Green and Gold Goals

Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2019 brings you all health, happiness..and some great new cards for your collection :)

I spent a lot of time with the family over the holidays, and so I'm still plugging away at a few different projects - cataloging my Packers cards on TCDB, finishing up a mix CD for Night Owl, and getting a couple trade packages ready to ship tomorrow (which is also when the Anna Kendrick book is due back at the library) As a result, I haven't had much time to blog. My plan is to catch up on reading and commenting this Friday.

Until then, It's time for the obligatory list of Goals for 2019. But first, a recap of my Goals for 2018:

1. Lose 50 pounds. Or 30 pounds. Whatever...just get in shape.
Ha! Yeah, right. Sometime around July my cousin put together the elliptical I've had in my card room for almost three years now. I used it a couple times. But..I'm 6 '1" and the ceiling is 6' 6"..so when I'm on the elliptical my head comes this close to scraping the wall. So that's excuse number one. Depression is excuse number two. 

This is going to be addressed - and soon - but I won't bother making it a goal for 2019.


2. Get a full-time job. Or a better paying part-time job. Or at the very least, a job that's closer to home.
Hahaha! Also a "no". I am still working the same collections job for the same law firm, still a part-time employee with no benefits and a meager salary. But! The boss I like retired and the firm moved further away from my home. Also, the woman whom I considered my only office "friend" was fired. Oh, and my Christmas bonus was less than half of what it was under previous management. Fun times!


3. Do not spend any money on sports cards all year.
Seriously, was I on crack this time last year? That's frickin' impossible. I lasted one month. And since COMC had a "bonus" sale and I'm rolling in gift cards, it should not be too hard to match that 30-day spending freeze this January. But all bets are off in Febtober.

4. Reach the top 100 on COMC Challenges All-Time Leaderboard
This was within my grasp, I really believe that. Had I not had internet connectivity issues for four f*cking months there's a good chance I would have made it. Came close, though:
 

Your definition of "close" may vary

Now for some goals I actually achieved this past year!

5. Make 20 trades (and keep better records of my trades)
I made 12 trades on TCDB - which obviously helps with the record keeping - and while I haven't actually counted up all of the trades I made before becoming an active member there, it's a safe bet that I made 8 trades away from TCDB in 2018. 

6. Write 100 blog posts
Cleared that easily, thanks in large part to Sports Card Tour. 

Side note: where the heck was I in October? 

Oh...right :)


There were other things I wanted to accomplish:

• I need to figure out what to do with my other blog. I decided to delete it and will integrate some non-sports posts here when the mood arises.
• I'd like to spice things up here, perhaps with a new banner pic or layout. Done.
• I also want to do a better job of cataloging my collection. Working on it.
• Finally, I want to get back to reading books. Yeah..that's not going so well.
  

Which brings me to this year's goals. There are only four.

1. Collect my 1,000th unique Brett Favre card.
I'm not much of a player collector. There are a handful of players I collect but it's too hard for my A.D.D. brain to fathom narrowing my focus to one single star. Props to those who can - like Collecting Cutch - because it takes a lot of dedication to seek out every single card of a star player. 

I'm not delusional enough to think I can acquire a copy of every single Brett Favre issue (all 15,000+) nor would I want to even if I could. He wasn't a perfect player and he's sure not a perfect person. But I've been collecting his cards and memorabilia since I was 14 years old. I've accumulated at least 700 different Favre cards so far. 1K is possible if I focus, and I want to get it done this year in case he does something stupid. Again.


2. Catalog every single card in my collection on TCDB. This will hopefully be the last major reorganization project I attempt for a long time. Every one of my basketball cards has been added to the site, and all of my non-Packers football cards are cataloged. That's the good news. The bad news is that I have more Packers cards than the other 31 NFL teams combined, which is why I'm only done through 2001. 

The worse news? I have more baseball cards than basketball and football combined (including Packers). The even worse news? I have more hockey cards than baseball cards.

Please tell me that this will save me tons of time in the long run.


3. Limit myself to spending $50 a month on sports cards and other non-essential things. As many of you have no doubt noticed, the price of things keeps going up. Our salaries almost never do. My wife and I are still working part-time, my mom is struggling, and at some point I have to start saving (more) for my daughters' college fund. So I'm limiting myself to a strict sports card/entertainment/junk food budget this year. Let's see if I can stop using retail therapy as a crutch.

 
4. Really, seriously, definitely get a new job. For real this time. I seriously cannot stand the thought of being a debt collector for another year. Not with my yearly salary. I'm a health issue away from being in the debtors' shoes FFS.


Other things I want to achieve include: making progress on my 1956 Topps baseball set, going to a card show (preferably the big one in White Plains but I'll settle for the Milford show), spending more time with my family, reading more books, and drinking less caffeinated beverages. And maybe - maybe - write some fiction. We'll see.


Do you have any personal or collecting goals for 2019? If you've written a post about them let me know and I will read it asap. If not, what would you like to accomplish in 2019?



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