The Mega Master Set

I've documented my collecting habits over the last seven years on this blog, following an arc from the scattered, massive accumulation of decades-worth of baseball cards to new-card musings to a realization that in terms of collecting, less is more: that it's better to collect with a purpose and a goal rather than to simply collect because it fills the time.

As it turns out, like many collectors, I have a lot of different focuses. One goal is to get a card of every player that has ever played on the Boston Red Sox (my Soxlopedia). Another is a small player collection of Fred McGriff. And collecting printing screw-ups, like miscuts, blank fronts, blank backs, doubleprints, and those cards missing gold foil or some other mistake. And cards from the 1967 Topps Who Am I? with their disguises still on (unscratched). Another is completing sets.

And it's here — completing sets — that I want to highlight today. The other day I was at my local shop (Kenmore Collectibles in Kenmore Square, Boston) and mentioned to its owner (Peter) that I was thinking of going for the mega master set of 1965 Topps. He didn't know what I meant, which I thought was weird, since I assumed that this was something that other collectors did. The mega master set would be collecting every card made in a particular design. So for 1965 Topps — the one with the pennants — that would mean not just finishing the regular set, but then pairing it with 2003 Upper Deck Vintage, which co-opted the design. And then adding 2014 Topps Heritage. And 2014 Topps Heritage Chrome, Refractors, High Numbers, and whatever else Topps creates next year for this design.

But wait, there's more! There's the 2001 Gallery Heritage insert set. And whatever cards were included in the multiple Topps Archives and All-Time Fan Favorites sets. And various cards in the Shoebox, the 50 years, 60 years, and Cards Your Mother Threw Out insert sets, the Vintage Legends Collection, the Bill Russell Missing Years card from Topps basketball... And I'm sure there are others that I haven't listed here.

I've put together traditional sets before, but the idea of the "mega master set" appeals to me. I've decided to do this for Topps sets from 1965 (with Embossed, but maybe not Transfers), 1976, 1984, 1986, and 1987 for starters (but not including the Tiffany sets from 1984, 1986, or 1987).

So...is this a thing that other collectors do, or have I stumbled onto something new?