Let's see how I fared with my goals in 2016 first.
Unrelated Scan 1
5. Go for a week without buying any cards
This happened a lot of times in 2016. I passed.
Grade: A
4: Go for a month without buying any cards
This was so easy I did it several times.
Grade: A
3. Go for SIX months without buying any baseball cards
I had this in my grasp, but ultimately I failed and only went five months without buying any baseball cards. Better luck next time?
Grade: F
2. One TTM Return
I finished 2016 with 276 TTM returns. This would've been enough for me to accomplish my TTM goal back in 2015 for the record.
Grade: A
1. One IP Autograph
I finished 2016 with 76 TTM returns. Therefore I passed.
Grade: A
Four out of five isn't bad I guess. I'm kind of bummed I didn't accomplish the six months goal. But you know what, sometimes the best kind of relief there is, is going nuts buying a bunch of baseball cards. And I bought the shit out of Dragons singles I wanted in December (and January).
Alright, with the 2016 reflection done, here's to looking ahead to 2017 goals.
5. Go Three Weeks Without Buying Cards Per Month
I'm not doing the six-months thing again. But I am going to try and go three weeks (that don't necessarily have to be consecutive) without buying stuff for every month (I'm excluding January). Leaving one week (of a varying number of days) for me to buy stuff (if I want to at all). Will it work? Who knows. I just want to control spending by any means necessary.
4. Monthly Limit for Card Purchases
It's no secret I can get very bidder happy when I see cool stuff on eBay that I feel I "NNEEEEEEDDD.' As such I've set up a $50 limit for purchases per month, whenever I go over that $50 limit, I have to deduct it from the next month. I've discarded my card-related purchases in Japan from my limit for January (otherwise I'd have to wait until around August of 2021 to buy stuff again), but I have gone over my limit already. You'll all see what I got at a later time, but for now, I have less money to work with in February. And if a unique Torrens card pops up during this time that I need, I'll just have less to work with in Februrary (and maybe even March). Luckily those months suck for cards.
3. Acquire Autographs of The Ghost crew
So one project I've been working on low-key is acquiring the autographs of the voice actors for the Star Wars characters Kanan Jarrus (Freddie Prinze Jr.), Ezra Bridger (Taylor Gray), Hera Syndulla (Vanessa Marshall), Sabine Wren (Tiya Sircar) and Zeb Orrelios (Steve Blum). I'd also include Chopper but according to the people behind Star Wars Rebels, Chopper has no voice actor.
As of this post I have Ezra, Hera and Sabine autographs in my collection. Hopefully I can get the remaining two this year as well. The key name is Freddie Prinze Jr., star of all of those chick flicks in the 90's your girlfriend made you watch. That said, I've already put some things into action here.
2. Downsize My Yankees Collection
Let me be clear, even though I'm not actively collecting Yankees anymore I have no intention of purging my entire Yankees collection. However, I still know that I have way too much of this pinstriped junk lying around and taking up space. My plan is to continue to dump Yankees cards on the usual suspects and also attempt something new, selling some of the more "finer" pieces.
1. Create a Definitive and Cohesive List of Players I'm collecting
Almost every single one of my trade partners have been demanding that I make an official list of players I collect and various projects I'm working on to make constructing packages for me easier. Well because such a task takes up time and work I never bothered doing anything beyond pressing the "New Post" button before eventually scrapping the post and turning it into another TTM roundup post.
But I'm going to at least try this time, for reals.
Unrelated Scan 2
Nothing too in-depth, don't expect some insane Excel spreadsheet someone spent hours laboring over, but maybe just a little post about what could really help with my new collecting focus. Ultimately I can already tell at the moment that what I'd "want" in a trade are either Dragons cards, Luis Torrens cards, or cards I can use in Japan. What I mean by that last one is that, basically I want cards I can give to my Japanese contacts who in turn can give me cool stuff I can give to the rest of you guys. If you want me to make it even more clearer, I need vintage Cleveland cards from the 20th century (yes, I'm including the 80's and 90's) for my friend Anco-san, and Houston Astros for another friend. And also random cards here and there for Ryan(-san?). Oh, and big leaguers who went to play in Japan too I guess. Oh boy...
I was going to also have goals about TTMs and IPs but I don't care enough about them at the moment to set any. What happens happens there.
As always thanks for stopping by and take care :).