My 2018 Blog and Collection Goals

Every year I've been back in the hobby, I've said I was going to get better organized. I get off to a good start as work is slow this time of year. But then new releases come out, Spring Training starts and all of a sudden it's the All-Star break. I tuck away my loose cards in a box and will "get" to them later.

I have a dozen (at least) half-started spreadsheets to track my collections. I get to a good spot and then I think of a new and better way to organize, essentially abandoning everything I've already done. By brand? Year? Player? I think I've tried them all. Several years ago, the furthest I had gotten included scanning, cropping and naming the fronts and backs of several thousand Cubs cards before a crashed hard drive sabotaged my progress. Back up your files, folks.

Hopefully, this is the year that all changes. Since I started thinking about returning to the blogging world, I've come up with what I consider to be realistic plans and goals.

Blogging:

Staying on top of posting here should help me with organization (more on that in a bit). There are about 35 unpublished posts in my draft folder from before my hiatus and a few more I've added recently. There aresome card breakdowns I started but never finished. Cubs cameos on non-Cubs cards I want to investigate. ATCRCS cards I've gotten signed and never posted about. Other customs I've made. I hope you like Wrigley's Ivy because my Frankenset is itching to be bragged about. And maybe, quite possibly, continuing my 2014 Topps Blog. Hard to believe that my last post there was three and half years ago!

I'm definitely not hurting for ideas despite the abundance of Cubs bloggers. I just have to put aside a little time to get all of these ideas out of my head and onto the interwebs.

Getting Organized:

I know I will be moving in about 18 months, so this is a priority now more than ever. The time will inevitably fly by. I've long thought about keeping my Cubs collection in binders for ease of review, but with the move, I should probably focus on condensing into boxes.

I started late in the summer with my Ivy collection, developed a manageable system and hope to expand it to my entire Cubs collection by the end of 2018. I currently have all of my 2016 and 2017 Cubs cards scanned, entered into my spreadsheet and stowed. It's not much, a couple hundred cards for each year, but it's a start. And like I said, manageable. That's the key to any good organizational system, so I'm told.

Another series of post ideas to help hold myself accountable is to post progress reports. Gotta tie everything together, blogging and organizing. Organizing and blogging.

Adding New Stuff:

I wish I could say "no new stuff until I get my old stuff organized" but that'll never work. I know that if I find myself one 1992 Stadium Club card short of a complete team set, I'm going to want to add it and be done with it. And am I really not going to add any 2018 cards for several months? Yeah right.

But I have budgeted myself a little money each month for hobby expenditures and included a few incentive clauses for completing organizational tasks along the way. I know how my brain works and I think this is a good solution. More on that as I hit those goals.

With that in mind, I know right away of a few things I'd like to knock out.

1. 1991 Topps Desert Shield Cubs Team Set. I have a tab at the top from long ago. I just need one card, the base Ryne Sandberg. It's been readily available but I've been holding off for some unknown reason. Time to finish this off and focus on getting more of them signed.

2. 2016 Topps Archives Desert Shield Cubs. I've had three of the four cards in the team set for a year and a half but can't seem to get the last one I need, Anthony Rizzo. I put what I thought was a ridiculous bid in the last few moments on one that just ended on eBay, the first one in a loooong time and was still outbid. The winning bidder probably did not expect to pay that much but at least they got the card. I hope to finish this one off this year but I'm at the mercy of the limited supply.

3. 2017 Topps Stadium Club Cubs SPs. I just mentioned these the other day as runners-up for my cards of the year. With ten cards, one a month would finish the set in time, but I don't mind waiting for reasonable prices.

4. Ivy cards. As of this posting, I am very close to 500 unique cards featuring Wrigley's Ivy in the background. I'll add any 2018's as I see them and will keep an eye out for older ones I need.

5. ATCRCS cards. I didn't get very many signed in 2017. I'm sitting at 150 and feel like I could get to 200 with a modest amount of effort. One a week on average sounds feasible, let's see what happens.

6. Tony Campana cards. This collection has definitely slowed down since he hasn't appeared in the majors in a few years. If he gets a minor league issue, I'll pick it up. Also, still looking for any I'm missing, mostly 1/1's. If I add one new Campana card this year, I'll be happy.

7. Topps Now. I have every 2016 Topps Now card featuring a Cub and think I'm only missing two from 2017 that I somehow missed. I'll definitely finish 2017 but I'm undecided on 2018. If the design is somewhat decent, I'll probably pick them up. I'm a sucker.

8. Cubs cards in general. I'll try to keep up with 2018 releases and fill in some 2016 & 2017 gaps, but until I can get organized, I probably won't add too many older ones. 

If you managed to slog through all that, here's a teaser for you:

I ran into the store to pick up some milk. The holiday clearance stuff was close to the register, as are the cards. I half-heartedly asked the cashier if this box was considered part of the sale since it says "2017 holiday" right there on the box, ready to just say never mind. Apparently, I picked the right apathetic cashier as she entered in the override code for 75% off. No hassle, no fuss, just whatever. I should have picked up the other one they had too but didn't want to press my luck. I'll open it some time this week.