I bought one case of the Collectors and my intention was to collect one set of the common parallels available in there and then one example of the others. I wanted a Matt Frewer auto for sentimental reasons.
The result was a full set of the plain, black and red and a sample of red Ludlow, black Ludlow, cloth, artist auto, sketch and gold. I've sold or am selling most of my other cloths and golds. I've not decided on selling the extra black Ludlows. I traded for a Matt Frewer so that is met and I haven't decided on keeping the extra spokesperson autos.
I did also buy some double packs from Target, but I'm not sure yet on the blue parallel, I might just buy those as well as my missing Bonus stickers from eBay. I don't mind having holes in my collection for long periods of time, I think it's fun to go back years later and complete a set that was missing something, so the holes are an investment in future fun.
Almost the same story here... I purchase one case of the collectors boxes. At the time, I did not have a clear collecting strategy for this release, and I found it evolved as a delved into it. From the collectors case I got several base sets, a full set of the black canvas and red borders and a sample of red Ludlow, several black Ludlows, several cloths, one artist auto, and one gold. I have sold or traded all but one of the gold and cloth stickers to recoup some of the case cost. I did pick up a blue border and silver border set on eBay and have been trading my extra case items for the magnets, and tattoos from the hobby boxes with people here on the forum. I traded and bought to complete the guest autograph set of 5.
I originally wanted to get one of each type of sketch card (meaning a can shaped, a box shaped, a bag shaped and a traditional). In the collector case I got a can, box and traditional. Since sketch prices have been much more in the affordable range than I expected, I changed my goal and have been picking up one sketch from each artists a little at a time. So far, with one exception, all under $15. Usually with ANS releases, I have been satisfied with one sketch.
Late in the game, I decided to go for a full run of all variations for the LITESABERS title, since, by chance, I ended up with some of the tougher chase items for this title. These will be my keeper gold, red ludlow, black ludlow and cloth examples when the smoke clears. Still on the lookout for a printing plate for this title but thats one I will probably not get. I missed out on a plate auction someone was kind enough to tell me about, but I don't use the bots and our Internet service went down with a few minutes to go in the auction. I also picked up a few packs at both Walmart and Target because I collect wrapper variations and also to get the non-collector case Bonus cards.
This release has been fun in some respects (trading has been fun and more challenging this time) but frustrating in others. In the past, I have resigned myself that I didn't need the gold border set, for example and would be happy with one as an example, but it is difficult to swallow that it would be almost financially impossible (for me), to justify completing so many subsets like the cloth, ludlows, gold border, and artist auto sets. I can see making one subset super tough per release, but 4 or 5 seems way overboard. I have not taken the time to sit down and calculate my purchases versus sales yet, but would conservatively estimate I have about $350 in this release at this point. For me, that's a lot. For those playing the dangerous game of selling on ebay, timing can be a critical factor. I was fortunate and sold 3 golds and 4 cloths early on and got back just a few dollars under what the collector case cost me. If I sold those same items now, they would probably bring a third less. I hope Topps finds a middle ground between ANS9 and ANS10 for future releases.
