Goals for 2022, Grades for 2021

 新年明けましておめでとうございます！今年もよろしくお願いいたします！

2021 was more or less my 10th year in the hobby and it's the first where my enthusiasm for it dropped as the year went on.

Part of that was due to me having priorities. A job, responsibilities, bills, all of that jazz.

But mostly I just got bored. It happens. My interests are cyclical. Just look at how my output this year was really top heavy, then a bunch of nothing, then a short spurt where I got to enjoy minor league baseball again, then back to nothing.

Does this mean I'm quitting the hobby and this blog like so many others are? No, not really. I can't make a commitment one way or the other. Give it some time and I'll probably still pick up cards here and there. And as long as I keep getting TTMs I will blog about them. If people took the time to sign for me, the least I can do is do research on them and do my best to talk about them. Note: if any of you were wondering why there wasn't any TTM roundup for November, it's because I didn't get any returns in November or even in December. Ending a long run of consecutive months with a TTM that went as far back as 2013.

Anyway, it's time for another year of seeing how my New Years Resolutions fared.

2021 Grades

5. Limit of 10 Singles Per Month

F. Broke this immediately in January.

4. 1 TTM Return

A. I got 56 returns back despite getting none in November and December. Big thanks to the awesome folks in the NWSL for picking up the slack in 2021.

3. $60 Limit on Retail Purchases

A. In 2021 I purchased a $10 hangar pack of Parkside NWSL cards and a loose $5 hobby pack of some NFL product. I went the whole year without buying or opening a pack of baseball cards, unless you count the Cyclones team set which I kinda don't tbh. The last time I bought a pack of baseball cards specifically because I wanted one for myself, was September of 2020. Woof.

2. Continue to Downsize

?. I'm not sure how to grade this honestly. In years past downsizing meant giving stuff I didn't want to other collectors. But I rarely sent stuff out at the rate I used to and at this point the stuff left is stuff I want to keep in some capacity. The only real "downsizing" that happened is me finally being able to send stuff that had been piling up for over a year to my collecting buds in Japan.

1. $600 limit

F. I kept track of my purchases this year. Even though this blog was dormant for most of the last 6 months and my enthusiasm for sports cards went down, let's just say that my interest in Star Wars cards completely destroyed whatever budget I had in mind. Also autograph signings are expensive.

So with that, here's to looking at what I hope I can talk myself into achieving in 2022.

3. At least get everything organized into one box

At the moment I have about four or five different long boxes as well some stray boxes filled with cards and scattered. It'd help me in many ways if I could finally just put them all into one box. I'd also want to put in stuff like memorabilia and promotional MiLB swag in there too.

2. One Autograph

I didn't specify TTM or IP or certified or even that it has to be an athlete. Lowering the bar to an autograph of someone I'd like to add to my collection. As I delved more into non-sports in 2021, I might get one.

1. $600 Limit

I trot this goal out there every year and I will continue to do so until I finally do it.

Aiming low and keeping it short because it's really tough for me to gauge how 2022 will go for me from a hobby perspective.  I could get super into it again, or it could just be short spurts with my output being limited to monthly TTM round-up with only like one return. And any number of things in between.

We'll see how things play out I suppose.

As always thanks for stopping by and take care.