A Collection Goal Update at the Quarter Point of the Year

A couple days ago I thought it would be wise to check in on my 2018 Collecting goals and see what kind of progress has been made.  I haven't posted as much as I would like so I decided to make my progress check into a post.

As you may recall (or if not you can click on the link above) I decided to go micro and specific on my goals this year which is a reversal over the past couple.  I will copy my list from the post and share some updates in blue and pictures.

Set Building

• Complete 1969 Topps Set (currently need 8 - Bench, Kessinger, Cox, Reggie RC, Mantle, Santo, Fingers RC, Teddy Ballgame) - I have a COMC order coming in soon that should result in exciting news but I have some progress in my possession.

The left side of the Cubs Infield brings me down to 6 needs

An awesome 2nd year card with the Rookie Cup Bench brings me down to 5

• Start new vintage set - I have a couple of ideas in mind but haven't settled on a set quite yet.

• Collect Donruss, Topps Series 1 & 2, Topps Update, Opening Day and 2-3 other 2018 sets - Doing well here, bought a Master Set of Topps Series 1 and built a couple of the retail insert sets I liked.  Bought a box of Opening Day, completed the set with the box and the insert sets through Sportlots.  Bought a base set of Donruss along with the 70 (!) variations.  Decided against Heritage and Gypsy Queen although Gypsy Queen is still a consideration.

HOF Auto collection

• Get to 100 different players (currently at 94) - I posted the addition of Smoltz and LaRussa here, I posted autos of Hoffman and Vlad on my HOF Ballot post here, plus I added this great looking on card auto of Jeff Bagwell.  This brings me to 99, just need to track down 1 more to make my goal.

2014 Panini Prizm 54/75, despite the lack of logo, this is a great looking card in hand. I love the big on-card auto

Reading

• Finish and post on 6 sports books - I have 2 different baseball books right now that I am reading and a bunch ready to go.  Even though I am behind pace, I think I will get there.

• Catch up on Sports Illustrated and ESPN magazines - The stack keeps growing and I doubt this will be a made goal.

49ers Vintage collection (1950s-1970s)

• Get collection into a binder - All done, spent a little time in late February going through all my cards, sorting them by year and paging them up.  It has been fun flipping through a couple of times already. 

• Reach 200 different cards (currently at 152) - I currently sit at 182.  I have even gotten a few through trade.  I feel good about this goal, shouldn't be hard to hit.

USC Football

• Get collection organized - haven't spent any time organizing this part of my collection.

• Establish focus and add 200 new cards - I have yet to gain a focus.  I have added around 75 new cards with a few coming in trades, a couple of purchase and most from the large collection I bought and am working my way through.

Giants

• Add 20 NY Giants era vintage cards - I am already over half way to this goal but none of my pick-ups have been blogged about.  I have an amazing Return from the Purge that will be coming soon, a huge pickup to finish off a vintage team set and a multiple card purchase from an eBay seller.  I will share one card I picked up in a Sportlots auction.

 

An awesome 1952 Topps pick-up.  This is the black back version and one of the last players I need for my Giants team set that aren't in the dreaded high number series.

• Add 100 1970s-1990s cards - I have already far exceeded this goal. Most I won't blog about but I was helped by picking up a 28 card 1993 Topps Inaugural Giants team set, a 28 card 1983 Giants postcard set, a 30 card 1987 Topps Tiffany set, a 21 card 1980 SSPC HOF card Giants team set and 54 cards in a Beckett.com order.

• Reduce parallel want list to 150 cards (currently at 233) - I haven't added any 2018 cards to the list yet as I have picked up the wanted parallels.  I have only knocked about 10-15 cards from the list.  This goal will be a challenge, reasonably priced early 00s Topps Gold cards and some of the earlier years of Ginter minis are tough to come by.

Player Collections

• Willie McCovey - pick up 2 items off want list from playing career - nothing yet

• Rickey Henderson - pick up 5 items off want list from playing career, get checklist up to date - I have 2 in hand and believe my COMC incoming order will get me to this goal.  Still need to get the checklist up to date.

This 2005 Absolute card is the Spectrum version numbered 057/150, I also picked up a 1989 Topps Big

• Dave Winfield - reach 850 different cards (currently at 805), get checklist up to date - I have added 7 and here they are.  Still need to get the checklist up to date.

• Reggie Jackson - reach 700 different cards (currently at 626), get checklist up to date - I have added 10 to get to 636, here are 9 of them.

• Vida Blue - pick up 3 items off want list - any new Vida is getting credit here including the awesome custom from Baseball Card Breakdown.  I also picked up this cool patch from 1979.  That leaves me just 1 short and I have a couple awesome cards to share in a future post that will complete my goal.

Can't tell what team he should be on, right around the time he moved from the A's to the Giants.

• Ben Petrick- reach 230 different cards (currently at 221) - This is going to be a tough one to accomplish, most of the cards I need are pretty hard to find with lower print runs.  I have got 3 pretty awesome new cards.

You can see that the Maximum parallel is numbered 203/323, the Bowman Gold Refractor is 54/99 and the Pacific Extreme LTD is 42/45

• Chili Davis - reach 465 different cards (currently at 453) - no activity on the Chili front so far in 2018.

• Dave Parker - reach 160 different Pirates cards (currently at 140) - only 1 pick up so far but it is a pretty cool one.

I love me some Hostess cards!

• Fred Lynn - post about new player collection, reach 280 different cards (currently at 252) - I still haven't posted about this new player collection but I have been adding some cards.  My collection now sits at 270 cards.  I don't plan on showing off any cards until I get the first post out.

• Ronnie Lott - reach 900 different cards (currently at 868) - I am at 873 but should be able to move the needle much quicker with the 2018 football releases.  Here are 3 cards from 2017 Select, I would like to track down most of the rainbow at some point.

These are numbered 015/149, 04/75 and 12/25

• Roger Craig - reach 380 different cards (currently at 361) - I have only added 1 card, it is a great dual auto that added to two of these collections.  I will have it's own post coming up.

• Dwight Clark - reach 125 different cards (currently at 109) - I have added 5 to get to 114 and will show off 2 of them here.

This counts as 2 on my checklist as the card and coin are listed separately.  These came from a regional grocery store, Save Mart back in 1996

• Fred Dean - add 5 cards (currently at 25) - I shared 1 in my blog bat around post and also picked up this one.

• Harold Miner - add 2 new cards (currently at 252) - Even at 2 this was a stretch goal, not much of his I don't have.  I did track down one postcard sized new card of his and shared on the blog bat around post.

• Charles Barkley - reach 700 different cards (currently at 645) - I have added 7 cards, 2 in this trade, and these 5.

• Patrick Ewing - reach 550 different cards (currently at 505) - 3 new ones here.

For some reason that green border on the UD MVP card really stands out to me.  The Larger then Life insert is a nice shiny gold

• Chris Webber - reach 750 different cards (currently at 710) - 4 new CWebbs added to the collection.

The upper left card is from his college days and the first card on my checklist, it had eluded me for some time and I am super happy to finally own a copy

Reflecting back on my progress so far, I have to say I am pretty happy.  It seems the areas that have been most lacking are my USC football collection and my basketball player collections.  I am interested to see if my focuses shift in that direction.  I am not going to "force" myself to go after certain cards to make a goal, I use the goals as guidelines and go after what feels good.

Have you reflected on your 2018 goals?  If so, how are you doing?

2016 Black Friday COMC Order #9 - Player Collections Part II

I already shared some cards from my biggest player collections but I also picked up some cards for other player collections.  I have found a lot of satisfaction in expanding my collection to other players. It has allowed me to explore cards from different sets that may not have been a focus of mine.  I am currently considering adding a couple more players to the list but haven't taken the plunge yet.

The first card to share is this Retail LTD parallel of Ben Petrick from 2001 Pacific.  This card is serial numbered /85 and is one of 5 Petricks in the set, 1 base and 4 parallels.  I only have this one and the base card so I will be keeping my eyes peeled for the others.

This card really doesn't fit in as I don't have a player collection of Brad Miller.  I didn't want to give this card its own post so I decided this was my closest placement.  I do collect autos and jersey of Kings players from my favorite era with Miller being one of them. Unfortunately my tracking of these isn't good as I already had this card - oops.

I was able to find quite a few Chili Davis cards I needed in this order.  Some of my favorites are the Circa base card and its Rave parallel.  Chili is probably my newest Player Collection and it is coming along quite well.  My Checklist shows I have 425/604 cards for a 70.4% completion.  If I back out the 16 1/1s which I am sure I will never track down with how old his cards are it rises to over 72%.

My Dave Winfield collection would win the award for the most neglected major part of my collection.  I have 773 different cards in my collection but rarely seek out new ones.  In this order I did pick up 3 oddballs - all non-standard card sized and 2 featuring the same picture.  I foresee a Winfield spending spree at some point.

After Fred Dean got elected to the HOF I decided to pick up some of his cards.  These 2 filled some gaps and are both very nice action photos and coincidentally both are against the Cowboys.  The cards of Fred in my collection only total 24 with these additions, I will probably check here and there but I am pretty happy with where the collection stands.


The most pickups from this post are of Dave Parker.  As you may or may not remember, I am only going after Parker cards from his days in Pittsburgh.  Kind of a way to narrow the scope down and his days with the Pirates are what I most fondly remember.

This one scan has a whole lot of wonderful with a 75 mini, a couple OPC cards, an SSPC card with a great stadium background, a Kellogg's card and two MSA Discs with great back graphics.

Some more Parker love with some oddballs including stickers, stamps, credit cards, food cards, another disc and OPC!

These are a few other cards that filled some gaps in the Parker collection.  I wouldn't mind a comeback on the Active Leader cards from 1984, I remember pulling these from packs and studying the backs with the lengthy list of all the leaders.

The final scan in this post showcases 4 nice, inexpensive relics of Mr. Parker.  I think they all look great but the Bats to the Future has to be my favorite due to the picture of Dave in his batting helmet and jacket with the bat on his shoulders - great picture!