The complete set mega-binge has begun

Earlier this year, my daughter was born right around the same time as my tenth anniversary at my job. As a result I got inundated by gift cards - $1100 in Amazon cards from my boss and a co-worker, and $400 in American Express gift card from my company. Being a responsible adult, I decided to use all of it on cards, and specifically on complete sets.

For the American Express gift cards I wanted to use it at a local card shop so I wouldn't have to use shipping. After checking out several in the area, I decided on the Card Shack in Lynbrook because they had a ton of sets on their website, and I could just browse and pick the ones I wanted, then pick them up at the store, which I did today. I then went home and ordered the rest of what I wanted on Amazon. I got 15 sets at the Card Shack and have 35 more coming on Amazon, which supposedly will come in the next two weeks. (We'll see.)

It's going to take a while to sort all these cards, and given my previous luck with complete sets I won't be surprised if there's a card or two missing here and there. If and when there is you'll see posts here telling you what I'm missing.

In addition, for most of these sets I have cards already, in some cases a lot of cards, which means lots of duplicates to trade. If you see any sets here that you know you have cards you need, let me know. I hope to do a bunch of trades off of what I get, though it will take a few weeks to get packages out.

These are the 50(!) sets I either got today or will be getting soon:
90 Bowman - coming soon
91 Classic Best - coming soon
92 Classic Best - coming soon
95 Collectors Choice - coming soon
96 Collectors Choice - coming soon
97 Collectors Choice - coming soon
82 Donruss - coming soon
83 Donruss - coming soon
84 Donruss - coming soon
85 Donruss - coming soon
86 Donruss - coming soon
92 Donruss - coming soon
81 Fleer - got today
82 Fleer - got today
83 Fleer - got today
84 Fleer - coming soon
85 Fleer - coming soon
85 Fleer Update - got today
86 Fleer - coming soon
87 Fleer - coming soon
88 Fleer Update - got today
91 Fleer Update - coming soon
92 Fleer Excel - coming soon
93 Fleer Final Edition - coming soon
98 Fleer Tradition Update - coming soon
00 Fleer Tradition Update - coming soon
91 Front Row Draft Picks - coming soon
96 Pinnacle Denny's - got today
91 Score Traded - got today
92 Score Traded - coming soon
88 Southern League All Stars - got today
99 SP Top Prospects - got today
01 SP Top Prospects - got today
91 Stadium Club Dome - coming soon
87 Tidewater Tides ProCards - got today
78 Topps - got today
79 Topps - coming soon
81 Topps Traded - got today
83 Topps Traded - coming soon
85 Topps Traded - coming soon
88 Topps Traded - got today
90 Topps Traded - got today
91 Topps Traded - coming soon
92 Topps Traded - coming soon
99 Topps Traded - coming soon
00 Topps - coming soon
04 Topps - coming soon
89 Upper Deck - coming soon
91 Upper Deck Final Edition - coming soon
92 Upper Deck Minors - coming soon

I also picked up one single card today. I have almost the entire 1980 Topps set, too much for getting a full set to make sense. So I inquired at the Card Shack about the one really pricy card I needed, the Rickey Henderson rookie, which books at $50 or higher mint. Turns out they had this one for $6. A little beat up but perfectly fine for me.

I'm just digging into the cards I got today, but it's worth noting a couple of sets that have been talked about elsewhere this week.

Night Owl has been running a bunch of posts about 1981 Topps Traded. Trying to find a card he didn't post, I decided on this Roy Howell card. The photo was obviously taken in spring training, and it's his first year on the team, and already his helmet is a wreck.

Finally, because I love minor league cards, I picked up the 1987 Tidewater Tides set. I figured it would be the one posted on Paul's Random Stuff recently, but it turns out it is the ProCards, not TCMA set. Interestingly, the Dwight Gooden card in the ProCards set is a reverse negative (and more washed out) version of the image in the TCMA card Paul posted.