State of the Set: 2012 Rookies and Stars

I feel that there are too many sets on my wantlist that have been sitting there for years while I slowly chip away at them. Last year I noticed that a lot of those sets are well within striking distance this year, so I've tried to swing some trades for set needs while focusing my recent Sportlots purchase on sets as well. I was able to kill a good number of sets this way, and I'm continuing the practice this year. I'll still write an end-of-the-year sets completion post in December/January, but I also want to track some of my set acquisitions along the way.

Today we'll look at a set that flies under my radar most of the time: 2012 Rookies and Stars football.

Why I'm collecting this set: Years ago, I bought a Dollar Tree gravity feed box because it was cheap. I came within a card or two of the veteran base and substantial number of rookies, so I thought I'd finish it off. Starting at #216, the "base" cards of the top rookies are all autos, which I am not chasing. So for my intents and purposes, rookies like Andrew Luck, RGIII, and Russell Wilson don't exist in the checklist. However, you can see from the picture above that there are still some solid rookies in the base set. Lavonte David and Stephon Gilmore stand out, but Melvin Ingram, Kevin Zeitler, Janoris Jenkins, and Dont'a Hightower have built pretty good careers, while Kellen Moore is going to be a hot coaching commodity in the near future.

How long has it been on my wantlist (roughly)?: Five, six years now. 

Current state of set completion: 210/215 (97.7%)

Current needs: 151 (Alfred Morris), 156 (Bobby Wagner), 163 (Courtney Upshaw), 177 (Harrison Smith), 215 (T.Y. Hilton)

Prognosis: This has been a somewhat challenging set for me. I'm not sure why. A partial explanation could be that the set is a little bit boring to me. Another possible explanation is that I am demotivated by the fact that I'm not going to complete the full set, so it doesn't feel like a real chase. Yet another explanation is that they're hard to find for trade. I'm feeling fairly certain that nobody collected this set; therefore nobody has any to trade. I've had some luck finding them on Sportlots, but I always seem to have higher priorities when buying. The cards shown here all came from my most recent Sportlots order. With only five cards left, I should be able to polish it off. But I'm not making any promises as to how soon that will happen.