Goals.

 Do I really want to review my goals from 2021?  

Not really.  I thought about skipping this post, but it is something that I traditionally write every year and I feel like it provides good closure. Honestly, I have really mixed feelings about my life as a card collector during the past year. Maybe writing a post will help out a bit.  

Let's get started.  

My first goal from last year was......

1. More Pre-1970s Durham Bulls Cards/Sets 

Flipping back through all my posts I made this year, I had a post about a missing Pat Darby card that I needed to finish off my collection of Durham Bulls cards from the 1975 Topps Mini set. I bought a copy of the Topps Mini card from someone on Sports Card Lots, but they accidentally sent me the regular full-sized copy of the card.  

I got the mini a few weeks later, shown below in a gigantic scan that makes the card appear not very mini.  It is mini. 

Not exactly pre-1970s, but it's pretty close.  

I searched through the rest of my posts for the year.  

There were not many, so it was not too difficult.  

Hmmm.

A week ago, I posted a new autographed card, from 2021 Archives, of Greg Luzinski.  "The Bull" appeared on the Durham Bulls in 1969.  That is a Durham Bulls player from pre-1970.  

 

That just about wraps up that first goal. How should I score that?  Is that 1 card, no cards?  As a teacher, how would I grade myself on this goal? Let's talk about that later in the post. 

2. A 1960s Set Project (Maybe Two) 

This one is going to be pretty good.  Yes, I worked on a 1960s set project. I bought and traded for a whole bunch of 1964 Topps Giants cards.  I am more than halfway done with the set. No, I did not finish the set project, but I got the Mickey Mantle card out of the way. That felt like a positive accomplishment.

 

I am going to ignore that part about a second set from the 1960s and rate this one as a positive. Again, I am not going to give myself a grade until the end of the post.  I have had fun working on this set and have really enjoyed looking at these cards and learning about the players. 

3. Find Another Former Bulls Player.....

I feel like I have actually found two new Durham Bulls players to collect, but also had a surprising twist with a former Durham Bulls player this year.  

My two new players were Luis Patino. He pitched for the Bulls during the 2021 season, but also made a few starts for the Rays. He's a nice pitcher, I figure he's likely to turn out pretty well. The Rays are good with young pitchers.  

 

I managed to find seven or eight of his autographs during the year along with a handful of base cards and serial numbered parallels. I have enjoyed collecting his cards, so I will likely continue to find more Patinos in 2022.  

 

I also spent time working on Jake Cronenworth cards. He was on the Durham Bulls in 2019, one of my favorite players from the team over the last few years. Cronenworth is a fun player to watch, very good hitter and he plays all over the field. Unfortunately, a lot of other people have also decided they like Jake Cronenworth. His cards have been a little more expensive than I would have anticipated and that has slowed me down a bit.  

I will still continue to collect his cards in 2022. Let's just hope some people lose interest in his cards.  Please, let's make Cronenworth more affordable in 2022. 

My last one is surprising.  

 

 

The Rays traded Blake Snell to the Padres in December of 2020. Naturally, half of Blake Snell's cards this year still showed him in a Rays uniform. Why? I don't know and I am not going to complain. 

4. Be More Consistent With Writing 

I use gifs a lot when I am teaching. They are fun and entertaining. I am going to summarize this goal using a gif.  

 The answer is no. 

How did I do? 

Let's be honest. It was not very pretty. There were many factors that I am not going to rehash in detail. I did not make many posts and they felt very random at times. Time and energy were certainly a major factor, along with drifting a bit as a collector.  I am going to move on from my 2021 goals and look forward to collecting in 2022.  

I will go ahead and set my goal for 2022.

1. Have fun collecting cards.  

That's it.  

I hope everyone has a great New Year!  See you in 2022.