Putting a Bow on 2016

Well, 2016 is over. It has been for a bit more than a week. I spent a couple weeks at home for the holidays, and I made an active effort to "disconnect." It sucked not reading the blogs at one of the best times of year (I mean, everyone has something new to share and it's awesome!), but at the same time, it was pretty relaxing.

So I'm back. Before I can start with new posts for the year, I have to write up the obligatory year in review of goals for the upcoming year posts. So let's get to it.

In January 2016, I made five primary collecting goals and five "I hope to do ____" goals. My first primary collecting goal was to get rid of excess cards. Well, I actually did this! I gave two 3,200 count boxes to the son of a colleague who is getting into card collecting. He seemed to like them, so I hope I can give him more while I am here. I also mentioned that I wanted to send some cards to Signatures for Soldiers. I have the box full of cards, I just have to pull the trigger. So I consider this goal completed.

My second goal was to organize and catalog my collection and trade bait. Back in August, I posted a few pictures of my lack of organization accompanied by a plea for help. This led to a contest which P-Town Tom won. The contest didn't have a lot of entrants, but it seemed that a few people that wanted to enter didn't see the contest until after the deadline. So, I'm thinking we need a Round 2!!! More on this and my collection organization in a later post. Just know that I give myself a solid "B" for this goal. 

The third goal was to be a better trade partner. I will say right now, I still need to work on this. I made a few new trade partners and I sent out some cardboard "just because," but when it comes to active trading, I need some work. 

Speaking of needing more work, I also need to work on commenting more on your blogs. I read the blogs every day (minus the last couple of weeks), but I don't always comment. I need to change that.

Lastly, I wanted to select a pre-1970 Topps set and collect 15% of it. As with many of my goals, I think I set the bar a little too high on this one. I selected the 1969 set, which has 664 cards, not including errors. Of these, I have collected 46, or roughly 7 percent. To reach the 15% target, I would have needed nearly 100 cards. On my budget, that isn't realistic. So, even though I didn't get to my goal, I consider this a success.

I also had five other "lesser" goals. I wanted to acquire a Mantle from his playing days (fail), gain 10 new followers for my blog (success!), find five new trade partners (umm...honestly not sure), add 100 new cards to my Rangers team set project (success!) and incorporate more TTM requests into my collecting habits (success!).

Of these, the lack of adding a Mantle stands out the most. The 1969 Mantle was the first card on my 2016 Top 5 Most Wanted list and it was the only card that I didn't acquire. I guess it will have to be on the 2017 list. 

So, all in all, I guess 2016 wasn't too bad for my collection. My interests have continued to narrow and reaching my goals seems to be possible. I'll take it. 

Now, if the Rangers can just win the World Series, I will be truly happy....