Happy New Year! and a Look Back on My 2016 Collecting Goals

I hope everyone had a safe New Years Eve last night.  At the ARPSmith household it was a family night at home playing eating a king crab legs feast, playing some games and watching Ant Man.  Mrs. ARPSmith and I partied it up with one adult beverage each.  Times have sure changed for me as I get older.

I thought I would take a look back and reflect on my goals for 2016.  Many have said 2016 was a bad year, for me it was a year of change with my move to KS from CA but overall it was a pretty good year.  From about February through July I was pretty inactive on my blog and with the hobby so I suspect my goals suffered as a result.  However, I am generally an optimist and as I look back many more good personal things come to mind about 2016 than bad.

Here are the 9 goals I set out and the grades I give myself. 


1. Obtain all 2016 Giants base cards from all releases.
This is an area where my absence has made my collection suffer.  I am usually quick to jump in on a group break or quickly fill out my base card collection as each set is released.  Here are the base cards I am still in need of:

 2016 Bowman Chrome #58 Madison Bumgarner

2016 Bowman Chrome Draft #BDC33 Matt Krook
2016 Bowman Chrome Draft #BDC44 Heath Quinn
2016 Bowman Chrome Draft #BDC51 Jacob Heyward
2016 Bowman Chrome Draft #BDC71 Justin Alleman
2016 Bowman Chrome Draft #BDC72 Ryan Howard
2016 Bowman Chrome Draft #BDC77 Bryan Reynolds
2016 Bowman Chrome Draft #BDC126 Christian Arroyo
2016 Bowman Chrome Draft #BDC182 Tyler Beede
2016 Bowman Chrome Draft #BDC196 Chris Shaw

2016 Bowman Draft #BDC33 Matt Krook
2016 Bowman Draft #BDC44 Heath Quinn
2016 Bowman Draft #BDC51 Jacob Heyward
2016 Bowman Draft #BDC71 Justin Alleman
2016 Bowman Draft #BDC72 Ryan Howard
2016 Bowman Draft #BDC77 Bryan Reynolds
2016 Bowman Draft #BDC126 Christian Arroyo
2016 Bowman Draft #BDC182 Tyler Beede
2016 Bowman Draft #BDC196 Chris Shaw

2016 Elite Extra Edition #59 Bryan Reynolds
2016 Elite Extra Edition #103 Heath Quinn
2016 Elite Extra Edition #108 Matt Krook
2016 Elite Extra Edition #118 Clayton Blackburn
2016 Elite Extra Edition #141 Hunter Cole
2016 Elite Extra Edition #158 Matt Gage
2016 Elite Extra Edition #184 Steven Duggar

2016 Immaculate Collection #6 George Kelly
2016 Immaculate Collection #13 Mel Ott
2016 Immaculate Collection #41 Buster Posey
2016 Immaculate Collection #56 Brandon Crawford
2016 Immaculate Collection #65 Madison Bumgarner
2016 Immaculate Collection #97 Hunter Pence
2016 Immaculate Collection #98 Joe Panik

2016 Panini Flawless #5 Buster Posey
2016 Panini Flawless #33 Mel Ott

2016 Stadium Club #54 Matt Duffy
2016 Stadium Club #187 Johnny Cueto

2016 Topps #397 Mac Williamson RC
2016 Topps #433 Trevor Brown RC
2016 Topps #596 Sergio Romo
2016 Topps #600A Madison Bumgarner
2016 Topps #605 Santiago Casilla
2016 Topps #648 San Francisco Giants

2016 Topps Gold Label Class 1 #28 Buster Posey
2016 Topps Gold Label Class 1 #50 Hunter Pence
2016 Topps Gold Label Class 1 #53 Johnny Cueto
2016 Topps Gold Label Class 1 #94 Madison Bumgarner
2016 Topps Gold Label Class 1 #100 Willie Mays

2016 Topps Heritage #460A Buster Posey SP

2016 Topps Legacies of Baseball Lasting Imprints #LIBP Buster Posey
2016 Topps Legacies of Baseball Lasting Imprints #LIJM Juan Marichal
2016 Topps Legacies of Baseball Lasting Imprints #LIWM Willie Mays

2016 Topps Stickers #151 Oakland Athletics/159 San Francisco Giants
2016 Topps Stickers #222 Madison Bumgarner
2016 Topps Stickers #224 Matt Duffy
2016 Topps Stickers #226 Joe Panik
2016 Topps Stickers #227 Norichika Aoki
2016 Topps Stickers #229 Chris Heston

2016 Topps Triple Threads #34 Willie Mays
2016 Topps Triple Threads #51 Buster Posey
2016 Topps Triple Threads #73 Hunter Pence
2016 Topps Triple Threads #77 Johnny Cueto
2016 Topps Triple Threads #89 Madison Bumgarner

2016 Topps Tribute #8 Willie Mays
2016 Topps Tribute #11 Buster Posey
2016 Topps Tribute #65 Hoyt Wilhelm

2016 Topps Update #US72 Derek Law RC
2016 Topps Update #US128 Denard Span
2016 Topps Update #US141 Buster Posey AS
2016 Topps Update #US148 Matt Moore
2016 Topps Update #US252 Johnny Cueto AS

Wow, I slacked off more than I thought.  Time to hit Sportlots and fill in some of these gaps.  I was fully prepared to give myself a mid-level grade or an incomplete due to life upheaval but seeing the length of this list I am forced to face the truth and give myself a failing grade, however there is time to recover.

Grade - F

2. Add 100 cards towards my 1971 Topps Set including all of Series 1 & 2
My lack of planning and tracking hurts me here as I didn't document how many cards I needed at the start of the year.  I am fairly confident that I knocked over 100 off this list and I am certain Series 1 & 2 are complete.  I am down to needing 34 cards to complete the set, 20 of them are high numbers.  I also have 8 cards sitting in my COMC account.  Great success with this set.

Grade - A



3. Add 100 cards towards my 1972 Topps Set including all of Series 1-4
I need to get some cards into this post so I will share the latest 5 cards from 1972 Topps to enter my collection - lots of star power here.  The Munson was a 25 cent win off Sportlots Auctions and the other 4 came from my LCS for a total of $30:

 Picking up those stars is the good news, set progress wasn't so good.  I did not add 100 new cards.  While I didn't track exactly I would have to guess the number is about half of the goal.  I also didn't finish off the first 4 series, I still need Roberto Clemente from Series 3 and 5 cards from Series 4 including Steve Carlton.  These wouldn't be that hard to finish off but the lack of cheap high number cards has really caused me to lose momentum and passion around this set.  I really need to find a cheap source of high number cards to get me jump started again.

Grade - C+


4. Finish several of these sets: 1974 Topps Traded, 1976 Topps Traded Sets, 1992 Studio, 1998 Sports Illustrated, 2000 Fleer Focus, 2000 UD Hitter’s Club, 2005 Topps Cracker Jack, 2009 Finest Set, 2012 Panini Americana
I think I did pretty well here, I finished off 1974 Topps Traded, 1976 Topps Traded Sets, 1992 Studio, 1998 Sports Illustrated, 2000 Fleer Focus and 2000 UD Hitter’s Club and made some progress on 2005 Topps Cracker Jack and 2009 Finest.  I am in the process of better organizing my collection and recently added tons of other sets (many with way too long want lists) and I hope to continue to add more complete sets to my collection.




5. Obtain 6 new HOF Baseball Player Autos
I didn't track these but I am confident I well surpassed this goal of 6.  I have two new ones that I will show with my COMC Black Friday purchases and one I am real excited about from a recent box break.  Add in the Travis Jackson, Lefty Gomez, Rick Ferrell and Cool Papa Bell and that gets me to 7.  I also think there are some I am missing.  I also launched my HOF Blog Page to show off my collection.

Grade - A+


6. Obtain 12 Giants T206 cards
I started off the year strong but faded down the stretch.  I am looking for good deals and unwilling to pay super high amounts.  My Giants collection of T206 cards has grown to 12 total cards.  I don't remember the exact place I started but I think it was around 5-6.  I am still going to call 6-7 new T206s in a calendar year a success.

Grade - B

7. Update Giants Checklist on blog to list cards by year
I spent a ton of time updating my Giants Want Lists and I am very happy with out it turned out.  If you have explored my want lists recently I hope you agree that it is pretty clear and easy to follow.  I had them set up with want lists categorized as Base, Inserts and Parallels and have switched it up to years but still having those sub categories.  It helps make my card pursuits easier so it is a huge win in my book.

Grade - A+


8. Create Checklist and make significant progress on Topps inserts from 2000-2005
I went a little farther here than I even set out to.  Starting in 2006 I have collected all the insert sets along with the base sets.  I decided I wanted to start trying to fill in some of the older gaps.  I have now may checklists back to 1994 and even posted a Topps Insert Want List on the blog.  I have purchased quite a few cards and now have an 800 count box about full of these inserts.

Grade - A 

9. Add another 100 cards to my 49ers vintage collection
I didn't do too well here.  I picked up a card here and there but never made this a collecting focus.  Some of the cards I picked up were from back in the 50s and 60s which is great but the volume didn't happen.

Grade - D

There you have it, some definite highs and lows from a goal perspective.  Regardless of how I grade these goals though, I consider 2016 to be a very successful collecting year.  I picked up lots of great cards, changed up my new set collecting approach (more to come) and have my collection more organized than ever before.  I have some things in mind to focus on in 2017 and will share those once I get to them finalized and down in print.

I hope you met most of your 2016 goals and wish you a happy and prosperous 2017!