So, for the first time in a while, my friend Trey and I were laughing like kids with the 2015 Fleer Marvel Retro set. It brought back a lot of memories for both of us. Now the kicker is that this set is insane. Between a 60 card base set, hundreds of retro cards in subsets and hundreds of inserts could either one of us or both of us put it together or each of our limited budgets? Of course not but we are both talking about working on it for a year maybe 2 or 3. I have even picked up a few cards from it. I am currently staying away from 2013. But, I was thinking. This is a set I am really enjoying either for the nostalgia or the sheer insanity of thinking about working on it. What sets are you enjoying the most right now?

Game of Thrones, but I'm not doing a master. I am looking to collect at least one autograph card from every signer in the 4 seasons currently released and going forward. I am 8 away from that goal right now and will no doubt take my time with that, as more will come each year.

Also I am filling in some other holes as good buys appear. What keeps this fun is that I am not obsessed with it and since the cards will continue, I don't really care when I catch up.

I'm working on the three different versions of the "Star Wars Force Awakens" 8 card promo sets. It reminds me of trying to find those Star Wars black border cards in Wonder Bread back in 1977. (That bread wasn't cheap, especially for a 6 year old!)

Assembling these promo sets is pretty easy to do if money is no object, but where the "seasoned collecting" comes in is that I'm trying to do it on the cheap. I'm getting there, and I think I'll end up with 20 out of 24 of them pretty painlessly, but those last four (the first ones issued, those found in random Empire Illustrated cases), will be the tough ones.

I bought some D23 programs just to get the packs of cards that were in those, but only got about 20 (of the 30 in all) as the rest where handed out as singles at the show that I was unable to attend. I'll likely get the rest of those, but some of them are pricey, so I might just be happy with the 2/3 or so of the set I have.

I've also really enjoyed picking and choosing the autographs I want from 2015 Leaf Pop century on the aftermarket, as I don't like buying $100 boxes, in general, so this way's a lot less risky. For every Gene Wilder or Teri Garr, there's one of the (former) hotdog eating champion or that annoying guy who says "Yuuup!" on "Storage Wars", just utterly useless things. Those not withstanding, they've got some really nice ones in there, like usual, and most are very affordable. I'll post what I've got from that when I'm done.

Minions!

It's not the typical modern set but for the first time ever I'm trying my hand at something (very) vintage -- the Ogden's Guinea Gold cigarette cards from around 1900. Everybody who was anybody at the time is in that set -- Buffalo Bill, Mark Twain, Lillian Russell, Old Tom Morris, J.M. Barrie, Thomas Edison, Houdini, a quite young Winston Churchill, etc. The list is endless. And most people have more than one card. There are over 1500 individual cards in different sizes with countless variations of most of them. In fact uncatalogued variants are still being found to this day. Some say there might be as many as 20,000 different cards total. And there are some serious collectors of these that try to put the whole run together - variants and all. Aside from some cards having color versions to go along with their black & white counterparts, most of the variations have to do with the "base", which is essentially the font or writing below the picture on the card. There's over a dozen different bases and some have only very slight differences. It's crazy. I'm so fascinated by this set that I decided to buy the "Guinea Gold Booklet", which was published in 1959, to help me identify them. It's considered "the" reference book for Guinea Golds. I'm getting such a kick out of reading and learning about them. Anyway sorry to be so long-winded but this is what I'm having fun with at the moment.

I too am working on all the Game of Thrones sets. Some of the auto cards are waaaaaaaaaay outta reach right now but it is still enjoyable trying to put it all together. Heck, I even purchased all the binders and I never do that! These sets have made collecting fun again, and believe me, I was very close to wrapping it all up and chucking it in the garbage!

It's hard not to like the huge list of signers in those GoT sets, especially since it has most of the biggies, and most of those signed at least two cards. I'm gradually working on finishing Seasons 3 and 4 as well. I couldn't do much with Season 4 autograph-wise, as most of those were Full-Bleeds, and I prefer the bordered. Season 5 should have a lot of them, though. Good times!

quote:

Originally posted by Logan:
It's not the typical modern set but for the first time ever I'm trying my hand at something (very) vintage -- the Ogden's Guinea Gold cigarette cards from around 1900.

Have you got any of these yet? I'd love to see some.

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:

quote:

Originally posted by Logan:
It's not the typical modern set but for the first time ever I'm trying my hand at something (very) vintage -- the Ogden's Guinea Gold cigarette cards from around 1900.

Have you got any of these yet? I'd love to see some.

No, not yet. I'm trying to map out a game plan of how I want to collect these. I have a tendency to get carried away when I discover something new that excites me so I'm trying not to do that here. Rather than pursue the whole set I think I may just go after the actresses and some of the other famous names. Here are pics of three PSA graded Winston Churchill cards so you can see an example of the variations.






And here is what is considered the true "rookie" card of Harry Houdini. This one is highly sought after:

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Logan,

Those are beautifully designed, and with so many to choose from (and so many variations of them beyond that), I can see why they're still collected after all this time. Good luck with your quest!