Do Enjoy Collecting "Impossible" Sets?

My final post showing off cards from my recent eBay/Check Out My Cards purchase will once again feature cards from the wonderful 2015 Upper Deck Dinosaurs set.  However, before I show off the last of the cards that bought, I have a question for all of you:

Do you enjoy collecting "impossible" sets?  

By that I mean, if you know going in that a given set will be super difficult to complete, do you still want and/or enjoy trying to collect the set?  

As a set collector myself, I know first-hand the trials and tribulations involved with trying to track down every card from a set.  I've completed a few tough sets in my time - and I'm currently working on a few others that I deem to be pretty tough.  

For one, my original Allen & Ginter American Fish set from 1889.  That's a set that is over 100 years old, so it's going to be difficult for that reason alone.  Add in the fact that I don't have a lot of spare cash for cards and so I have to try and collect the set on a budget and you've got the makings of a difficult set to complete!  Amazingly (to me at least), I've now tracked down 49 of the 50 cards in the set - though that final card has eluded me for months and months now.  Some day, some way I hope to acquire it and finish off the set.  All that said, I've enjoyed the chase for the original A&G fish cards.  So for me, I think the answer is "yes" I like going after tough sets sometimes - just not too many of them at once.

Now that the aforementioned A&G fish set is all but wrapped up, I decided to start collecting a new "impossible" set:  2015 Upper Deck Dinosaurs patch cards.

I've never gone after a patch set before - and this probably isn't the set to begin with since it has a 60 card checklist (and patches are seeded 1 per box).  To make matters worse, Upper Deck changed up the odds for some of the patches, insertion rates range from 1:32 packs all the way up to 1:578 packs.  Honestly, I doubt I'll ever actually complete the set because it doesn't seem like Upper Deck sold all that many boxes since cards seem fairly difficult to come by.  Either that or the people that opened up the boxes aren't interested in selling their patch card (which is fair since the cards are kind of neat).

Despite the long odds, I did decide to try my hand at collecting the set - and my recent eBay purchase put me on the right track because I was able to land nine patch cards for a reasonable price.  Combine those nine with the six that I already owned and now I'm up to 15 out of 60.  A long way to go - and no, I don't (yet?) own any of those super tough-to-find patches.  Still, when you are a set collector it is often more the journey than it is the final destination in terms of where you find the joy.  

As for the patches that I bought this time around, they are (almost) all pretty cool.  Only the Knonosaurs patch is sort of dull, but what can you really do with a gigantic ocean critter?

My favorite patch from this batch is probably either the Arrhinoceratops (shown a few scans up) or the Mussaurus above or the Edmontosaurus below.  I guess I'm a sucker for a neat background to go with my terrible lizards.

Other than the long odds for some of the patches, my only other complaint about this set (at least so far) is that patches aren't all oriented the same way.  I get that some dinosaurs are longer while others are taller but it's going to make it tough to display the entire set (if I ever get the entire set).  I guess I'll cross that bridge when and if I get there.

I like the Upper Deck went with a number of lesser known dinosaurs as well as the usual suspects (like Parasaurolophus).  In fact, prior to the recent Jurassic Park movie, I don't even think I had heard of Stygimoloch.

I'll end the post with two meat eaters.  

Oviraptor was in a different scientific family than the Velociraptor, so I guess the name is sort of confusing.  

Carnotaurus was perhaps an incredibly fast runner - in fact some think he might have been the fastest of the theropods (mostly bipedal carnivores).

Who knows when or if I'll be able to acquire more patches from the set - but if I do, I'll be sure to show them off here.  Also, should you happen to have any patches lying around, here's what I'm still looking for if you'd like to trade:  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 31, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60