2018 Cardboard Resolutions

New Year's resolutions typically are not my style.  I never have much passion to stick with them so I forget about them by February.  Perhaps committing them to a blog post will provide accountability.  I'll perform a 6 month check-up to see how I'm doing.

• Two blog posts per month

I know this doesn't seem like a lot.  For me though, it represents a significant time commitment.  With a baby, my free time is all but non-existent and only when he is asleep.  After taking care of myself and the house, I'm left with about an hour to balance my various interests such as cards, video games, music, and watching TV with the wife.

So yeah, two posts a month can be a challenge.  I think I'll also focus on writing smaller posts to help meet my goal.  This post will mark my second post in January so I'm doing great so far!

• Finish my 2008 Topps Printing Plate "Master" Set

2008 Topps Update - Black Pritning Plate

With 2008 Topps being my favorite set, I was planning to collect as many plates as I could.  Then after seeing eBay alerts every day I started to get board of plates.  I changed my strategy to collect  one printing plate of each color from all of the Topps sets released in 2008 using the main design.

Slightly limiting this goal is the fact that I don't like to spend more than about $10 on a plate.  If I get close to my goal by the end of the year I might splurge a little to finish it off.  I currently have 16 plates.  2008 Topps Football is the only complete plate set.  If I pick up two plates per month I will be on track to complete my goal.

• Complete collection of Mariners All-Star Game relics

One new project I started last year was collecting Mariners ASG relics.  Since 2005, Topps has included event-worn ASG jersey relics for most all participants. The Mariners have been included in every year.

The Ichiro ones have been the most expensive, $15-$20, but everything else has been reasonable. I haven't gone through my latest COMC order so I can't say for sure how many I am missing. It is not many.

2008 Topps Update -- pulled this one myself

2017 Topps Update - Mr. MVP

I'm only aiming for the standard jersey swatch pieces and nine of the jumbo or dual relics. Except for Michael Pineda who only appeared on a dual relic short printed to 25. I will have a tough time finding that one especially since it was released in 2011 Update.

• Open one hobby box of a 2018 product

My last posted mentioned that I focused more on singles.  That will remain the goal going forward.  Still, it would be fun to open a new product in the new year. I'm currently eyeing Topps Series 1.  The design could be better but it could also be a lot worse *cough 2017 cough*

• Complete two sets in my backlog

My focus will be 2008 Topps Update and 2017 Bowman.  Here's a chance for some low hanging fruit as both set needs are under 25 cards each.  I'll try a couple trades on The Trading Card Database to finish out the sets if possible.  Otherwise, I'll be taking a trip to Sportlots.

2008 Topps Update

Completing 2008 Update should be easy as I already have the Kershaw rookie.  I pulled this in the same box as the Ichiro relic, above.

• Finish cataloging my cards

Ever since Gavin loaded me up with a medium flat rate of cards for winning one of his contests, I've struggled to catalog them all.  Mainly it is because I'm short on some organizing supplies.  It is more efficient to catalog and organize at the same time rather than do it at two separate times.

I need to buy more tall card dividers to get back on track.  I used to use cut in half note cards but they proved to be too flimsy for my liking.

• WILDCARD: Update blog layout

I think my blog design is rather plain looking so I'd love to update it.  It might take a lot of work, thus the wildcard.  I don't have any expectations of finsihing this.  It will be a nice surprise if I do.

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This card is unrelated to my resolutions but it was the first new card for me in 2018.  Only $0.99 for a rookie card numbered out of 99.  That deserves a documentation.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading!