My 2021 goal is complete

 I know I've been setting easy to achieve goals for the year, but I've topped myself this time...as I've already completed 2021's goal! 

I've been trying to keep the goals light...the 2018 goal burned me out on the hobby for about a year. (getting one new card every day of the year to celebrate my 30th anniversary in the hobby). This year's goal was to scan every card I got at Christmas 2018, and I accomplished that in early January.

2021's goal was to get my packs scanned on the Trading Card Database to 1000. I was at 931 as recently as the afternoon of December 6th. However, I think it's safe to say I've hit that mark...

...considering how I'm now at 1047 posted!

I'm one of the few collectors who collect the packaging. Boxes, packs, I save them all. I started that in 1999, and wish I had started sooner...I still hear the occasional comment about how they are "garbage" and I should throw them out, and that is coming from other card collectors. 

However, they are not sorted or organized in any way, shape or form. They are just in whatever I could fit them in, mixed in to my storage unit, which, ah, well....let's say the former houses destroyed by tornadoes on the Weather Channel are more sorted and organized. They aren't even in anything resembling chronological order, after we discovered that the former units were leaking with every rain storm and moved to a new, climate controlled unit in 2016. 3 units were condensed into one in a mad dash to get it done- 20 years worth of stuff moved in 7 days. It was an ordeal. Because we had a time limit we couldn't really sort anything- it was simply grab and dash, throw it into the new unit, and make another trip. And I may have neglected to mention that I'm a hoarder- everything I've ever owned...I still own. 

BUT....last week, my brother and I (mostly my brother- I have physical limitations on what I can do) began the monumental task of fixing the storage units. Getting them sorted and organized the way that I have always dreamed. Monumental is not hyperbole. This is going to take years. And that's OK...we are actually enjoying the process, and every single time we've found things we were looking for and had not any idea where it had gone off to, and I've found some things I forgot I even had...things I needed, and would have had to replace shortly, had I not found them. (Modeling stuff, if you are curious)

And of course, the very first trip, we find a box that I had not looked inside of for years, which included a large number of card packs! It was mostly 2000-01 through 2002-03 NBA, but there was some older- as far back as 1992-93- and some NASCAR as well A separate shopping bag- my usual method of sending something to storage- yielded the 2006-07 Rookie Debut box and packs, which I had, from 2006 through 2012, believed would be the last NBA box I ever opened, which I now know was not accurate in the least. 

When I posted the scans missing to the Database, it turned out that I had posted 116 pack images, 13 factory set images and 32 box images from this trip to storage. My 2021 goal was not just met on December 6th, 2020, it was obliterated. And that was just on the very first trip...

Earlier tonight- I'm writing this at 2:11 AM, so technically last night- we went to the unit and worked some more. And found some more...boxes, packs, and even cards- at least some of which I had never even opened! (a factory set of 1994 Skybox NASCAR- which I was "missing" 7 of the 26 cards of all these years!) . While this is going to be a lot of effort- remember, monumental- it's going to be worth it. And we know some things are going to be destroyed. Not only did the original units leak, they were also home to several Mickeys and Jerrys if you know what I mean. But the good is going to FAR outweigh the bad, and there are some things that I'm specifically looking for, that when found will be getting their own Lost & Found series posts (which technically this is one as well). 

Now...do I come up with another goal for 2021, or be happy that I've already completed it and just take what the year brings me? I'm leaning towards the latter. Although I didn't come up with my 2020 goal until December 31st, 2019, so I guess I still have time. 

Oh, by the way, the 1000th pack image was this one- 

The back of 2000-01 Topps Gold Label. Even the packs were awesome looking on the Gold Label sets. (As an aside one of the Gold Label boxes and presumably the packs inside is one of two I am absolutely sure were destroyed by the leaking, but I'm not sure if it was 1999-00 or 2000-01. It was covered in mold and disintegrating, I had no choice but to throw it out. The other was 2000 Press Pass VIP NASCAR). I'm pretty sure the box I scanned all of these out of was actually the results of repacks, which I'm glad about since there were several retail packs in there, and I normally did hobby only at that time...or at least I thought I did. Apparently not. The fact that the box they were in was mailed to me in 2006 also makes me think they may have been packs I opened long after they were new, but there's no way to really know since I do have a tendency of repacking things when I look inside of them...for instance when I brought the box back over to the unit tonight, there are now packs from 2019-20 in the same box. Hockey packs, which I didn't even collect or watch the last time I saw inside of that box.

Eventually, the goal is to have it all sorted, and have the packs and boxes neatly sorted, and all together. I probably won't be able to sort them chronologically because they are not evenly sized, but that's OK. I'm OCD as should be obvious but it manifests more in trying to get everything into as small a space as possible, and the photos/scans in chronological, properly labeled order.