love opening packs I just thinks it’s financially responsible in this type situation past a certain point. I really like the bulk idea. I’ve seen some on eBay in the range of 1k cards and anywhere from $55-$80 depending on what’s included. I’m sure there’s better deals maybe. But I think with the bulk route I’d be able to knock out needed cards from several series, then just repackage and sell or eventually trade towards a booster.

Eventually I’d like to start working my way backwards and get some of the older stuff, I figure when I do this I’ll start with my favorite art and Pokemon and then as I find deals I’ll pick stuff up. But for the mean time I’m going to try and concentrate on the XY and newer stuff just because thats more in my price range and really when I started buying.

Thanks again for the info, your input and time was greatly appreciated.

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Completely overwhelm the opposition on the warfront that we call auctions. When they think they are about to earn that card that you know is yours, throw in that max bid of $1000 on that $20 card to show them who’s boss and who’s card that really is. Do this with every single card and you will have your set come hell or high water! Send in the reinforcements, take only yes for an answer with your superior armory!

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