How Did I Do In 2019?

I set goals at the beginning for 2019 way back in January.  I will do the same with my first post of 2020, but first let me go back over my 4 goals for this calendar year. 

The four goals were:

1. Less sets, sort of....
2. More single cards
3. More small projects
4. More Cardinals and Durham Bulls cards

A quick breakdown on each goal. 


Goal #1 - Less sets, sort of....

I had originally set out to put together four different sets during the 2019 calendar year.  The four were Topps Series 1, Topps Series 2, Topps Update, and Topps Heritage. 

I ended up buying packs of Series 1, Series 2, and Update.  I never put the sets together.  I did not really miss them too much, and it made my wife really happy that I was not sorting out tons of new cards this year.  Happy wife, happy life. 

I did put together the Topps Heritage set, and also got a bunch of the autographs. 

My favorite was obviously my Snell autograph. 

Underperforming on a goal that involves cutting back is usually considered a win.  My wife does not read my blog, but she has been thrilled that there have been hundreds of cards out at a time most of this year, rather than thousands. 

This is a win. 

Goal #2 - More Single Cards 

Two players were mentioned by name when I wrote this goal up last January.  First, I could not have done any better with trying to find cards of Blake Snell.  I reached almost 30 autographed Snell cards on the year, which does not include other single cards that I found of my favorite former Durham Bulls player. 

Obvious success.  

I also mentioned trying to find more Jack Flaherty cards.  That got a little complicated as the year went along.  Last year, Snell won the Cy Young and his cards did not move very much in price.  Flaherty was a Cy Young contender this year, but his cards got a little harder to find/afford after the middle of the season.  

I still picked up a few nice ones along the way.  

I am going to work more on Flaherty next year.  Still, happy with the Flaherty cards that I added to my collection.  All things considered, I think that I did well with his cards.  

I usually pick a Durham Bulls player to collect during the year.  That did not really happen this year.  I mainly worked with former Durham Bulls players like Brandon Lowe, but that really goes with my fourth goal.  

Overall, I did really well this year buying single cards.  I mean, that's pretty much all I did all year.  

3. More Small Projects 

This goal start off great.  Way back at the beginning of the year, I went through and worked on finishing up a bunch of the 1980s Topps Glossy Mail-In sets.  I had chunks of the sets, but none of them were complete.  I did a great job of finding the cards I needed, and closing out my lists to finish off the sets. 

After I the Glossy sets, I think I might have done a Denny's set.  There might have been a Durham Bulls set or two in there too.  Hmm. 

Did I mention that I collected Blake Snell cards this year? 

This goal did not really go to plan.  

It was a good idea.  It just did not work out the way I had intended. 

4. More Cardinals and Durham Bulls cards

If I did a full write up on the number of Cardinals and Durham Bulls cards that I added to my collection during the 2019 calendar year, it would quadruple the length of this post.  I am on vacation, nobody wants me to spend the entire day sitting in front of my computer typing up blog posts. 

My first post of 2020 is my new set of goals for the new year.  My second and third posts will be about my favorite Cardinals and Durham Bulls cards from the past year.  There are some good ones on the list.  I will share one card which checks off both lists as both a former Cardinal and Durham Bull......

Plus, it's a Cracker Jacks card.  That was a first too. 

Overall, this goal was a definite success, and gives me three out of my four goals for the year. 

New goals up in a few days.  I cannot wait to read what everyone else has planned for their collections in 2020.