Good Riddance 2020, Hello 2021!

 Happy New Year Everyone!

This time last year I posted a good bye to 2019, reviewing my collecting goals, and looking ahead to 2020.

My goal from 2019 to organize my collection only got worse in 2020, things are way out of hand, I may need to hire an intern to help me sort and catalog everything.

My "At the bat rack" mini-collection has continued to grow, and more pages from the "Frankenset" will be posted in 2021.

The "Call Me, Maybe" mini collection I started in earnest in 2020 did not grow very much. 

The 1959 Topps Set build nearly stopped entirely. Sure, I could have just bought all the singles online, but how is that any fun? In hindsight, with the Project 2020 hype and his untimely passing spiking demand, I should have purchased the Bob Gibson rookie last year.

The "I Love the 80s" and the "Topps All-Star Rookie" posts will come back again in 2021, I still have plenty of material to cover there. 

I only attended 2 card shows in 2020, the last one coming in February. I don't know what the future holds for card shows in MN, selfishly I hope they survive and can rebound in 2021 at some point. I still will hold off from attending until I am vaccinated- I have elderly parents and I'd like to avoid passing anything on to them.

and drumroll . . . I bet you all forgot that I held a contest last January first to guess which 1970s set I was going to start working on. Well, last month I finally took the initiative and bought a 400+ card lot of:

1974 Topps! So, Jim (cards as i see them) and Chris (The Collector), congratulations! You've won by also guessing that I would start a 1974 topps set build. 

As far as actually building that set... well I have no idea what cards I need right now, the 400+ lot is still in the box it shipped in. I will be looking to buy a nice, big binder (or two?) to house the set, and I'll need to get more 9-pocket pages. I haven't started to figure out what I have.

But the good news is that card collecting will continue in 2021. 

Thanks for reading, I owe you all a ton of posts, and a shout out to everyone that has reached out via email and or snail mail with cards and notes. This year can be better if we make it better!

Good-Bye, 2019! Hello 2020! (contest in post)

Happy New Year everyone! 

2019 had its ups and downs collecting-wise, I wanted to get 2020 started with a quick review of my 2019 Collecting Goals. How did I do? Well, we grade on a curve here at the ol' Arbitrary, so everything is Highly Subjective.

My first goal was to organize my wantlists, player collections, and mini collections.... HAHAHAHA! Well, I definitely did not achieve this goal, and if anything, I'm in worse shape now than I was last year. Some things I did in 2019 did help my collection get more organized - I added some new Hockey and Basketball binders, and I updated my want lists on this site at least once each... Hoo boy, that's a low bar. But I cleared it! 

I made a 2019 commitment to my bat rack mini collection, and now I have a fairly healthy stack of cards to place in pages. At the beginning of 2019, there were just 2 pages of bat rack cards in my bat rack frankenset. Now I have posted up to page six, and there are more pages on the way in 2020. This was a goal achieved without any argument from me. 

I added a new mini collection in 2019 for cards featuring phone calls, and made a modest stack of these as well. They are much less abundant than bat rack cards, they seemed to be most likely found on NFL sidelines in the late 80s, and then again in the mid to late 90s Fleer and Upper Deck sets. It technically started in December 2018 with this Secret Santa post, but it wasn't until 2019 that I started adding phone cards intentionally. I look to continue this mini collection and add a new one for 2020, which will come in a future January post. Any suggestions?

2019 was going to be the year I finally finished the 1959 Topps set build. I am very very close now, with a small checklist remaining of mostly high numbers, including the very pricey Bob Gibson rookie card. If I can find a good deal on Bob (and Willie and Warren and Mickey), then I should have this set completed in the next few months. I'll be looking to do a similar weekly review of each team's set in 2020 once I complete the darn thing!

What else for 2020? I've let my "I Love the 80s" posts wither on the vine a bit in 2019, I will be looking to pick those back up again and start moving from 1981 Team Reviews to 1982. 

I also want to start another set build, and since I've worked on 1956 and 1959 after completing the oddball 1965 O-Pee-Chee set, I thought I would go with a 1970s edition next. 
Hey, here's a random contest with a very long fuse. I haven't decided which set I'm going to try for next, but maybe you can guess which one it will be in the comments below?
Let's say up to 5 people can win this contest, so if you wanted to pick a year that someone else picked, go ahead.
Winners will receive a custom-made-by-me re-pack of those 100 card (+1 pack) boxes you find at, say, Walgreens. Each box will have a "hit," and I'll add some 1970s vintage singles in there, too.
Winner(s) will be announced when I finally pick a new set, probably in February or March.

 Last but not least . . . Support The Minor Leagues!

2019 Collecting Goals

It's a new year, and that means arbitrarily re-assessing my collecting goals, and this year's goals certainly fall into cliche New Year's Resolution territory.

1 - Get a handle on the Player Collections

I've got several official and unofficial player collections over several sports. I just added this Fernando Romero On Demand online exclusive from eBay. Do I have a list of the cards I have of Romero? No. When I see a card on COMC or eBay or at a card show that has Romero on it, do I know if I have it or not? Nope! So before I start buying a bunch of singles, I need to organize want lists. So, a goal by this time 2020 is to have all of my player collections listed.

2 - Get Crackin' on the Bat Rack Frankenset

So far, I'm on page 2 of a bat rack Frankenset. I've been on page 2 for I think about 3 years now? In 2019, that will change. I've been making a nice stack of bat rack cards - I just need (once again) get a definitive list going of what I have and what I still need.

3 - Finish the 1959 Topps Set

This is the first one I'm not sure I'll be able to do in a year's time, but goals shouldn't be too easy- it's better to pick something challenging to strive towards, so there's a sense of accomplishment in achieving it. I'm currently at 375 cards in the set, roughly 65% complete. It would be nice to finish in 2019, on the 60th anniversary of the set.

4 - Make a significant dent in the 1964 Topps Venezuelan Set

In 2018, I added 0 cards to this set build. Granted, no one has any locally. The only way to add cards to this collection is buying online. It can be tough to gauge condition from a photo, and the cost for the cards including shipping can pile up quickly. But Zero? C'mon man. I know for a fact I won't finish the set this year - the bigger names are way beyond my budget. But I want to set a goal of 5 completed pages in 2019. That should be possible, assuming I can find decent examples for decent prices. I'll admit the political situation in Venezuela has made me hesitant to chase this set too hard - I see a lot more of these on sale lately on eBay, shipping directly from Venezuela. The country is experiencing major inflation issues, and I felt guilty about possibly taking advantage of people desperate for basic necessities. So I didn't even really look at listings. I probably missed some "good deals" that way.

5 - Re-organization / Overhaul the Collection's Infrastructure

I have some cards in albums, some in boxes, cards piled on tables, cards in no particular order. Cards I want to trade / give away mixed in with cards I want to keep. I want to install some new shelving to be a better fit for the Monster Boxes I have, as well as add more boxes to manage all the overflow. I want to add several more albums and fill them with player collections. Right now, everything is in chaotic disorganization., making it very hard to make trades or even just find cards that was sure I already had in my collection.


In general, I want to make a greater effort to collect with a purpose, while still enjoying the hobby in a highly subjective and completely arbitrary fashion.

Any tips on any of the items above? What collecting goals are you working on for 2019?

Check Out My Chaos

In 2018, I didn't have an official Collecting Goals post, but this one came closest, covering a handful of cards that I picked up from a COMC visit. I was planning on making a post that reviewed my progress on my 2018 Goals, but it turns out I didn't make one! Thanks a lot, January Me. So instead, I'll do a post about 2019 Goals tomorrow. Today, I'll post something that mirrors the post I linked above, showing some recent COMC purchases. Buckle up for some Completely Arbitrary Online purchases!

I picked this one up without much deliberation - I'm not a Red Sox fan, I don't collect Mookie Betts in particular, but I couldn't pass up a chance for this card. Just a great shot.

I still have a box of basketball cards from my childhood, but they are in terrible condition. I wasn't particularly interested in condition as a kid, and anything that wasn't baseball got tossed around with little concern for the consequences. So now I am all too happy to add a favorite card here or there. Shaq was a big deal, but I wasn't able to get this (admittedly very common) rookie card as a kid. Acetate cards are plenty of fun, these were very popular when I wasn't collecting, I think. And finally, I chased a few more cards for my Stanley Cup mini Collection. Henri Richard won his 11th Stanley Cup, and he's on both the new and the vintage card here.

My adopt a prospect this off-season is the Padres' Buddy Reed. I realized that I've picked Padres prospects several times now (Hunter Renfroe and Manny Margot are also guys I collect now), but I had to go with Buddy Reed. I made the decision right after watching the Arizona Fall League championship, which ended with a walk-off homer. No, Buddy wasn't the guy that hit it...

Of course, I haven't abandoned Twins prospects, like LaMonte Wade, as well as picking up cheap autos of my favorite Twins past and present.

I'm all in on this nonsense.

Gotta keep building up the Ichiro PC, too.

Last but not least, I really wanted to add an Ichiro bat relic to my collection, and these framed A&G cards have always been a favorite of mine. I feel like a piece of one of Ichiro's bats is the definitive modern baseball relic. It's not the Shroud of Turin, but it might as well be to me!

But Wait- There's More

My shopping spree at COMC continues - it's been hard to get out to the local card show, so I had to scratch the collecting itch somehow!

I added a nice stack of mid 80s cards to go along with the early 80s cards I posted yesterday. I think Al Holland is posing after striking out three batters in the last two innings of the 1983 NLCS to clinch a trip to the World Series. I couldn't find another reference to Al Holland and the number 3.

The 80s had a ton of sets that commemorated the 1950s and 1960s, I am a fan of these sets because they make a point of featuring photos never before seen on cardboard, as well as some unique combos like Billy Martin as a Cincinnati Red.

A little Leo "The Lip" during his days as Giants skipper, and a fun shot of Everyday Eddie Guardado in a Washington Senators throwback uni at the Metrodome.

Good news everyone! I am never going to mention how irritated I was with Topps over their rookie cups in 2017 again. I have a page that mixes Series 1 and Chrome, and if I want to include Tommy Joseph I'll have to switch over to Topps Heritage.

I finished the 1956 Set in 2017, so this year I thought I would start on a different set. I haven't updated my want list for this set, it still is the stripped down version that just lists a handful of cards I'd like to have. I have a decent head start on the 1959 set because I was already working on a 1959 Reds team set.

Hall of Fame guys tend to be the last guys to be added to a set build, but I decided to add two guys based on the best two deals I could find.

Baby Bull!

I picked up everything in the post for roughly the cost of a blaster! I'm looking forward to getting back to a card show so I can take a big bite out of this new set quest!

U-S-A! U-S-A!

Happy Independence Day - if this were a politically oriented blog, there would be a lot to say about the holiday and current events, but this is a baseball card blog, so I will leave the punditry to the pundits. Hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable 4th!

Marvin Gaye's version of our national anthem  brought tears to Eric Clapton's eyes, and Clapton is British fer cryin out loud!

Burying the lede here, I made a very "American" acquisition this weekend, spending maybe a little more money than I have right now (thanks to my federal tax return and a little help from Visa!) but what could be more American than Mickey Mantle?

I opted to go with a graded copy just for a little added protection that the card would not be a reprint.
I didn't care what the grade was, and I will be freeing the card from jail soon.

I had been following searches on eBay for about a year and a half to get a sense of what the market is for this card now, and what I would be willing to pay to complete my 1956 Topps set. I had tried to win a few auctions earlier this year, but I was getting outbid routinely. I finally opted for this one at a fair buy it now price.

So there you go! Follow your dreams and if England calls, we're out there blowing stuff up and grilling hot dogs!