Filling in Some Complete Set Gaps

One of my collecting goals I set when I got back into cards in the early 2000s was to have a complete run of Fleer, Donruss and Upper Deck sets and to go back as far as I could with Topps.  I did a solid job of seeking out the sets missing from my collection.  I have a complete run of Donruss which is part of the reason I have been pursuing the new Donruss set from Panini the last 2 years - the completionist in me requires it.  I almost completed Upper Deck but am missing the 1998 set, this is a set that isn't too abundant and in the rare case I run across one it has been cost prohibited to pick up.  I didn't do quite as well with Fleer and have a few gaps. Fleer got complicated as they didn't produce Fleer sets a few times and only went with Fleer Tradition but there were a couple years where there were both.  I decided I would collect Fleer Tradition only when a Fleer set wasn't produced.  I have filled in all the Topps gaps and continue to work forward and backward completing each new set and going backwards with working sets for 1970-1972 Topps, 1973 and up are finished.

Recently my LCS acquired a bunch of the small box sets and put them up for sale which made me curious about which Traded and Update sets I had and which ones I needed.  While I have been diligent about building the Topps Update set each year I never went back and acquired the Traded Sets.  Around the same time Sportlots auctions popped up for a few sets for a 25 cent starting bid and fairly reasonable shipping.  I went shopping and got these:

As far as I can tell, this is the only Traded Set that Donruss ever produced and it is highlighted by a Nolan Ryan card.  I have decided to keep my sets sealed, at least of the time being.

 The 1988 Fleer Update set features rookies of Al Leiter, David Wells, and HOFers Roberto Alomar, John Smoltz and Craig Biggio.  It also has Mark Grace on his first solo Fleer card - a pretty good group of players in this set.

 The 1991 Fleer Update set, in all its yellow greatness has rookie cards cards of Ivan Rodriguez and Jeff Bagwell - two guys I think belong in the HOF.

I wasn't sure whether to pick this one up or not as I only have 2 Score sets in my collection but since one of the two is 1990 (the other is their initial offering in 1988) I thought this would fit well in my collection.  The best cards in this set are probably Frank Thomas, he had a card in the base set so this isn't a rookie card, and hockey player Eric Lindros who took a stab at baseball around this time.

I got these four sets for $14.24 delivered, not sure if that is a good price but I am happy to have them in my collection.

A few days ago, my LCS had this for sale for $5, I needed it and decided to pick it up:

The 1987 Fleer Update set features Greg Maddux's rookie card along with first solo Fleer cards of Mark McGwire and Fred McGriff.  It also has a rookie card of former Giants 3B Matt Williams.

I was pretty happy with these pick ups, it gave me the full run of Fleer Update sets from 1987-1991 and inspired me to create a list of sets I would like to add to my collection, primarily from the Traded and Update sets.  I have posted the list on my Set Want List at the bottom and also copied it over to this post.  If you have one of these and are willing to trade it, let me know and we can work out a deal.

Complete Set Want List
1974 Topps Traded
1981-1985 Topps Traded
1992 Topps Traded
1994-1995 Topps Traded
1999-2002 Topps Traded

2005-2007 Topps Opening Day

1995 Upper Deck Traded
1997 Upper Deck Series 1 Update
1998 Upper Deck

1984-1986 Fleer Update
1992 Fleer Update
1993 Fleer Final Edition
1994 Fleer Update
1997 Fleer
1998-1999 Fleer Tradition
2005 Fleer Tradition
2006 Fleer

1989 Score
1991-1998 Score