So I'll throw this out for discussion: what was your first boxed set? Mine was the Springsteen Live box that came out in time for Xmas 86, I think.
Mine was Clapton's
Crossroads, and a year later I got the Allman's
Dreams. I didn't get
Biograph until after that. But I don't think the Bruce really counts, it was not primarily marketed as a CD collection, nor was it a career retrospective.
Here's what Allmusic has to say about it:
Crossroads not only revitalized Clapton's commercial standing, but it established the rock & roll multi-disc box set retrospective as a commercially viable proposition. Bob Dylan's
Biograph was successful two years before the release of Crossroads, but Clapton's set was a bona fide blockbuster.