Wallet Card Game: I'm in!

My holiday vacations rarely leave me any time for relaxation, and there's always a period of time recovering afterwards. I pick up souvenirs along the way - tickets for the museums along with pamphlets, and occasional trinkets from some of the stops I make. 

And of course I go card shopping. So I have to make sure those are all catalogued and filed. 

And this trip, Kenny gave me some stuff... I'll get to that later. 

But now most of that is done and I can start getting back to my daily routine... eventually. For now, I do have my (somewhat late) entry into the Wallet Card Game!

That's a nice leather-framed Tony Gwynn from 2012 Allen and Ginter. Why Tony? Like many others, he is my favorite player, and it's a nice way to honor him. I chose A&G because I had an extra Gwynn and I like the look. It sits quite well in that part of my wallet!

I'll see Tony every time I buy baseball cards, because the flap that holds him and my ID covers my point cards. I'm really surprised I could fit a full-sized card in there actually. 

Hopefully he'll get to come out on some of my adventures soon! Last year would have been better, actually, with trips to Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore. But he should get to see a lot of Japan at the least, and take a trip back to America. 

2015: Finishing What I Started

There are a lot of projects and collections "in progress" right now. I am going to try to complete as many of those as possible this year.

Here are my collecting goals for 2015:

1. Get six flagship sets that I need. This could be pretty easy - 2014 and 2015 Topps plus the two Update sets and Stadium Club sets would be a quick six. I would like to tackle some of the other sets I need, though.
2. Locate the eight cards I need to finish the card portion of player collections for six players. Not a difficult accomplishment, but important. Additionally, keep up-to-date with 2015's releases for my player collections.
3. Find at least five of the ten figurines I need for my player collections. 
4. Get down to 400 needed cards for my Awards collection. I cut the list in half, to 494, over 2014, but the remaining cards will be a bit more of a challenge.
5. Keep my MLB Type Collection over 25%. It's at 25.5% now, but the past three years my collection has seen under-20% performance. (I should add that the number of sets issued each year since 2010 has been steadily increasing and is now more than double what it was that year... if my database is accurate.) I have been working almost exclusively with Just Commons and COMC to get the singles I need.
6. Reduce my wanted sets list to 175. There are 229 sets in the list now, between Diamond Kings, Team USA sets, and dozens of other issues. I can finish some sets and delete others. 
7. My Japanese type collection is at about 54%. I'd like to reach 60% by the end of the year. That's about 300 singles besides 2015 releases.
8. Reach 50% of sets in the Japanese type collection other than BBM and Calbee. Only about 40 singles will get me there, but most of those are old menko and bromide issues that just don't show up often.
9. Create and hopefully complete a collection for players who went from the NPB to the MLB.

And my blogging goals for 2015:

1. Finally finish those Calbee Through the Years posts. I've been working on this half-heartedly since 2013. One of the reasons I've been delaying this is that I don't have a 100% complete Calbee type collection. I'm not sure I'll get that far, though, so I'll have to just make concessions.
2. I want to publish my Japanese set database. I've got a lot of details ready but I'll need to take a weekend or two to really piece it together and make it shine. Recent discussions with a couple other bloggers might make this effort obsolete, though.
3. Continue posting new release details on all of the 2015 baseball sets.
4. Fully update my Japanese card shop posts and publish a map and list. Many shops are up-to-date, but I've been to many places that I haven't reported on, or can get additional details.
5. I didn't really commit to it, but I enjoyed my "Idol of the Week" posts. I'd like to make that a regular feature, and furthermore, start cataloging all of the idol and other non-sport card sets out there.

What do you think about my goals? What are yours? Post here or post a link if you wish!

Happy New Year!

I didn't get to post this on Christmas. But I'm putting it out there anyway!

Happy New Year!