Chaos and Kanji is the blog where I write about my adventures through Japan!

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Friday, January 1, 2016

2016's Collecting and Blogging Goals

Yesterday, I realized that I did quite well with my collecting ambitions, but my blogging efforts were seriously lacking. It's not due to a lack of posting material, however.

That means, now that it's next year, it's time to decide where to focus my energy for the next 365 days.

Let's start with the blogging goals for 2016.

  1. Fully update my card shop posts and publish the card shop directory I've mostly put together already.
  2. Finish up the Japanese card index page.
  3. Seriously, get those Calbee set posts done!
  4. Go back to the Idol Card of the Week posts.
  5. Post timely new release information for Japanese cards.
Do these look familiar? Basically, I copied over my plans from last year. And they don't require much explanation.

Now for my collecting goals.
  1. Finish the 1973 Topps set. I've been working on this for five years now, but most of the cards have come from Jim and a few other bloggers/readers. I knocked a few off the list around Black Friday, but most of what's left are high numbers and stars. Including the Schmidt rookie.
  2. Get the nine remaining relics I need for my players collection. A couple are fairly rare, so if I can get five I'll be happy. Additionally, pick up 20 of the 40 "hits" I want (mostly autographs or memorabilia of celebrities).
  3. Fully update 2014-present in the Japanese baseball type collection, and organize the non-sport type collection.
  4. Reduce my Japanese sets wanted list from 162 to 100. I will probably delete at least 30 sets, but I'd like to actually finish some of the sets too.
  5. I have 428/1023 foreigners in my NPB collection. I'd like to reach at least 500 this year. (As a side goal, I should spend a few hours researching to see which players don't actually have NPB cards. And the list needs to be updated for 2015.)
  6. Somehow deal with the Japanese Baseball Stadiums and Japanese Awards collections.
  7. My US card set want list is at 174 sets right now. I'd like that to drop to 125. (1973 Topps is first on that list!) Additionally, there is a "full set" want list that has 59 sets; I want to reduce that to 50 sets.
  8. Finish my set runs of Upper Deck and Stadium Club. UD is really close: I need 2003 and Pujols' 2001 rookie. SC is a bit more of a challenge, with 1997, 1999, and 2015 needing full sets; 2003, 2008, and 2014 are partially complete. I can't finish 2014 until I can get a want list created; I have a lot of cards back in the US but I don't know the card numbers.
  9. Knock the Awards collection want list down to 200 cards; that's about half of the cards on it right now.
It turns out that I've set the same number of goals this year as last year, but I'm being a bit more ambitious in meeting those goals. I anticipate some major changes in my life this year, though I'm staying in Japan. No, I'm not expecting to get married or anything. But we'll see how things go!

9 comments:

  1. I'll see what I can do help you with the 73 Topps set. My semi-local card show seems to always have them.

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  2. Good thing it's a leap year for the extra day. Thanks for posting your goals! If I think I can help you with any of the items, I'll let you know.

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  3. Kenny: Thanks! And one of these days I'll go on a full-out Kuroda hunt for you, since you said you have that Homecoming set already.

    R Laughton: Thanks for the comments here and on my other posts! I'm a bit behind due to the holidays (I wrote a lot of posts at once). I plan on "plugging" your sumo blog soon, because others who read here might be interested.

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  4. I started working on a 1973 Topps set at some point in the past, but that project kind of got lost in the shuffle. I like the look of the set, though, so I may pick it back up some day.

    Good luck with your collecting goals, and even more luck with your blogging goals! I like all the different stuff you come up with to post.

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  5. Best of luck on your goals Ryan! I'm tracking down the 1973 set myself... but I'm going to cheat and just buy one.

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  6. Thanks Raz! The '73 set comes and goes for me depending on what else I'm chasing at the moment. But I'll be happy to see it completed this year.

    Fuji: If it wasn't for a massive kick-start on the set (Jim: thank you again, so much!) I would have probably never tried to collect the set, instead just buying one at some point (if ever). While it's taking me a long time, the fun of trying to hunt down singles has inspired me to try and built some other true vintage sets at some point in the future. I'm sure when it comes to most of the '70s sets, I'll buy them in complete set form.

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    1. It seems a lot easier to buy those sets in their entirety rather than piecing them together, but I guess you lose out on the process of set-building when you do it that way. I like set-building, but I hate all the wasted money and duplicates that come along with it.

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    2. Agreed. With 1973, there haven't been any duplicates. Or, perhaps just a couple, since I've been collecting via gifts, trades, and individual card purchases. There are so many sets I want complete that for many of them it's better to just buy them whole and focus on building the tougher sets.

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