2017 Year in Review / 2018's Goal

2017 was an outstanding year for me in the hobby. I began collecting the NHL officially, and I am quite sure I will be doing that for the rest of my life. To be honest, I'm watching more NHL and spending more time on NHL cards than I am anything else- combined. But I'm still collecting the NBA avidly, and NASCAR and Non-Sports as I can. As of right now I've added 13,065 new cards to my collection in 2017...and I have a few trades that arrived that I have not opened yet, so that number may go up. That's 4th all time, and 95 cards away from 3rd all-time, and I have more than that in unopened trades for sure.

The majority of the cards I added in 2017 came from friends. I spent less money on cards for myself this year than any year since 2008. It's not that I don't love cards, and the hobby, and it's not like there aren't cards I want to add...I'm just trying (and failing, thanks to medical expenses) to save up enough money to make my lifelong dream of classic car ownership come true. Of the cards I've added this year...probably about 9,000 or more of them came as gifts, either from fellow collectors or family members, and trades. I think I only went to Target hunting new cards about 6 times all year long.

I did do my largest COMC order ever this year, thanks to family members gifting me some money to spend on there, and I wrote about them all through September, as well as the end of August and some of October.

You already saw my Top 12 cards of the year- the "best" from each month, which, honestly, is no small task to determine, when you are getting this many cards.

I created a couple of lists on the Trading Card Database as I track some aspects of my collection, which you may or may not find interesting. You can see them by clicking the following links:

• New People added to my collection in 2017 (NBA and NASCAR only, except for one NHL player I put in the wrong album) 
• New People Added to my collection in 2017 - Hockey Only
• New Sets added to my collection in 2017 (Everything, not just NBA, NASCAR, NHL, etc)
• Autographs added to my collection in 2017
• Relics added to my collection in 2017
• Serially Numbered cards added to my collection in 2017

I've never documented how many autographs, relics or SN cards I've gotten in a year before, but I enjoyed it and will continue to create these charts going forward, and sharing them in this style on Cardboard History.  My COMC habits have greatly increased the number of SN cards, as my usual habit is to sort by Serially Numbered, lowest priced first, and then just pick off whatever I can get for cheap that I don't already have. I'm seriously addicted to SN cards. Cards that feature more than one characteristic appear on multiple lists. A card that is autographed, relic piece and numbered (Triple Threat) appears on all three of those lists...and can appear on the others if it is my first card of that player or set, which I know in a couple of cases did happen.

Let's see how I did on my goals for 2017:

#1: Um, sort of. I broke out the Hockey cards when I began collecting the sport, but baseball and football are all in one album each right now. Click the links to see the albums.

#2. So close! I ran out of cards to scan that weren't already done. As I write this on December 30th, I have 249,542 points. I will get there in 2018, but it won't happen in 2017. Not for lack of trying! Update! I remembered I had some checklists to post, and they are 5 points each. I hit the 250,000 point mark at 9:25 PM on December 31st. By time I went to bed around 5 AM, I was already up to 250,144 points, from the checklists.

#3. I finished this one back in March. I decided I was tired of them hanging over my head, and I was afraid the new format NASCAR installed would kill my interest in the sport (which it did hurt, but didn't kill)  so I tried to get it done in February before the season started, but it took me too long, until the first week of March, but I did get it done.

#4. I failed miserably. I only typed up to 1996-97. I did post one Non-sport set, but the vast majority still needs to be done.

#5. I did this, then lost it again. I don't know why this is proving so hard to do. It shouldn't be, but it is.

#6. which was my main goal, was actually the easiest. I started January 2nd, and finished January 4th. I thought it was going to be harder. I probably would have gotten done even sooner if I wasn't dealing with a severe back problem that first week of the year.

#7. I got Elton past the 500 card mark when my COMC order arrived in August! He's still only ranked 10th on my collection as per the Trading Card Database, but is two away from 9th, which I have waiting in my COMC shipment/cart.

The one held in reserve was "Actively collect the NHL". Yep, I think that one was well covered!

I normally like to set myself several goals for each year. Not Resolutions- just goals that I want to achieve, and the new year offers a good breaking point, which is easier to remember, and easier to find the blog post stating what the goals are, than just randomly when the idea hits me.

But 2018 has only one goal. I've teased it several times here and on the Database.

Are you ready to learn what it is? Because I'm ready to reveal it! 😀

In 2018 I will be attempting to get 1 new card every single day of the year. Granted, I will get a lot more than 365 cards throughout the year. But as long as I get one new card each day of the year, then my project will be a success!

Why am I doing this? Because 2018 is my 30th anniversary in the hobby. I didn't celebrate my 10th or 20th anniversaries in the hobby- to be honest, I didn't even stop to count how long I had been in the hobby until my 26th year in it. I couldn't even celebrate my 25th because it was done before I realized it! This project has been in the works for several years now, actually. In 2015, I tried to do this project, but it didn't work. I messed up in thinking that a duplicate was new, and I was so sure I didn't check it. Big mistake. I have actually been thinking about, and stashing for this project, since 2015. Yes, I have been planning this one for a while. Actually, I was going to try again in 2016, when I realized I was approaching year #30 and decided to hold off for 2018.

 I have a stash of unopened packs, and some boxes of random cards sent to me by fellow bloggers- Angus of Dawg Day Cards, Ryan of SumoMenkoMan, Shane of Shoebox Legends and Mark Hoyle have all contributed to this project without knowing it! Possibly a few others, too...I don't even remember, I've been stashing away for so long.
My COMC Black Friday order arrived in the week before Christmas. I decided that I would use the cards from there to start the project. I don't think I will be able to wait to get access to them all, there are more than 200 in the box. That would last me many months but if I just use COMC stuff, I won't get to all the stuff I've stashed. Plus, it won't be a total surprise. I already know what's in there, in theory, even if there are so many I don't remember. They don't count until I actually have them in hand, though, and can look at them in my hands. Seeing them online doesn't count as them being part of my collection. Still, it would be nice to have a surprise...and some variety. You see, some of the cards in the stash from other people are not basketball, hockey or NASCAR. ANY card is open for this project. It can be baseball, football, even soccer, tennis or boxing. As long as it's a new card to me, then it counts. I want there to be some variety in this project and you WILL see baseball, football and wrestling, I am sure of that. I don't know who the people on the cards will be, or what sets, but we will find out in due time. There will be non-sports cards in the mix as well.

How am I going to be sure that the cards are new? I'm going to be documenting them each day via a list on the Trading Card Database. I may not make the list public every day- that will depend on if the card needs to be scanned or not, and how long it takes me if it does. But the list will be updated every single day, and eventually be made public. I'm also going to create a post for each month, and update it with scans. As soon as I can finish scanning the cards, hopefully on the last day of each month or the first of the next, I will post that month's post and you can follow along as I do this project, which I fully expect to be once in a lifetime, haha.

If I get more than one card in a day, the first one added will be the Card of the Day.

I don't know if this project will work...I hope it does. I hope it remains fun, and doesn't become a chore. I can't ever imagine that getting new cards would ever not be fun, but who knows? I don't think I will do this again...making sure there are no duplicates will be a lot of work, because I have a limited time each day to make sure, and then find another card if need be. (That's why I have such a stash of baseball and Sumo cards- there's almost no chance for duplicates there) What worries me is that I'll forget one day. My schedule also is something that messes with me, keeping me up at odd hours. That may play a role as will the busy days- IE, car show days. They take a lot out of me and I'm a little bit worried. But by time they start in May I should be well into the project.

I like to start each year with a typing project, and in a sense, I am. I had some typing stuff to do when I finished other stuff I was working on, and as it turns out, totally coincidentally, it happens to be typing time at the start of the year. I actually started already, right before Christmas, but I have a lot to do and it won't be done any time soon. I am going to work on it this month and then off and on for years- once the files are created, (About 90% done at the time of this writing) I will be maintaining them for the rest of my life, so it's not a project that has an end, really.

Stay tuned for my next three posts, as they are very important to me. They will come rapid fire over the next three days, scheduled for 5:00 PM Eastern Standard time.