Wednesday, January 5, 2011

State of the Collection 2011

2010 in review and an outlook to 2011

Well it's been an interesting year.  I've gotten a new job, moved, proposed to my fiance, bought a house, slayed a dragon, popped my trading cherry, officially started a new player collection (the Big Hurt), added to my current PC's, bought way too many cards, and participated in my first group box break.

So it's time to reflect on my collection and my collecting goals for the new year. Sorry for the lack of pictures.

The teams. 

After the big move which is still only a few weeks old.  I've come across things and cards I hadn't seen for months and sometimes years.  Always fun to find that stuff.  That being said I came across a large collection of Brewer and Packer Team sets, some I didn't even know I had.  One of the goals I had set for myself mid-year and one that will hopefully dominate is my Brewers super set.  I'm inspired by some of the great super setters around the Blogoteria, I decided to start putting together as many Brewers and Packers Team sets as possible.  The first step is to complete all Topps base team sets from the flagship.  This is fairly attainable since  Brewers cards have only been around since 1971 and the most expensive cards from the 1975 set, (Yount Rookie and Hank Aaron) and 1978 (Molitor Rookie), I already own making this fairly cheap.  Of course I'm going to be posting a complete  need list eventually and trust me I have tons to trade. 
The Player Collections.

As you can see I'm a big Robin Yount and Rollie Fingers fan.  I wouldn't have taken the time to make there own blog space if I wasn't.  This year was a slow year for Yount.  Mainly because there just wasn't that much out there and the stuff that was was fairly pricey.  Near the end of the year I finally decided to pick up some of the higher priced cards I needed before they disappeared totally.
Mainly his Topps Update bat barrels, Triple Thread Logoman, and Series 1 and 2 Hat Patch Cards.
He also had a card in the National Chicle which I picked up 3 of the backs, just missing the numbered Topps Umbella back.  I also have his Turkey Red from Update and the 1975 Yo momma cards, original back and regular, still need to find the 1985 cards without breaking the bank.  I also picked up his base #d to 250 Sterling card, a couple Tribute relic cards and his Series 2 variation.  Actually not a bad haul this year after all for a retired guy. 
That being said I have amassed  a lot of Yount cards over the years I'm still working on a finally count of unique cards but it's over 700 for sure.  That being said cards I need or want for the collection are slowing and that allowed me to focus my attention and collection dollars on my other player collections.  I have added a lot of sweet cards to the Fingers collection.  It's amazing how cheap I've gotten some of these great relic and auto cards for.  Some of the highlights this year was my completion of the 2009 Topps Tribute Rainbow for Rollie.  Snagging the Red 1/1 was a highlight, as well as, 2 printing plates.  I also finally added a Goodwin Champions Magician back mini #d to 8 to the collection.

My Reggie Jackson collection is coming along nicely.  While I'm pretty fanatical about the Yount and Fingers collections, going after cards sometimes with careless abandon, I'm much more opportunistic when it comes to Reggie and the rest of my PC's.  The one major goal I'm setting for myself this year is to acquire a 1969 rookie card for Reggie in excellent or better.  I have lots of base and oddballs from the 70's but have not gotten around to picking up his rookie.  I also haven't tried very hard.  I could always break down and buy the one at Don's Sportscards but I do love the chase and possible bargain of buying online.  I do however have his  Milton Bradley rookie card so that eases the pain somewhat.

Switching gears a minute to football.  My Brett Favre collection has slowed down.  I've still been adding new stuff regardless of uniform over the last few years but mainly just from packs I've busted.  I have a feeling after he retires prices will plummet until he's elected to the HOF and this will be a great time to pick up new stuff.  One of my continuing goals for this collection is to complete his Flight to 420 set from Topps.  Probably just the base set not the Chrome but maybe I might get crazy who knows.

I'm going to lump Bo Jackson and Frank Thomas together.  Both of which are fairly passive PC's, meaning mostly pack pulls and the like and I've been collecting their cards since their rookie years both I'm hoping to add a few more cards to over the next year but like Reggie it'll probably very opportunistic in nature and possibly through trades.

The Sets.

Since I started collecting card in 1987 I've tried to put a Topps Baseball set together from packs.  There are a few years missing in that timeline but I've done pretty well and am on the way to filling the holes. 
This year I ended up buying so much Baseball that I put 2 sets together, Series 1, 2 and Update, and still have a shit load of extras, I also put together a football set.
I'm looking forward to the 2011 set of baseball that'll be Topps' 60th.  Seem like lots of cool cards to be put into wrappers.
This year out of boredom to my chagrin I tried to put a Heritage set together, which I still haven't finished.  I put together a Score football, which would have been 200 dollars cheaper if I'd just bought a factory set, but I did pull 2 autos.  I also put a Panini Rookies and Stars base set together and Prestige base set, still working on the rookies.  I'm working on a Score hockey set for the first time ever and I like it.  I also finished my 2010 Allen and Ginter set, with the help of my favorite LCS, Don's Sportcards. And tried to put together a T 206 and National Chicle set both of which are unfinished but I'll probably post a needs list sooner or later.
I've been trying to finish the Turkey Red inserts from 2009 and this year and I'm close.
whew.
Next year since I just bought a house and will be a little cash strapped, I'm planning on holding to my guns but still plan on putting together at least one set of Topps Baseball and Football, because for all the shit I give Topps I still like a lot of there products.  This is going to be hard after having opened a few packs of Topps Magic, that set is beautiful.

Looking into 2011....

My goals are pretty simple this year. After moving into my new house, I realize how much shit I have. 
One of my goals is to consolidate and reduce my inventory of cards I don't want, through trades and selling.

I also put up my Yount collection at the Yount Collector and I'm slowly uploading scans of each card to photobucket and linking them to each card. I also plan to do the same thing with my Rollie Fingers collection and I hope that I can have that completed by the end of this year, taking my time so as not to get too overwhelmed.

Organize my Brewers and Packers Team sets.  One of my long term goals is to put together a Topps team set from 1971 to present.  I do believe I have 1971 complete so on to 1972!!! You can check out all the action once I set it up at Miles from Miller, my Brewers blog. I guess as a completist I would love to get a team set from every set but I'm just being reasonable.

I spent way too much money on cards in 2010 so I'll be scaling back a bit on boxes but I love to bust open a few packs of new stuff, so I won't deny myself that pleasure,  I think I'm probably going to try and complete the Kimball insert set in 2011 Baseball, I love mini's and inserts and retro so this is a no brainer, they'll go nice with my turkey red sets from 2009 and 2010.

ONTO 2011.......hiddy ho.

cb out

Oh and check out and enter my Superbowl Contest 3 days left!!








3 comments:

  1. Hello, I ran across your blog and it's funny how many people get started up again the same way. I recently went home for christmas vacation. I grabbed my old boxes of topps football and baseball cards from the 80's and early 90's then rushed to the liquor store to pick up a beckett. What's this, they don't have one, well surely the grocery store does, nope. I found that only the card store had beckett's. I remember in the late 80's you could find them almost anywhere. Anyway's after getting all hyped up to see what my score brett favre rookie was worth I realized the huge list of players per year was now down to about 10-20. Not only that but my favre rooke was worth a measly $8. Oh well, I didn't collect them to get rich and looking at the cards brought back a lot of fun memories. It started me looking into collecting again. I've thought about going smarter using ebay and the internet. I did pick up a few packs of topps prime and it was fun to open the pack, not knowing what you're going to get. I'm struggling with going the internet route or just buying packs. Also it's not as cheap as it once was. I'm ranting, Just wanted to say I enjoyed your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Kev,
    Thanks for the complement, always appreciated.
    And welcome back if you decide to take the plunge for reals. I have to say I love Topps prime. I ended up pulling a Toby Gerhart book from a random pack. Probably best pull of the year, last year that is, even though is a hated Viking. I love the look of the set I just can't afford to put a set together and retail and hobby are printed on different thinkness of card stock, hobby is thicker.

    That being said I left you a lengthy post over at A Cardboard Problem. But I'll put my suggestions here as well. I think if you going to get back in you might want to set a goal your collection. Ripping random packs is great if your just doing it for fun but if your looking for a specific team or player there are probably better cheaper routes than random pack ripping. Although I do love to bust me some wax. So do you have a favorite player or Players, team or sport. Do you want to put full sets together or team sets? Do you want to collect certain years or cards from certain manufactures?

    The important thing is have fun. Do you have any kids that you might want to collect with? One thing that is for sure is that the hobby has gotten expensive. But to be honest there are some gorgeous stuff out there, way out of my price range.

    If your looking to collect a certain player Ebay is a great way to go. Shipping can get a little out of hand but you can find some sellers that do unlimited cards for a flat rate which is nice. It's hard to pay $2.50-3.00 to ship one card unless that's a pretty kick ass card. I usually figure in shipping when I'm bidding on a card as to how high I will go. Checkoutmycards.com is another great place to find cards for certain players and their selection is getting better and bigger all the time, again there shipping and handling is a little pricey but if you take advantage of their bulk shipping it isn't too bad. Plus there's always trading with other bloggers and off of message boards like freedome cardboard. And the online retailers like Blowout Cards and DA Cardworld are great if you don't have a good local card shop or are just looking for some cheap wax to rip. Plus down there you get free shipping.

    Anyways welcome to the card blogoteria and fell free to ask any questions and enter my Superbowl contest for pete's sake.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've got a numbered Brett Favre parallel from 2010 Unrivaled that I just pulled. It's yours if you send me your snail mail addy...

    ReplyDelete