Anyone putting togther "impossible" sets?

[chilly55]

I saw a similar thread over in the Baseball forum. Anyone putting together master sets that are nearly impossible.

I've got three going and not sure when I will ever finish them.

1st in the Artbox Terminator 2 Filmcardz set. I am shy two cards, one of which I'll probably never get. I need the Filmware PW5 card and the ever elusive FX1. The FX1 has a print run of 30. I have all of the other cards in the set, though I am upgrading a few cards for conditions.

2nd, I have a master run of all of the TV 24 releases. Only card I am shy of is the season 4 expansion dual autograph of Gregory Itzin & Dennis Haysbert Dual. I've only seen two the last several years and was outbid both times.

3rd, I am putting together a PSA 9 or better set of the 1975 Planet of the Apes. I am close to averaging a 9.0 for the 66 cards, but still have some work to do.

Each of these sets are over 15 years in them making.

Anyone else working on "impossible" sets?

Bill

[armyml]

Love these kind of threads.

I am going for a PSA 10 set of 1978 Topps Jaws 2. I'll never finish but it's a fun one. Every PSA 10 is a pop 1. The base set is 59 cards with black borders and horribly off-centered. I've got 3 PSA 10s so far. No chance at opening old packs and submitting cards because the packs are in awful condition and the cards just aren't centered.

[CicadaMound]

Hard nonsports sets must be impossible, some of these cards have to be buried deep in closets of people who bought one box of cards because they liked the property but have no connection to the organized hobby.

[DynaEtch]

1. Im trying to collect the 90-card base set of 1993 Marvel Masterpieces in the 'virgin error' form (i.e. no foil on front, just the raw art). Nearly impossible, but gonna just slowly chip away at it for years. I have little doubt the whole 90-card set exists in this error, as errors affect entire uncut sheets. I think I have like ~20 of the 90 so far. It's rare to just see one, nevertheless 90 different ones.

Im also doing some math, and unfortunately since errors of this nature typically go in the $50-$100 range a piece, usually the higher side of that is what I've been paying, so a 90 card set of this could be up there in the $5-10k+ range after all is said and done, which is rather silly to invest in something other people care little about or value besides me. But it is what it is....the nature of collecting I suppose. I have tried to acquire some by ripping boxes...and that's even more of a money-pit....I must have gotten one in about a 20 box stretch, and boxes of this today arent cheap, like $150 a pop. I've learned you cant chase errors like this from the junk era by opening boxes. My dream card experience would be opening a box of 1993MM and like the entire box inside is messed up and chock full of errors, like 216 cards all in no foil (this almost certainly cant happen, but a guy can wish...)



2. Again on the error note, but trying to collect the set of 5 1992 Masterpieces spectra battle cards with the wrong backs, like the below. Have 3 of the 5, need the Surfer vs Thanos and Cap vs Red Skull. Considering there are probably about 245,000 copies of the regular spectra insert for each, and possibly as little as 6 of the wrong back, those are astronomical odds, and I may never see them turn up. It's one thing to be /1 or /10 in the modern era....it's quite another to be possibly as low as /6 in the junk wax era. They could still be in one of the zillions of unopened boxes of 92MM still out there, or put away in some kid's collection from the 90s...maybe even unaware of the error.

[wdmullins]

Broadway Playbill cards



The Broadway theater publication "Playbill" issued sets of cards of Broadway plays for every season between 1977-1978 through 2007-2008, plus a set called "Decade of Hits" with cards of plays from 1972-1982. That's 32 sets. I've got 30 of them. Someday I'd like to get the last two.

[DynaEtch]

Very neat. At first glance, thought they were the actual playbills in the pic. Never even know those sets existed, and there’s 30+ of them…huh.

[EW Cards]

Originally Posted by wdmullins

Broadway Playbill cards



The Broadway theater publication "Playbill" issued sets of cards of Broadway plays for every season between 1977-1978 through 2007-2008, plus a set called "Decade of Hits" with cards of plays from 1972-1982. That's 32 sets. I've got 30 of them. Someday I'd like to get the last two.

Those look like fun.


I’m putting together a LEAF 1967 Star Trek set. It may take several upon several years to do that.

[The Accountant]

I started doing the 2016 donruss football printing plate set (technically four of each) but I gave up around 170 into the 300 cards set. Still have a few of them!

[BipolarBear]

Not quite impossible, but my longterm project is a complete 1992 X-Men series 1 "Toy Biz" variant set. I've stalled in recent years because I've been chasing other shiny objects (MM16 and FUXM18, mostly), but I'm currently sitting at 65 out of 99. Finding the cards in decent shape is the real challenge.

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by BipolarBear

Not quite impossible, but my longterm project is a complete 1992 X-Men series 1 "Toy Biz" variant set. I've stalled in recent years because I've been chasing other shiny objects (MM16 and FUXM18, mostly), but I'm currently sitting at 65 out of 99. Finding the cards in decent shape is the real challenge.

That is a fun and challenging set to put together (I assume there are all 99 in the set out there). 65 is pretty impressive. So many have major paper-loss given the source. I wonder if it might be worth it to track down some of these via buying the actual Toy Biz figure MOC and removing the card as gently as possible. I was able to acquire the 1995 Fleer Ultra X-men Toy Biz colored suspended animations this way, just buying the figures, they are common enough.

At one point I started to go for the Nelsonic parallel set of this set and quickly nope'd right out, since it's basically impossible. If you go onto ebay, it's always the same 20-ish ones on there (mostly D-list characters). You just dont see certain cards in Nelsonic,, like Wolverine etc. Im not even sure the 99 card set exists, but some people think it does (promoking amassed a large chunk of them, I cant remember now but I'd like to say 40 or so). The problem with the Nelsonics is you cant just buy the watches (they came with Nelsonic watches) like you can the Toy Biz figures, since they're never on the market. There is speculation the watches never even made it to public distribution, which explains why you dont see them now on ebay. I think I did see one example of someone owning one still in the package- this would be a grail to 1992 X-men Master set collectors.

[BipolarBear]

Originally Posted by DynaEtch

That is a fun and challenging set to put together (I assume there are all 99 in the set out there). 65 is pretty impressive. So many have major paper-loss given the source. I wonder if it might be worth it to track down some of these via buying the actual Toy Biz figure MOC and removing the card as gently as possible. I was able to acquire the 1995 Fleer Ultra X-men Toy Biz colored suspended animations this way, just buying the figures, they are common enough.

At one point I started to go for the Nelsonic parallel set of this set and quickly nope'd right out, since it's basically impossible. If you go onto ebay, it's always the same 20-ish ones on there (mostly D-list characters). You just dont see certain cards in Nelsonic,, like Wolverine etc. Im not even sure the 99 card set exists, but some people think it does (promoking amassed a large chunk of them, I cant remember now but I'd like to say 40 or so). The problem with the Nelsonics is you cant just buy the watches (they came with Nelsonic watches) like you can the Toy Biz figures, since they're never on the market. There is speculation the watches never even made it to public distribution, which explains why you dont see them now on ebay. I think I did see one example of someone owning one still in the package- this would be a grail to 1992 X-men Master set collectors.

As far as I know, the complete 99-card "Toy Biz" set does exist and all the cards are in circulation, though likely in varying quantities. I've bought action figures before when I could tell that it had a specific card I really wanted, where buying the card itself would cost more than the figure (Wolverine, Deadpool back when he was super hot, etc.). I took the same approach with the 1995 colored Suspended Animations, too.

Regarding the Nelsonic cards - I was one of the big collectors of those for a while. This was probably 10 years ago at this point. I'd amassed somewhere in the low-70s, I think 71 or 72. I had gotten most of mine from two random people I found on the internet (probably 40 from one guy and another 15-20 from the other), neither of whom had any recollection as to how they got them or anything. After that, I'd pick up one or two as they'd pop up on eBay from time to time. I had a few of the big characters, like Gambit, Cyclops, Rogue, Storm, Magneto, but did not have the main Wolverine or Deadpool. (Can't remember one way or the other on Psylocke or Cable, but if I did, I wish I'd kept those, as I've shifted into more character-collecting now that set-collecting is impossible with modern sets.)

I gave up the chase after getting frustrated with the lack of progress and needing money because I had just finished school and was between jobs. I sold off all of them, mostly to a guy in Amsterdam, except the "Danger Room Test Sequence" puzzle. I have eight out of the nine, and have been watching for the Cyclops card (#97) for over a decade now.

The complete 99 card set probably exists, but whether it will ever see the light of day is another question entirely.

I've seen an actual X-Men Nelsonic watch with card in package show up on eBay once, years and years ago. The card included was Mojo 2, FWIW.

[DynaEtch]

70+ nelsonic’s is very impressive. That’s probably the record high I’ve heard so far, I know of no one who has completed the whole set. (I’m leaning towards the whole 99 card set might exist now if you collected 70+).

I know of two examples in sealed packages, one this Nightcrawler that is showing on worthpoint, so must have sold within the last few years


The other is a StarJammers, and is shown in the recently released 1992 Impel X-Men hardbound book as an example. The Mojo you saw would be a third. It’s weird because if you check eBay, you find numerous Nelsonic watches still sealed from Simpsons, Flintstones, Spider-Man, Looney Tunes, Trix, etc. But not X-Men, which had these cards. So a few possibilities: they never reached retail stores back in the day (but then where did all these promos come from?), or it’s just that they were so highly desired that everyone opened them for the card, or that someone has cornered them somehow (but then where are all the opened Wolverine watches? should be out there if they were widely available for sale in the 90s). The above does have a clearance markdown sticker, so that to me suggests they made it into stores in one way or another. Note the sticker says like $3.00 (I think). Sheesh, talk about an example of organically derived value. Item starting out cheap and barely cared about, now highly coveted and valuable 30 years later. Compare this to artificial scarcity in cards today. Lots of questions, but in any case you just don’t come across them sealed much, if at all.

[BipolarBear]

Originally Posted by DynaEtch

70+ nelsonic’s is very impressive. That’s probably the record high I’ve heard so far, I know of no one who has completed the whole set. (I’m leaning towards the whole 99 card set might exist now if you collected 70+).

I know of two examples in sealed packages, one this Nightcrawler that is showing on worthpoint, so must have sold within the last few years


The other is a StarJammers, and is shown in the recently released 1992 Impel X-Men hardbound book as an example. The Mojo you saw would be a third. It’s weird because if you check eBay, you find numerous Nelsonic watches still sealed from Simpsons, Flintstones, Spider-Man, Looney Tunes, Trix, etc. But not X-Men, which had these cards. So a few possibilities: they never reached retail stores back in the day (but then where did all these promos come from?), or it’s just that they were so highly desired that everyone opened them for the card, or that someone has cornered them somehow (but then where are all the opened Wolverine watches? should be out there if they were widely available for sale in the 90s). The above does have a clearance markdown sticker, so that to me suggests they made it into stores in one way or another. Note the sticker says like $3.00 (I think). Sheesh. Talk about an example of organically derived value. Item starting out cheap and barely cared about, now highly coveted and valuable 30 years later. Compare this to artificial scarcity in cards today. Lots of questions, but in any case you just don’t come across them sealed much, if at all.

Yeah, if the watches were ever broadly released, I feel like we'd see a lot more of them out in the wild, both opened (because X-Men was huge back in 1992) or sealed (because this was the height of the collector/speculator era). The fact that they are nearly non-existent leads me to believe that they were never released. In the days before the internet, the idea of one or a few collectors cornering the entire market just seems impossible.

So...what hapened, then? Clearly, at least a few were manufactured, maybe given to limited retails as promotions or prototypes or something. And enough cards were printed that several people have put together partial collections. I suspect the product was scrapped at the very last minute for some reason (contract dispute or legal issues, a defect in production, etc.). We'll probably never know the full story, but it's given us this odd and obscure piece to a legendary set that only the diehards are even aware of.

[BipolarBear]

I should add, too, that all the Nelsonic cards I had were in pristine condition, which (especially compared to the Toy Biz cards) suggests they were never inserted into the packages.

[DynaEtch]

Originally Posted by BipolarBear

I should add, too, that all the Nelsonic cards I had were in pristine condition, which (especially compared to the Toy Biz cards) suggests they were never inserted into the packages.

That is a fair point. It *might* just be the way they were in the package though. If you look at the Nightcrawler above, it’s an interesting set up where the card seems to be just sitting and secured in the holder. The Toy Biz I’m pretty sure were all taped to the card, hence the paper loss when ripping the tape off.

I agree with you about something happening that prevented most of the stock getting to stores. Almost had to be the case. I don’t know if just a smaller amount got to stores somehow since the above has a sticker or what. I wish I was actively buying these watches back in the day, but I have no memory of any of this around the time. Info seems scarce. The 1992 Impel hardbound book speculates they never reached retail stores, but seems a bit unsure.

Edit: here would be an insane master set to try to collect. A true master set of 1992 Impel X-Men.

-Regular set and all inserts, promo pack, Magneto advance comics promo, ads, poster, tin set w/ power ratings card, uncut sheets, hardbound book promos, etc
-All Toy Biz 1-99
-All Nelsonic 1-99
-All Jim Lee pack inserted silver ink holos with embossing (some questions as to what this checklist even is)
-All Jim Lee gold autos (non pack inserted, I believe Dynamic Forces. Some were on holos).

An impossible master set for the ages

[Xazark]

I would love to complete my 1/1 Topps Warcraft Movie Auto Set, I currently have 8 of the possible 10 1/1s and just need Callum Keith Rennie as Moroes & Anna Galvin as Draka, but being 1/1s the likelihood of me seeing the last 2 become available and then me being able to obtain for a reasonable price seems like a pipe dream.

[DynaEtch]

Here's a question, has anyone completed an 'impossible' set? These are all work in progress's. I think the more fun aspect is being in a situation like we're all in here....hunting for those elusive cards, slowly chipping away at the set. When it's complete...then it's just there I suppose....a symbol of all the effort put into it. But that's the less fun stage.

Many hard sets-in-progress never get finished, be it collecting fatigue, financial considerations, moving on to different things and getting out of cards...or just the sheer impossibility of finding the needed cards, they never come to market. Then what do you do with the near master. if you sell it..sell as is, or as singles? I think of my two listed above, the first 90 card error set will never be completed, the second one has a chance to be completed. With the first one...Im ok if it never gets complete...the fun aspect is slowly building it.

[BobCollects]

Originally Posted by EW Cards

I’m putting together a LEAF 1967 Star Trek set. It may take several upon several years to do that.

I didn't think the 1967 Leaf Star Trek cards were that hard to find. Are you only looking for pristine cards and that's why it's taking forever?

[wdmullins]

Originally Posted by DynaEtch

Here's a question, has anyone completed an 'impossible' set?

I've got a full set of R51 Wilbur-Suchard Flags, including the impossible (nearly) American Flag card.

[Crashingwaves]

Trying to put together some 2008 Donruss Americana II Ring Kings sets... the prime material sets have insanely low product runs. If anyone has any of the low # cards.... let me know

[BobCollects]

I'm a sucker for MCU retail and promotional sets. There were seven of these sets released between 2016 and 2018.

2016 Upper Deck Captain America: Civil War (Walmart Retail & Vudu Promotional)

This set had two Walmart retail components and a promotional component through Vudu with a potential Kellogg's component as well. I've done pretty well so far. The dual base sets (blue and red versions) are easy to put together. The dual retail star foil parallel sets (blue and red versions) are a little harder but achievable. There's a retail set of 15 necklace tags sold in packs with two base cards.

Things get harder with the a hard-to-pull retail insert set and a 15-card retail memorabilia set (plus three memorabilia cards that were apparently never inserted into packs) and a Chris Evans auto that may or may not exist.

The dual promotional lightning foil parallel sets (blue and red versions) are tough to complete as are three promotional insert sets. I bought way too many of the MJ Holdings Marvel Mystery Power Boxes because most came with a sealed Vudu promotional pack.

2017 Upper Deck Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 (Walmart/Hanes Promotional)

It took years but I have a full mini master set of this truly bizarre promotional set included in packages of Hanes underwear sold at Walmart. Four cards per pack. I've got the 50-card base set and all three insert sets, two of which were a pain to finish. I ended up buying and opening a ton of sealed packs from eBay. I've never seen any memorabilia cards or either of the autographs (Stan Lee and Dave Bautista). There are also two foil parallel sets, both of which I've only partially completed. Curiously, Walmart later included packs in an exclusive Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 Blu-ray/DVD/Digital combo that had five cards instead of four.

These are the other similar sets I'm working on:

• 2017 Upper Deck Marvel Cinematic Universe (Walmart Promotional)
• 2017 Upper Deck Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 (Walmart Retail)
• 2017 Upper Deck Spider-Man: Homecoming (Walmart Retail)
• 2017 Upper Deck Thor: Ragnorak (Walmart Promotional [Canada] & Target RedCard Promotional [USA])
• 2018 Upper Deck Black Panther (Walmart Promotional [USA/Canada])

Of the bunch, the Black Panther set is definitely the hardest to find sealed packs or single cards. I may never complete the base set, let alone the dual parallel sets (red and blue versions).

[PapaStu]

I've got a truly impossible set because I've got no clue how many sketch cards of the Pop Tarts were done by the massive number of artists who did sketches for Rick & Morty S1. I've cornered the eBay market on them for a few years (until about 2 weeks ago when one went up and sold before I got the saved searches email for the day). I've currently got 28 packed out sketches, a dual panel AP I commissioned and a few ACEO's that came from various sources over the years.

I'm a buyer if anyone still has any!

[Archangel1775]

I usually buy singles but just decided today to put a Master Set of the Rittenhouse 2023 Game of Thrones Art & Images set together which will include all the inserts and the Red/50 set. Its a beautiful set and just real appealing to me. The inserts are numbered to /75 except for the Dragonglass /15 and Metal /25 insert sets. The Dragonglass set is 24 strong so that will be the most difficult part. Heck, the more I write, the more I'm reconsidering. My "Master Set" wont include the 50 plus autograph collection as of now unless the Emilia Clarke's (single and dual) fall into my lap.

[DynaEtch]

It's not Non-sports, but someone in the baseball section section posted about a complete set of 1996 Select Certified Mirror golds up for bid at a major auction house, around $50k right now. That would be an example of a near-impossible set.

I was trying to think of some equivalents in nonsports, I can think of perhaps 4 from marvel that are in a similar vein in terms of toughness at least.

2013 Marvel Retro Green PMG set (42)
2016 Marvel Masterpieces Silver Spectrum Jusko Auto set (90)
2016 Marvel Masterpieces '92 Buyback Jusko Auto set (99)
1992 Marvel Masterpieces X-plosion Scratch offs (72)

I've heard of some people trying to collect those MM16 auto sets, not sure if anyone actually did complete a set though. It's to the point if you list any MM16 auto on ebay you may get messages 'do you have any other autos in the set?'

The 92MM X-plosion scratch offs is basically the definition of an impossible set....they are scarce that you can go many years on ebay without even seeing one. Think I heard that one person actually has the complete 72-card set, no idea how. I currently have 3 of the 72.

[DynaEtch]

Another near impossible set, the 92 masterpieces Dynamic Forces Jusko autos. Back in the 90s, DF issued 5,000 sealed sets of 1992MM that have one card on top that is auto'd by Jusko, in distinctive gold ink, and handnumbered to 5,000 (only the top card is auto'd, and it’s different from set to set).





I am not chasing this auto set, and just have this Cyclops. 5,000 may sound like a lot, but if there are equal amounts of each character auto'd, thats 5000/100 or only 50 out there per character. That may seem like a lot still, but it's not considering these were from back in the 90s and many lost in the sea of time...dispersed out there or buried in collections, sometimes without people even knowing about them, just another card in their base sets.

I cannot confirm if each of the 100 cards indeed were auto’d (or even just 99, excluding the checklist), but with the varying ones I have seen on the market, all characters being auto’d is a good guess.

Technically these are after-market auto cards (not issued by Skybox), but in a sense they are 'official aftermarkets' considering it's Dynamic Forces and a specific release they did with these sealed sets.