Friday, January 24, 2014

The Hopeful Chase 2014 Collecting Goals



Arrggghh.  So far 2014 has gotten off to a grinding start in the writing department.  One post in 24 days is not good.  It’s not good at all. I can blame it on the weather (so very cold), the job (lots of weird hours), being sick (so many over the counter drugs), but it is mostly my inability to carve out a consistent time to write (so very lazy).  Just to let you know, I’m shooting for at least one post a week for the rest of the year. 

Today, it’s the 2014 Collecting Goals Post!  It’s good to have goals. Without goals we are directionless, wandering aimlessly though our existence without a plan.  If being with the Duchess over the last ten years has taught me anything – it’s that you have to have plan if you want to be successful.  So this year’s plan is…….

Finish off some god damn sets.

That’s right, 2014 is the year of the set completion.  And I’m not talking about recent sets like 2012 Heritage or 2012 O-Pee-Chee Hockey.  I’m looking to complete sets from all eras of my collecting days.  So that spans three-and-a-half decades (yup I’m old). 

Does that mean I’m not buying any new product? Wellllllll. Let’s not get crazy.  Of course I will.  We all get bored and need new stuff.  I’ll probably dabble in the Topps flagship product.  Every year I say I won’t but I do.  So there’s that.  There is also Upper Deck Series II Hockey. So there are two new products on the radar. 
Since I’m older I’m more responsible now.  Responsible people have budgets. Therefore I have a budget.  My budget for 2014 -$300. Of course, because I am me, there is wiggle room.  That $300 can be supplemented by eBay sales. So, if I sell something then I can buy something.  Winner, winner chicken dinner.

Let’s get back to the initial goal – finishing sets.  Throughout my 30-odd years of collecting I’ve started a lot of sets.  Unfortunately I haven’t finished a lot of sets.  It’s time to rectify that situation.  It’s time to finish off some sets.  It’s time to go back into the 90s and face the junk era. 

That’s where I’m starting. I have a lot of cards from the early 90s, yet I don’t have many complete sets.  This year I’m going to change that fact.  I’ve already knocked off the last two cards I needed for the 1990 Topps set and now I’m moving on to the 1992 Topps set.  I think 1991 Fleer will be next (so yellow, so awesome).
I’ll still go after my personal collection cards and various Lightning/Orioles cards as well, but my laser like focus (look, squirrel!) will be on finishing off sets.  We’ll see how that goes.

With that in mind, I did a little shopping on COMC last week.  For less than the price of a blaster I picked up thirteen new cards.  Here they are:

The Starting Point:




1983 Ryne Sandberg Topps

Yes, 1983 Topps is one of those sets I’m working on.  So with a little money in the PayPal account I decided to knock off one of the bigger cards of the set.  I saw a lot of Cubs fans this weekend.  They all want Sandberg as their manager.  They were also irrationally upset that the Cubs moved Bingo night from Friday to Saturday.


The Set Needs 




2012-13 O-Pee-Chee Hockey.
The Tom Pyatt doubles as a Lightning need as well so it killed two birds with one stone.  I have no idea who Brandon Manning is, but it’s one less Rookie card that I need.

Personal Collection




Late 90s Pacific cards were so shiny and unnecessary.  Bonus points for the greatest uniform in the history of Tampa Bay. The Upper Deck Trilogy is probably one of the last cards to be produced with Vinny in a Lightning uniform.  I’m going to be so sad when I get my first “Vinny in a Flyers uniform” card.  Lecavalier in a Ak Bars Kazan uniform?  Yes please!

Random Lightning Cards




Mike Commodore played in a handful of games for the Lightning, you think they would have made a bigger deal of a having a one-legged player on the team. The J.T. Brown collection grows by one and a Steven Stamkos Panini Toronto Expo card round out the bunch.


The Hits






Another jersey swatch for Vincent.  Pretty soon I’ll be able to sew together an entire sweater out of Vinny jersey cards.  That would be awesome.  A Keith Aulie signature?  It was less than two bucks.  I mean I think that’s his signature….

The Super Awesome Bonus Card




Favorite Team – check
Favorite Goalie –check
Favorite Jersey – check
If I ever pony up for a true throwback jersey it will be a Zac Bierk 3rd jersey.  Although I would go with the All Star patch over the John Cullen patch.

Good times!

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