Owning a complete set of cards should give the owner a feeling of pride. After all, you do have one of each card in the set! Your set will have everyone from seasoned future Hall of Famers to young prospects just out of high school. And what about the neat subset cards that feature league leaders, playoff games, season highlights, and all-stars?

As a set collector, you have the option to either build sets yourself or buy them already complete. I've noticed it is easier on the wallet if you buy sets produced from 1980 through today that are already complete. Most card sets made after 1980 were produced in greater quantities and aren't in demand by vintage collectors, making the sets less expensive and much easier to find. Most sets produced prior to 1980 are too expensive for many collectors to buy complete, often costing several hundreds or thousands of dollars! If you do decide to buy one of these expensive sets, always remember to check the condition of the high-dollar cards -- a miscut 1975 Nolan Ryan card might cost you 40 or 50 dollars to replace!

Keep in mind not all complete sets are created equal (literally!) Several sets issued since 1998 have included "short-printed" cards that are numbered as part of the complete set. These cards are scarcer than the other regular cards in the set, and are more difficult to find if you are a set builder. The values of these short-printed cards can also be significantly higher, making the cost of some sets unreasonable to collectors who are not rich! An example of this is the 2003 Fleer Tradition Baseball set. Beckett once listed the value of the complete 485-card set at $150, which included all 100 short-printed cards. Beckett also listed the 385-card version of the set at $40 -- missing card numbers 1 through 100! Remember, there are still many nice sets produced since 1998 that do not have short-printed cards.

Lets get back to the fun stuff... Complete sets are readily available on Ebay for prices much less than the Beckett listed value. The 1984 Donruss Baseball Set, once the premier set of the 1980s, used to sell in the $400 range for a set in Near Mint-Mint condition. Beckett now lists the set with a value of $120, but can readily be scooped off of Ebay for $65 or less! Countless sets that were overproduced in the late '80s and early '90s can be purchased for next to nothing. An example is the 1989 Donruss Baseball set, which has 660 cards and includes ROOKIE cards of Ken Griffey Jr, Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, Gary Sheffield, John Smoltz, and Craig Biggio. Ten bucks plus shipping will buy the set on Ebay. You can also save on shipping charges by buying multiple sets at the same time from the same seller.

A true collector won't be too concerned about the value of his sets, but it doesn't hurt to shop wisely and get good deals. If that 1984 Donruss set looked attractive with a price tag of $400, it should look VERY attractive when you buy it for 65 bucks!