2011 collecting goals? did i hit them?

I know the year isn't over yet but its close enough for me to analyze. Way back in January I posted up this. Its a short list of collecting goals that I had for 2011. This post will see how I did. Lets see, shall we?

Goal 1- Finish the T206 page. This didn't happen. In fact, I regressed and ended up with fewer than I started with earlier in the year. It wasn't a waste though. They got used in a group break and I was able to give a couple collectors their first taste of 100 year old cardboard. I did procure the Christy Mathewson though, which is gigantic and one of the cornerstones of my collection, so thats a plus.

Goal 2- 2011 Topps series 1, 2 and 3. This did happen. Almost twice in fact (just need to finish Update). I complete two sets of the flagship. One to put away and one to shuffle through. I usually sort it by team so I can familiarize myself with whos who. Although guys tend to get traded even before series 1 hits but its ok.

Goal 3- 2011 Heritage. Definitely did not happen for me. I did try to complete the set but the short prints got to be too much for me. They really dried up in the trading ring here and I didn't want to have to get them at shows for a couple bucks a card or fight with people on eBay for them. I won't be chasing Heritage ever again. I'll buy it but not build it. Oh, I never got that Hank Aaron auto either. Total sadface.

One out of three. Pretty crappy if you ask me. Although I should have made a few more then maybe I would have hit more targets but what am I going to do?


Oh, I know, how about make some goals for 2012?

2012 goals:

Goal 1- Spend less on cards. I don't know how much exactly I spent but I made a lot of dumb purchases this year card related. I intend to change that this year. I spent way too much on boxes and sets that amounted to nothing. Bowman, Heritage and even though I liked and completed it, Allen & Ginter. In 2010 I spent wayyyyy too much on finishing that Opening Day set and I totally bought one blaster of OD this year and haven't looked back since. See? I can learn from my mistakes.

Goal 2- Complete flagship. I shouldn't even count this as a goal because it seems to be automatic. I did get way too much series one, less series 2 and even less Update but thats how 2010 worked too.

Goal 3- Actually finish that T206 page. Yes. I WILL do it this time around. I am currently at 8 so I only have 7 left. My absolute favorite vintage set will finally get its proper due this coming year. You'll know when it happens.

Goal 4- Finish up the 1973 set and start a new vintage set. I know I just started the 73 but I am really excited about collecting and finishing it up. I put the cards I got from the local in order and got a couple lots from eBay on the way (as of this writing) and hopefully aren't too far away from finishing off this classic issue. As for starting a new set, I've no idea which it'll be but it'll be pre-1982.

Goal 5- Finish the sets on the want lists. Yep, Chrome and Kimballs need to be finished up soon. Hopefully with your help I can put these sets to rest sooner than later.


So those are the goals I have for 2012. Hopefully I can look back about a year from now and say that I hit at least 4 of the 5. I'd like it to be all 5 but you never know what happens.

follow up

After re-reading the post I did on Saturday, about my plans in collecting during this coming year, I realized that I neglected to mention a few things.

First and foremost is the 1954 Topps set I'm working on. While I would love to finish the set this year, it all comes down to finding the cards at the right price. Currently I am at a little above 80 cards of the 250. I have the 16 most "expensive" cards in the binder already. There are two separate lots I won on eBay coming in with 21 and 30 cards each. Hopefully those two lots will put me at 125, halfway there. I would really like to finish it up as soon as possible because I really get antsy when a set isn't finished (its my compulsive nature) and I need it to be completed yesterday. So maybe this set will be the focus.

Secondly, I am not sure on how many sets I plan to get into this year. With 2010 behind us and being the year I came back in, I've ended up with a lot of cards. A lot of cards and different sets I'll never finish. On Saturday, I only talked about early in the year releases (Topps flagship, Heritage), but what about stuff that comes later? Being that I'm not a huge fan of Bowman (although I can't seem to get enough Platinum), I don't see me buying much of it. There is no 206 or Chicle this year. Gypsy Queen will have to be a 'wait and see' type of set. I don't do high end like Tribute or Triple Threads due to it not being worth their over-inflated price tags. I definitely won't buy into Opening Day as much. Putting that set together was almost a complete nightmare and they said it was easy to collect! Pack after pack of doubles. I'll grab some 2011s but I won't go for a full set. After those products, what's left? I'm not talking about series 2 or Update (or what ever they call it this season), but I am talking about the surprises. Topps released twenty sets this year. TWENTY! Think about that:

Series 1
Series 2
Update
Chrome
Opening Day
Allen & Ginter
Heritage
National Chicle
T206
Finest
Sterling
Tribute
Triple Threads
Pro Debut
Pro Debut Series 2
Bowman
Bowman Chrome
Bowman Platinum
Bowman Sterling
Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects

Isn't that a bit much? How many of you bought packs from every release? What about boxes from even just half? Seriously how does someone keep up? Answer: you can't. Your wallets usually can't. I know mine can't. I seriously hope Topps tones it down just a little this year. Maybe whittle it down to fifteen sets this time because twenty is way too many. Of course, if you eliminate Bowman (if you aren't into Bowman), minor league stuff and high end stuff (this counts Finest, as it is way too expensive now), it leaves you with around 10 sets. Which isn't all too bad when you think about it. Still, Topps could do fewer sets and it would be a-ok by me. Maybe I'll just buy considerably less this year and focus on the vintage.

whats in store for '11?

Two-thousand eleven huh? Or is it twenty-eleven? Up to the user I suppose. Many of you are talking about what collecting goals you'll have in the next 365 days. I figured I would throw my hat into the ring as well. I suppose we can't set some goals without going over the previous year, no? Well, 2010 saw my re-emergence into baseball card collecting, as something that spawned out of a whim, buying a random pack 2010 Topps series 1 at a local Target. Just to see what they looked like. Sure I could have Googled it, but what fun is that? As I thumbed through the pack, I realized I knew very few modern players. Being that I hadn't looked at baseball cards in some 15+ years, I was quite out of the loop. The more I bought though, the more I got to know who was who. Who retired, who was the new crop of up and coming rookies and some familiar faces too (Griffey, Smoltz, etc.). Then it turned into a full blown pursuit of trying to learn what happened in the past decade and a half since I left, building a collection from the ground up and trying to figure out what to collect. Well with Upper Deck (unfortunately) gone from the marketplace, all that was left was Topps. This was all news to me. Last I knew Upper Deck made white border sets with great pictures. Score/Pinnacle was gone. Donruss no longer made MLB cards, and Fleer was bought by Upper Deck, then dissolved. Wow. Certainly a lot has happened in the seemingly short amount of time I've been gone. So that left me with good old Topps. It was alright though, as I've always had a fond recollection of Topps cards in my youth. Even if it was all junk wax but hey, its the era I grew up in. At first I hadn't learned the pitfalls of Topps, as it was all sunshine, lolly-pops and baseball players on these fancy cards. I remember buying a rack pack of series 1 at a local KMart and pulling my first relic ever:

Now HERE was a guy I knew, everyone knows Cal. I was super excited, like a kid again pulling that Barry Bonds rookie out of an '87 Topps pack.

From this point, I had wanted to find out some information on older Topps sets. I forget what I Googled but one of the first sites to come up was bdj610's Topps Baseball Card Blog. I checked it out and it was a wealth of Topps knowledge that I was pretty much looking for. Then I noticed the long list of blogs dedicated to baseball cards and collecting. I read them for around a month and decided to try my own thing and here we are. You've been reading the blog and you've been reading this far so you know the rest of my story.

Now, I set a few goals in 2010 that I had wanted to accomplish and I hit most all of them. I wanted a Topps set from 1982 to now, that's done. I wanted a master set for 2010 series 1, 2 and Update, those are finished. I wanted each set released in the 2010 format, including Opening Day, Chrome, WWE and football. I stopped on the football but finished the other three. I finished 2009 T206 with the short prints. I have a massive box filled with Blue Jays, thanks to many of you for filling most of that. I gave up on the gold series 1 and 2 set as it proved to be too daunting a task.

So what do I do in 2011? Here is one of the first things I hope to do:

Find 5 more 206 cards to complete this page.

Next:

Complete 2011 Topps series 1 and 2 and what ever they decide to call series 3 this year. I don't think I will be chasing a master set, the base set will probably do just fine. 2010 was a milestone year for me so its nice to have a 'full' set.

I may also try:

Put together the Heritage set from this year. I didn't get into 2010 Heritage as much as I could have but I may change that with 2011. Yes, short prints suck hard but I feel it may be fun, seeing as how I may try to curb what I buy this coming year.

In the process of that, hopefully I'll see this:

Probably not but I can hope.

So that about wraps it up. I apologize for the long-winded post but I didn't explain how this all happened until now. I just want to thank Jaybee for essentially getting me into the blog thing here. A big thanks to you, the readers and traders who I've talked with and dealt cards to back and forth. Here is to another year of collecting, with hopefully more ups than downs from our buddies at Topps!