Do you mostly buy sets or just individual cards?

[rogerD]

In the thread on British dealers selling on ebay IanSammel stated that "An English collector will most likely want to buy a complete set and not be interested in a single card.  On the other hand, a US collector will most likely be interested in a particular card and not be interested in the rest of the set."

It would be interesting to see how the majority of our members buy their cards - in sets or individually. Do you break the mould? Are you American and buy sets or British and just buy individual cards? How do Australian and New Zealand collectors buy their cards?

[lachlan]

I'm British and have in the past always bought complete sets. But now, if I see individual cards from sets which are difficult to come across I'm tempted to buy.

[IanSammel]

I'm not sure where I stand.  I think my answer would be "none of the above"    I usually buy bulk lots of cards without knowing exactly what's there and then sort them out.  There must be a lot of collectors who want to collect a complete set but do it a card at a time.  An old collector once told me that all the fun of collecting is finding odd cards to complete sets.  There's no fun in just buying a set complete.  So whilst English collectors may ultimately be interested in a complete set, they may well still buy individual cards.  Anyway, I'm currently working my way through Wills 1901 Cricketers a card at a time, so I'll put myself down for the single card option.

[magpiemick]

Fot the cheaper sets i buy them as complete for the harder to find  and more expensive older sets i buy them as single cards or say lots of 5-10 keeping the ones i need and sell on ones i have allready got And part of the hobby is searching for the single cards you need and the good feeling you get once a set is completed But each to their own

[Captain Pugwash]

I buy both.

If the set is scarce or rare you usually only have the option to collect in odds.

[baystokie]

I usually collect sets though I usually have five or
six other part-sets 'in progress'.

[fossil]

i collect sets primarily because i do not have time to purchase odds , a few at a time,but i will buy odds if no sets are available from any of the major card dealers.
this gives me time to concentrate on rarer sets , rather than sets that can be purchased complete

[mrp1017]

I dont put sets together, I break them up. And as such I am always looking for a good deal on sets to supply the collectors who do sets.
But I also buy the stars from such sets to target that type of collector who is doing player runs.