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?

Catching Up With Patrick Ewing

I am, and never was, a great basketball player. My best moments in school were when I could get down in the paint, box guys out and grab some rebounds and put backs.  I always say I am guard sized (6' tall) with a power forward skill set.  Unfortunately for me this didn't translate into anything past high school freshman ball other than some dominance in a couple college 6' and under intramural league championships.

My attraction to big guys probably evolved from the skills I personally possessed.  The first two hoops guys I player collected were Patrick Ewing and Charles Barkley.  I later added Chris Webber to the mix.  I think I was drawn to their talent and the fact they were big guys who banged inside. The only guard I collect is Harold Miner who went to USC when I was in school and was my neighbor my junior (and his sophomore) year.

With 2015 being my year of the base card, I made a list of base cards I needed in my player collections and tried to grab some during my card collecting purchase.  I thought I would group all my Patrick Ewing cards into one post.  Nothing earth shattering but it is fun to check out some of Ewing's photos from throughout his playing career.  One thing I noted when putting this together is that almost every photo is an action shot, unlike many of the baseball cards we get today.

Notable in this first scan are the 3 USA basketball cards across the top. The Dream Team was a huge thing and there was a set put out with 9-10 cards of each player and these 3 finish off my Ewing portion of the set.  The Classic card is one of the few that doesn't show some action but it brings back my memories of Ewing sweating up a storm.  The dude was playing so hard he was drenched every day.  Anyone remember Inside Stuff?  I was a TV show hosted by former football player Ahamd Rashad that was so popular it was featured in a couple card sets.

Hoops cards were immune to the parallel explosion that Topps started in the 1990s.  Not the small Topps Gold logo on the two top/middle cards - I remember how excited I was to pull some of these "rare" gold cards back in the day.  The from the roof cards made for some cool photography. I really  like how the card on the bottom right displays Patrick's massive wing span - how did anyone get a rebound against he and the Knicks?

These cards get into the middle to late 90s and start showing off some higher quality and shinyness.  Still lots of action shots here.  The bottom right corner card is a recent Panini Prizm release.  It is a die cut purple parallel serial numbered to 49. It doesn't really fit with the rest but I won it at the LCS bid board and thought I would include it here.

This is a group of cards from Upper Deck and features some of my favorite action shots.  I wonder if the close proximity to the court by the photographers helps capture some of these in game action shots better than some other sports. I also think the athleticism of the hoops players helps in the creation of these cards.

These final two items are kind of oddballs.  The NBA Jam Session card comes from one of the sets produced in the mid 90s that are the same shape and size of the Tall Boys from the 70s.  The item on the right is actually a small book with some information about Ewing and his career up to that point. It was a cool oddball I picked up at my LCS that closed recently.

Although my player collections aren't a stated goal for 2016, I am still going to work to add some cards to all my player collections.  I will also share some Barkley and Webber new additions in future posts.