90 days to a slimmer, trimmer want list

2016 Ginter is done!! 

You see all the ads on TV for weight loss.  Almost everyday there's something stating "lose weight with such and such product".

It gets monotonous.  "30 days to a slimmer, trimmer waist line."  Leave me alone and let me get back to my program!!

Recently, I saw a couple of fellow bloggers/twitterers (is that the term for someone who uses twitter?) display their disdain for newer products.  It got me to thinking...

"Do I really need to be starting any new sets when I have a boatload of sets from the past that I want to finish?"

Of course, the answer is no.   But to emphasize my point, I went through all my want lists and decided to add up the number of cards that I have on said want lists just to see how big the number is.

The number??

12,172

Wow, that's an eye opener to say the least.  Twelve thousand, one hundred and seventy two.  Try writing that on a check once or twice (for those of you younger readers, checks are what we used to pay for cards on ebay before PayPal came along).

It's tough to fathom really needing that many cards, isn't it?  Yet, with all the sets I have on my want lists, that's what the total is.  So, like any person that needs to trim a few pounds off their frame, I have decided to try and trim a few cards off of the want list. 

How do I do this you ask?  Go on a diet.   A pack diet.

2 copies, one for set and one for PC.  36 cents.  Thank you Sportlots!

That's one of my overdue resolutions this year, which I'm about to present now:

1.  90 days without buying one new product, or one pack of cards.  What I like about the first 3 months of the year (in non-leap years) is that there is a total of 90 days.  Very easy to remember.  Therefore, until March 31st, I will try to buy no new packs of cards.  Anything I buy has to knock cards off of my want list, or someone else's want list. I started this on January 1st, so by the end of March the goal is to have knocked the want list down by going cold turkey.  I'm sure I'll have the shakes by Valentine's Day.

2.  Clean up the Blue Jays/Maple Leafs collection for good.  I've got the Jays started, which will be the bigger project of the two.  Need to get the bulk of the collection sorted by year for easier entry into the Trading Card Database.  Once I get that done, it's only a matter of time.  The only date I'll set for myself is having it done by the 31st of December at 1159 PM. 

3.  Keep the PC blog rolling.  For those of you who do read my Player PC's blog, don't laugh, but I love doing it.  Yes, it's pretty easy when you think about it, writing 3 or 4 bullet points about a card and the player associated with it.  But, it's done a couple of things for me over the past 2 years.
A)  I've really enjoyed adding cards to my original PCs (Sakic and Thome) and B) I'm actually looking at the cards I've bought in the past, not leaving them sitting collecting dust in binders.

My goal is 400 posts on the PC blog this year.  I've come close each of the first two years.

4.  Five and dime contest.  I plan on running a contest during the 1st quarter of 2018, and I promise I will not punish you by making you write posts consisting of less than 100 words (although some of you did quite well with that!!).  I'll probably shoot for February once I get some credit card debt paid off and have a little bit more $$ to spend on your want lists, so be ready to do some hunting...

5.  The National.  It's in Cleveland this year, and I'm itching to go.  So much so that I thought about booking my vacation today at work.  Sadly, August is in our next fiscal year, so I can't do it yet.  But I plan to be there.  I would really enjoy meeting a blogger or two there as well.  I've not met any of you yet, but would love to do so.  More to come on this as it gets closer.

That's it, only 5 resolutions this year instead of my normal 7.  Less pressure....

Thanks for reading, and have a fabulous 2018!  Robert

2017 in review

OK, there's a lot I want to say in this post, so let's get to it.

2017.  Not a bad year collecting wise.  I made a few decisions on how I want to go forward with my collection.  I also made 7 resolutions at the beginning of last year.  It's funny how things change as the year goes on.

A quick review:

1.  Set completion:  64 Topps, done.  88-89 OPC hockey.  Done.  73 Topps, 2 cards away.  I also mentioned the remainder of the 80's OPC hockey sets, getting them started and want lists on the blog.  That got started, somewhat.  Well, overall this is a B- for me.

2. Video posts.  Have to get back to these....F

3. COMC.  No longer want to sell on there, just don't see the upside in all that maintenance.

4. Jays and Leafs collections, sorted and catalogued.   As the year progressed, I figured out that maintaining a spreadsheet for both of these is both a lot of work and very tedious.  The TCDB is the way to go, and I've got the Jays collection started on there (just over 1000 cards entered).  Looking forward to getting the collection together, finally.  Grade:  Incomplete

5.  100 words, 100 cards contest.   Success!!  Grade:  A

6.  2016 Allen & Ginter completion:  Close, last card is in the mail on its way to me.   A-

7.  $2k.  I did pretty good up until September keeping track of what I spent.  At the end, just like a lot of things that you start at the beginning of the year, it became a bit tedious.  I know that I didn't even spend an average of $30/week, but I did get a good idea of what it will take to go to $40 a week like I thought I would last year.

I also wrote 160 posts, which I am happy with.  My days as an everyday blogger on this blog are gone, but double digit post totals each month is a very attainable goal. 

I'll write my goal post tomorrow, still have to think of how I want to get myself more organized and focused in 2018.

One card rule:

Waiting for the Mattingly card from A&G to arrive (hopefully tomorrow) and this set will be done.  That will be the first set of the year (and maybe the only, more to come on that) for me to list my top 10 cards...

Thanks for reading, and have a great 2018 everyone!!

Robert

Inbound and Down #32: Too Many Verlanders

Those of you who follow Dennis' Too Many Verlanders blog know that he sent out a boat load of packages just before Christmas time.   The other day I was fortunate enough to become one of the lucky recipients, as a large priority envelope jammed my mailbox!!

By the way, I'm just curious, now that Justin Verlander is in Houston, will the blog become Too Many Cabreras?  Inquiring minds want to know...

The big portion of the envelope is what you see in the photo above.  Dennis is thinning out his Beckett magazine collection, and sent me 5 that featured Blue Jays covers from back in the 90's!  While I loved getting them (and have display ideas already, thanks to my better half), it was quite depressing looking at the prices of vintage sets 20 years ago.  Oh if I only had the forethought (and the $$) back then, my collecting process would be a lot different today.

Needless to say, the Beckett's weren't the only item in the envelope.  There were a trio of Joe Sakic cards, unfortunately I already own two of them.   The third one I have already posted on my other blog, and it was a good one (Donruss Press Proof, limited to 2000 copies!). 

The big chunk of the card goodness is a boat load of serial numbered cards for the SNIH set.  Dennis was a great contributor to the baseball version, and the hockey side became a lot bigger thanks to this super lot of cards.

Today, I'm going to show off the cards that did not come from Pacific brands...

What's great about this group of 9 is that I've heard of every one of these players.  A lot of the serial #'d cards so far that I've picked up is of rookies that never got more than a cup of coffee in the league, so seeing some more established players is great. 

I think Dennis found a vein of serial #'d cards somewhere as I have over 20 more to show off, which I'll do in the next post. 

Thank you very much Dennis for the very generous envelope, it is really appreciated!!

thanks for reading, Robert