If you have not yet spent any money on OverPower then I just want you to know a few things before you do.  As a game, OverPower is for two players.  You can still simply collect the cards, as many other people already do.  But if you want to have fun playing the game then you will need an opponent.  I would not advise buying the cards to play if you do not have anyone to play against.  It may be possible to find an opponent at your local card shops, but you may mostly find Magic and Star Wars players.  You would either need to find people who already play the game or get your friends interested in the game along with you.

    Personal History:  I myself bought OverPower when it first came out because I was just getting interested in Marvel comics,  but I did not know of anyone near me who played.  It was not until Frank Yue held his first OverPower block party did I actually have someone to play against, and that was at least five months after the game was released.  Not only did I have to wait that long to play against someone but I had to drive three hours just to get there.  On top of all that I lost every single game that day.  But it did not matter because we all had fun and I learned a lot about how to play.  Another couple of months later and I was heading back up to Philadelphia for the next block party and some pretty memorable games for me.  Here we are a few years later and some of us are pretty good friends.

    As OverPower is a Collectible Card Game it will be very difficult to get a complete set, especially since you have not been collecting since the first day.  Do not worry about that though.  There are not that many people who have every single card that exists, including myself.  If you have a friend who is an avid player/collector then that may be your greatest asset.  If not, then the internet may be able to give you the help you need.  See my links page to help find some of the better places for all things OverPower.
    There have been ten different expansion sets for OverPower through May 1st, 1999.  All of them are essentially out of print.  You may be able to find some of the earlier sets at stores, especially ones that have few OverPower players/collectors.  In time, you will probably need access to every card available.  This is where trading can be priceless.  I would recommend trading or even buying cards that you want to use to build a deck and concentrate on completing sets much later.
    If you are not sure about OverPower then I would not recommend spending that much money on it.  Always remember that it is just a game.  It is not worth sleepless nights, cold sweats, or self butt kicks for mistakes made while playing.  Sample it at first and see how much fun it is.  If money is a concern then some of the older sets can be found at much less than retail, especially on the internet.  But at the same time the newer sets should not be ignored as their prices may go up before they go down, if they go down at all.  I have dealt with one distributor a couple of times and the prices are very reasonable.  If you can meet the minimum order then I recommend them for pre-orders as well as picking up boxes of older sets.  As far as trading goes, you should focus your attention on cards you think you could use.  Never give up a card you need for one you need less.  Above all else, remember that this is a game that is meant to be played for fun regardless of how many complete sets you have, what your win-loss record is, or how well you trash-talk.

    At this point I used to have a complete breakdown of each set so far.  As I started to add a lot more information, I decided to put this in it's own section.  Just follow the link to the next part to go to this new section, or jump to the second part to skip this new area.