OK, it's 2013. Now what do I do?

It's that of year again friends, where many in the  blogging community decide what their goals/dreams are for the upcoming calendar year.   Why should I be any different?  I love making goals and not sticking to them like every other red blooded human....

Well, let's see, I had 7 goals last year, I think that is a safe number to shoot for again.  Let's hope I can do better than 4 for 7 this time around.


1.  2013 will be the year of Heritage, and nothing else.  Why Heritage only?  Well, this year's design will mimic the '64 Topps set, which is one of my favorites.  And if I'm going to go after only one set this year, it's got to be something I like, correct?

The 2012 Heritage set did nothing for me, so it was an easy decision not to collect it.  I just hope that the '13 Heritage set doesn't end up the same way.

2.   Serial Numbered Insanity.  When looking back on my goals for 2012 over the past couple of days, it surprised me that I didn't include any goals for this.  I"m sure though that at the time, I was still only 5 months in to keeping up the blog, and thus was more concerned about making sure that I did things that kept me involved.   Now, I can have more goals that are collection specific instead of blog specific, since I'm pretty confident that I'm not going anywhere anytime soon.

Card # 1296

I'd like to finish this set in 2013, but I don't think that's going to be possible.  So, I'll shoot for a more realistic number.   SNI will hit the 1100 card mark sometime in 2013.  The set recently broke the 50% barrier, and stands at 753 cards out of the 1500.

3.   Think outside of the box at least 5 times this year.  I'm sure a lot of you are saying "now what in the hell is he talking about?"  Well, let me explain.  I'd have to say that the last time I participated in a group break was August.  Why, well because each time I'd hit a post about a group break, the Jays were gone.

No more are the days where I'd have no problem snatching the Jays up in a group break.  There are more Jays fans out there participating in group breaks than when I first started, and I'm sure that more will crawl out of the woodwork as the '13 season starts.

So, by thinking out of the box, and picking up other teams that I can use for trading purposes (Dodgers, Tigers and Cubs ...oh my), I'll stay involved on the group break scene. 

4.  Start selling again on eBay.  Not full time mind you, but once in a while get some auctions going to sell off some excess cards that don't fit the collection.  Cards such as this one...

that I pulled last summer during the Gint-A-Cuffs contest.  Selling off some excess will help me to achieve #5.

5.  Shift my focus towards vintage sets, both baseball and hockey.  This has slowly become the case over the past two months, largely because Topps, outside of Update, hasn't released anything that has piqued my curiosity.  There are a few goals of the vintage variety that I would like to attain:

• Finish the '77 Topps baseball set.  53 cards to go, so it's in the sights.
• Make another dent into the '64 Topps baseball set.  It stands at just under 40% complete right now, I would like to hit 60% by the end of the year.
• I would also like to finish (or come close to completing) the '75 and '73 Topps sets that I started.  The '75 set is about half complete, and requires the purchase of the Brett and Yount RC's.  The '73 is about 1/3  complete, and I still need to pickup the Schmidt RC (no easy task there).  
• Start one more set from the 1960s.  Whether that be the '62 set, of which I currently own 42 cards, or the '68 set, I would like to get one of those rolling as well.

Some '64 goodness

6.  Start building up my hockey collection again.  If you followed my top 25 posts in December, you probably noticed my love for hockey.  I still regret selling off a lot of the early 80's cards that I owned, and you can be sure If I obtain them again, I will not make the same mistake twice.  The goal here is pretty simple, start rebuilding the sets that I had from 83/84 and 84/85, and add in one other set (probably 82/83) to get the collection back on foot again.

7.  This final goal is a long shot, but I'll list it anyhow.  Some time this year, I hope to celebrate my 1000th post on the blog.  For me, that means I'm going to need to post a little over 400 times this year to achieve this. 

The key for me to achieve a lot of these collecting related goals?  Focus.

What will get me off of these goals (card related ones)?  The addictive need for pack ripping.

 If I can stay away from everything shiny and new and focus on building through eBay, card shows, trades without spending beaucoup bucks on packs, I should have a good year. 

That's going to be tough.....

thanks for reading, Robert