How did I do in 2014? Reflecting on this year's goals.

At the beginning of the year, I set fourteen goals for my collection and the blog. Let's review all of them and summarize my successes (and failures).

1. Reach 65% on my Japanese type collection.
I was at 56% at the beginning of the year, and now I'm at 53%. As far as the list at the beginning of the year goes, I have passed 65%. But a new guide with dozens of new older sets was released, and I also updated my lists from 2008-2013 with better data. I'd consider myself successful in improving my type collection.

1b. Find the last fourteen Calbee cards for my type collection.
I now need 46 cards for my Calbee type collection, thanks to the guide and research on some very rare sets. No good. I didn't really get a chance to Calbee hunt, either, so it's not like I made much progress on the first fourteen.

2. Complete the Calbee Through The Years post series.
Well, I didn't get past the 1970s.

2b. If I meet my second goal I'd like to do the same idea for BBM.
Yeah, no.

2c. Finally, I created a framework for a table of contents/index for my set posts, but I'd like to refine it and post it to the blog.
It's not published, because the Calbee posts were pretty much put on the back burner. But I've been building the index page.

3. I want to do better with my new release posts.
I'm not too far behind with this year's posts. I think I missed a couple, but I really posted a lot of details on the new sets as they were released.

3b. I'd like to bring back the previews and reviews of new MLB sets.
I tried this at the beginning of the year, but I quickly tossed it aside. Getting MLB cards in Japan is not easy or cheap, and I just can't get interested in something I can't actually hold. That said, I haven't abandoned my MLB collections, far from it.

4. Do something with Cardboard Zoo.
I haven't touched the site all year. However, my new release posts here for Japanese cards would be something I'd probably post on the Zoo. The spirit stays alive, though the content is now here.

5. Finish my NPB Live Game Collection.
I finally got this collection completed early in the year, and the single NPB game I went to this year was updated pretty quickly!

5b. I'm not really ready to start the MLB version of this collection, but I want to start creating a checklist.
Not only did I create the checklist, I went through the generous stash of cards in my collection from Kenny (Zippy Zappy) and others to knock a sizable percentage of the names off the list! There are 2321 total items on the list, of which I already have 543! Not bad for a random pile of cards mostly issued in 2012.

6. Collect 2014 sets.
I have almost all of the sets I want from this year's releases except for the flagship Topps set and Update, and Stadium Club. I've been trying to find a good deal for each of those, but have been unsuccessful. I need some SSPs from Goodwin Champions, too.

6b. I'll build some insert sets from 2014 too.

Again, I was fairly successful here, though I need:

• almost all 2014 Donruss Diamond Kings cards I have #29.
• most of the 1989 Minis from Topps
• and a few of the 1989 Chrome throwbacks

7. Post more details about Japanese card shops.
I published a few more card shop posts, and I built a few pages to be published in the future. I'd say I was pretty good here, though there is more I can do.

8. Finally, I want to post about the various awards and their winners in NPB.
I didn't get here. My Awards collection is about as complete as it can get, other than the 2014 winners. But I didn't get any posts written.

There were fourteen goals for 2014, of which four were complete failures. Three were partially successful, and two of those could be completed with a bit of cash or time.

That means I was fifty percent for the year. With my ambitious goals I'm not surprised that I couldn't finish them all, but I was hoping to at least get a C grade. There were other major accomplishments that I managed this year, too, though.

• I reorganized my set inventory spreadsheets, combining all the sub-collections into one big master sheet.
• I dove head-on into my player collections, and murdered the list!
• I also added two players to the list and made major gains for both of them.
• I mentioned this already, but I did some major updating of my Japanese type collection lists.
• I've scanned all of the cards in my Japanese sets, front and back.
• I photographed all of my souvenirs and collectibles.
• I built the 2014 Calbee set by hand. Well, the first series completely by hand, the second series partially, and the third series through a single auction purchase. (I'm still missing three cards that I plan on getting by the end of January.)

I'm happy with the way 2014 turned out in my hobby! What will I aspire for next year?