This Year's Goals: Short and Sweet

 A new year, a new set of goals. I have no idea what the next 365 days have in store for me, Japan, and the world.

I spent a large part of the past year living away from my apartment, and this year may be more of the same. The Olympics could happen, and I could be attending a few events. I would like to go back home and visit my mother for Christmas, but there are lots of factors at play right now.

But here are my hopes for this rotation of the earth around the sun, at least as far as card collecting goes.

1. Finish some player collections. I'm hoping to complete my Michael Jordan baseball collection, Bartolo Colon, Tony LaRussa, and Tyler Austin for the US, and Alex Ramirez and Motonobu Tanishige for the NPB. Plus, I'd like to add three figures for my player collections; I currently need nine.

2. Complete various collections. Pokemon needs 41 from the new generation, plus about 175 variations. I need around 50 minis to finish that Frankenset, and just a few cards each to complete my relic, alumni, and knuckler mini-collections. Some of those cards are quite rare or costly. Also bundled in here are the MiLB and non-sport singles I need for a couple collections; this goal keeps getting pushed back year after year but perhaps the time is now.

3. Get at least one BBM set and one Calbee set. I'm currently working on the 1995 and 1996 BBM sets, and need five other sets that I could pick up complete. For Calbee, there are six series from 1998 through 2010 that could make this happen, including the entire 2006 set. In addition, I need one more card to finish the 2008 Calbee set: a mascot card that has oddly eluded me.

4. 75 or fewer sets on the US want list. I'm at 84 including last year's sets. Some are very close to completion! And 60 or fewer sets on the Japan want list. I'm currently at 63, so it's not a big jump, but these cards seem really tough to find.

5. Type Collection Inserts to 70%. I'm at about 67% complete on insert cards for my type collection, and getting to 70% requires about 200 cards. I think this can be done with a little focus. A second goal for this collection would be getting parallels to 50%; I again need about 200 cards to make this happen.

6. Create custom sets. I'm already planning to make some cards to fit in my collection where cards don't currently exist. I'd like to make some other custom cards or sets from my travel photos and some other hobbies or themes. Time will be a factor here.

7. This year's to-do list: complete the type collection labeling project I started last year, and properly label my card scans.

That's about it, half the number of goals as I had last year. Some of my goals are somewhat combined, so overall I might have the same number of tasks. Five of seven goals are purchases, since these are things I can do online, no matter where I am. Time to get started on those purchases!