Collector's Corner #4: Bradey's Incredible Upper Deck Young Guns Acetate Set Collection! (You've gotta see it to believe it)

Just a small fraction of Bradley's incredible Upper Deck Young Guns Acetate Collection! See more pics below.

As a nice little twist, the 4th edition of my ​Collector's Corner segment will feature it's very first Set Collector on the blog! One of many I think. Hearing Bradey speak about his Acetate Young Guns collection, you could just feel the passion that fuels his chase for these short printed, elusive cards that have been relatively new to the rookie card card lineup these past few years. I hope you enjoy Bradey's collection! I know I sure did. 

Introduction

My name is Bradey Strong and I’m an avid super collector in the sport of hockey! I’m 23 years old and started collecting around 5 years ago. I got into hockey cards from a few local people here in Fort McMurray

​Who/What do you collect?

​I started collecting Pittsburgh Penguin rookies as my first project. I wanted to make a nice high end collection of current Pittsburgh Penguins players and had quite a few good cards but still didn’t feel like it was where I wanted to be with the hobby. I continued on with that project until I found out about Ice rookies and Young Guns so I decided to sell my Pittsburgh rookies and focused on collecting Ice and Young Guns for a bit. I still wasn’t content and started collecting the Tim Hortons set and finally I realized I didn’t want to collect a player or team but I was gonna be a Set collector. It felt right and I continued on with that but it was cheap and really easy. I wanted a hard project and so the chase for the Young Gun Acetate Master Set was born.

​Why Did You Start Collecting The Player/Set/Team?

​I absolutely loved the stunning look and idea. I never really seen an insert or rookie that rivalled the look and design of these cards so I was gonna do the impossible task and put the set together. So each set contains 98 cards and some are quite expensive. Only the years 2014, 2015 and 2016 have an update set of 10 cards but main checklist is 98 per year. I put my 2013-14 set (considered to be the hardest set to do and impossible to complete) in about 2 and a half years with the help from dozens of people, forums, Facebook and private sales which was definitely the highlight of the hobby so far for me. I actually had a much harder time completing the next set. I lost so much hope but after another 2 years I finished it. Super hard work was put into these sets at the same time I was working on other sets that came out at the time so I had to focus on quite a few sets to even catch up at all. Other sets followed and I finally reached this years set and completed it. I’m at 617/618 Rookies which is 1 off of every single Young Gun Acetate produced. I’m also doing a Retro Acetate set which has 42 cards and I’m just missing 2 to complete that. It’s just a waiting game for the missing pieces to pop up.

​What’s Your Favourite Card or Item(s)?

​My favourite card in my collection has to be my Nathan Mackinnon Young Gun Acetate Beckett 9.5 because it’s extremely expensive and also the highest graded MacKinnon acetate ever graded!

​What's On Your Current Wantlist? Any 'Whales' you'd like to track down?

My white whale is and has been for the last 5 years and that would be Connor McDavid. It’s just too expensive and I’m always focused with all the new sets each year. I’d be lucky to grab one for less than 9k nowadays. One day I’ll have one! I would say as of right now my set is valued over 175k but I wouldn’t sell it for a million dollars! ​

​Contact Info: How can other collectors in the community reach you?

email: [email protected]
Instagram: @acetate_guy

The Upper Deck Acetate Young Guns Collection:

If you want to get in contact with me about getting ​YOUR COLLECTION featured on my blog, feel free to leave a comment on this post below, fill out a contact form on my Contact Page, or send me an email at [email protected] and we will be in touch very soon. :)

​Happy Collecting,

​- Crease