How Did I Do In 2018?

A quick review of my four collecting goals that I set for 2018.  I am feeling pretty good about these after reading them at the end of the year.  Here's how I did:  

Goal 1: Fewer Sets 

In retrospect, this goal should have been written with some more specificity.  Especially considering it sort of contradicts another one of my goals.  By fewer sets, I was really aiming at collecting less from current year products.  There were a few staple sets, like Topps base set and Heritage, which I wanted to continue to collect.  

There is a little clarity.  

How did I do?  Off the top of my head, I put together a Topps Series 1 set, Topps Update set, Topps Heritage set, Topps Archives, and Topps Heritage Minor League.  Overall, this felt like a pretty successful outcome.  If I had to do things over again, I would have swapped out the Archives set for a Topps Series 2 set.  Archives lends itself well to collecting single cards, the Topps sets seem weird with Series 1 and Update being completed, but no Series 2.  I am likely to go out and buy a cheap one off of Ebay.  The Heritage and Heritage Minor Sets were good additions.  

I think this was a success.  

Goal 2: More Single Cards 

Self explanatory, especially given that I was collecting less sets this year.  This was a really successful goal.   Found some great autographs this way, helped that I saved money by not buying boxes and short printed cards to finish sets.  

There were plenty of different products that I collected in the past, but I just stuck with buying some single cards.  I cannot remember ever skipping Gypsy Queen, but this year I did not touch it outside of getting a few autographs which fit in well with my Cardinals and Durham Bulls collections.  Not sure what the high end boxes/packs cost this year, but I probably spent half as much money at most by just finding a few autographs that fit my collection.  

I was also able to get some nicer single cards from current year products.  Opening expensive box/packs out of products like Tier One and Dynasty were already against my collecting philosophy, but I still always managed to find a few single cards from these sets.  Buying less boxes meant there was a little bit more in the budget for some nicer single cards from these types of sets.  It was like trickle down economics that actually worked.  

I was also able to go back and pick up some nice single cards from other years.  Again, a very successful goal.  

3. More Projects  

This was probably my most unsuccessful area during 2018, but it wasn't terrible either.  I mainly worked on three different set building projects, but they were all time consuming in their own way.  The first set I worked on was the 1983 Topps cards out of this year's Topps Series 1 set.  I primarily traded for these cards in groups.  The set was kind of chunked together over a few months.  

It was a fun set to put together, so I am not really worried about the time.  Sort of feel the same way about my other two projects as well....

The Kellogg's cards were a lot of fun.  Sure, I could have gone out and just bought this set, not very expensive, but it was fun to trade and piece together these cards.  Great to see all of the older players too.  My latest project is working with the 1980s Topps Mail-In Glossy cards.  

I gave myself a time frame on finding these glossy cards.  It's technically putting together seven different sets, but I was not missing many cards out of some of them.  They somehow feel connected together.  

While three projects seems small, I don't think it's bad considering many of these projects took time.  Probably slowed me down that I assembled them using trades rather than spending money for single cards.   I might try some smaller projects next year, or try to finish out some nearly completed sets that are hanging out around my house.  Something more short term, but that's for another post.  

4. Durham Bulls and Cardinals Cards 

Ditching sets in favor of single cards really helped out this goal.  There were some good non-Durham Bulls and Cardinals single cards that were added to my collection, but I felt like I added some great cards from my two primary rooting/collecting interests.  

I am not sure if I could narrow down my 2018 Cardinals additions to a favorite card, but I lean towards the Topps Archives Ted Simmons autograph I found this summer.  

Simmons has not signed much of anything for card companies before this summer, so this card felt like a pretty big deal.  I know there were plenty of other Cardinals collectors who were also really happy to see this card.  Simba profiles well against other Hall of Fame catchers and should get into Cooperstown at some point.  Probably really hurt by the fact that he played for some not so great Cardinals teams during the 1970s.  

I also really liked this Bob Gibson autograph, which was a recent pickup.  

As for the Durham Bulls, I have two favorite cards.....

This is my 1A Durham Bulls card of the year with the signature of former National League MVP Frank McCormick.  He came through town in the 1930s while the Bulls were a Reds affiliate.  McCormick was one of the best hitters in the National League during the early 1940s.  His career was not long enough, nor his later years good enough, to reach the Hall of Fame.  However, the Reds have inducted him into their team Hall of Fame.  He died in 1982, so there are obviously very limited options for adding his signature, very happy to find this card.  

and my 1B card.....

would have to be this Sweet Spot Rusty Staub autograph.  I probably waited way too long to add this card to my collection.  He was a very good Major League player and one of the better players to have come through Durham.  Staub had been sick for awhile and passed away earlier this year, which made this card way harder to find than it would have been if I had made an effort to track one down sooner.  

Outside of those cards, I made 42 1990s Cardinals posts, usually on Mondays.  It gave me the chance to show off some of the cards I collected while I was in middle school, high school, and college.  Not the best era of Cardinals teams, but there are some great cards and stories in those posts....

Anytime you can show off your "Hard Hittin" Mark Whiten cards you are winning.  I consider my Cardinals half of this goal a smashing success.  As for the Durham Bulls posts.....

I only made 18 posts about Durham Bulls autographs this year, which is down slightly from 2017.  I am really considering a little bit of a reformat for these posts in 2019.  I will go into a little detail in a post tomorrow, or Thursday, about my goals for this coming year.  I think that these posts were a really good idea when I started them two years ago, but they do come with their challenges.  There are a simple changes I can make that will help make these posts better.  

This Andruw Jones card is my favorite card from my Durham Bulls autograph posts this year that was not Rusty Staub or Frank McCormick.  

Thank you to everyone who stops by and reads my ramblings about baseball and baseball cards.