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?

Sorting Out . . . The Arizona Diamonbacks

It's been awhile since I've done one of these, it's hard to find time to sort through an entire team's cards. The Arizona Diamondbacks are the third recent expansion team I've tackled in the sorting out series...

The Diamondbacks found early success, thanks in no small part to some excellent and timely pitching from Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling.

Luis Gonzalez, Mark Grace, and Matt Williams fueled the D-Backs offense in the early days.

 Some of my favorite cards featuring D-Backs are horizontal heroes.

Randy Johnson is not officially a player I collect, but I certainly don't turn that many away...




 The rest of this post is trade bait! If you see anything you like below, let me know!

 Didi Gregorius is the Gold Parallel version.

 Tiny Patrick Corbin is numbered 51/100

 Maybe you're a fan of Gonzo?

 Or Miguel Montero?

 Or Gracie?

Or Goldy?
I've updated my Zistle account with all of the Diamondbacks in my collection - if there are any that interest you, feel free to contact me via Zistle, or just send me an e-mail! The Will Ferrell card is available for trade as well..

Sorting Out . . . The Tampa Bay Rays

Here's another completely Irregular Feature on the Old Arbitrary: I call it "Sorting Out ... "

I started a grand organization of my cards - the first attempt I've made to do so. I sorted everything by team (at least, I think it is everything - I bet I will find another box of cards somewhere any day now).

The smallest population of cards was, as you might imagine, the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays.

Let's begin sorting out ... Tampa Bay:

 The first Devil Ray to reach 3,000 hits and the first Hall of Famer -- Wade Boggs made a farewell tour in Tampa.

The Crime Dog appeared in Devil Rays garb as well.
 

Canseco made his way to Tampa as well. 

For awhile, the Rays had a formidable 1-2 punch in their rotation:

The great thing about sorting is that now I can find cards easily for trade... without further adieu, here are a few examples of Rays that are available for trade:

The Kazmir card is serial numbered to 100:

There's a lot more where these came from, and you can view all the Rays I'm trading (along with several other teams) by checking out my Zistle tradelist. You don't need to be a Zistle member to trade, either. See anything you like? You can just send me an e-mail.

Just Joined Zistle

I'm going to make a concerted effort to catalog the cards I have, as blogging has totally blown up any organization I might have had before.

I just joined Zistle!

My Profile

I will be adding cards to the collection and to the trade list over the next few... well it's going to be awhile.

Since all posts should have a photo, here's Carlos Gomez doing his best Jack Howell impersonation. . .