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 There are about 35 unpublished posts in my draft folder from before my hiatus and a few more I've added recently.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.

My Favorite Card(s) of 2017

Look at me go, three days in a row!

You've seen a couple of cards I really liked over the past two days but which one beat them all out as my official entry into P-Town Tom's contest for my favorite card of 2017?

There are a lot of photos in this post so I won't drag it out. My favorite card of 2017 is this seemingly innocous Jose Quintana card out Topps Update.

I know this particular design isn't widely liked but I think the photo selection and crop job Topps did is very good here. The empty green seats and orange splotches looked very familiar to me the moment I saw it. Why?

Although the photo is different, that same background shows up on his Topps Now card from earlier this year! And if you saw my post yesterday where the Topps Now card made my short list, you know that I was at this game! I was there with my two sons and the first time I had been to Camden Yards since the Nationals came to DC. 

Here is our view of Jose Quintana's very first pitch with the Cubs from the cheap seats. An anticlimactic ball, haha.

A little later we moved down and to the other side of the field. Here's Ian Happ in the batter's box and a view into the Cubs dugout. Two years ago we saw him in low Single-A ball (South Bend) shortly after he had been drafted. Crazy. Earlier this year the Cubs had their previous five first-round draft picks on their 25-man roster at the same time. Javier Baez was selected 9th overall in 2011. Albert Almora 6th in 2012, Bryant 2nd in 2013, Kyle Schwarber 4th in 2014 and Ian Happ 9th in 2015. Pierce Johnson was a late first round supplemental pick in 2012 and made his debut this year as well. But I digress.

A little bit later we shifted to the Cubs dugout side. Check out this shot of Kris Bryant on first, Anthony Rizzo in the box and Willson Contreras on deck. I forgot how much better the views are at Camden than Nats Park. Too bad the Cubs only come here every 6 years...

As noted on the Topps Now card, Quintana threw 7 scoreless innings and struck out 12 Orioles. The Cubs would go on to win 8-0.

I know what you're thinking. Matt, you had a great time at the game. Quintana had a spectacular debut. But if you like horizontals so much, how did this plain ol' vertical base card beat out the horizontal Topps Now card for your favorite?

Easy.

Parallels!

One of the things I like about Topps Now is the immediacy of having a card from a game I've attended. But of all my "I Was There" cards, just two of them were not Topps Now cards. The other was the New Era Andrew McCutchen card and none of these had anything to chase after I got them. And that's something I've missed out on with my current collecting situation. The chase. 

It's been a long time since I sought out parallels other than the plentiful golds. So after discovering the connection between the plain ol' Topps Update card and me being at the game, achasin' I went. Including the base card above, I now have 8 different versions.

Gold #/2017

Vintage Stock #/99

Black #/66

Mother's Day Pink and Father's Day Blue, both #/50

Unnumbered Negative and Rainbow Foil

But I wasn't done yet. The Jose Quintana card was also featured in the Topps Chrome Update release. There were fewer parallels in the Update version than the Chrome Base but I managed to snag five variations. I'm pretty sure I just need the 1/1's here.

Chome Update Base Version

Chrome Update Refractor #/250

Chrome Update X-Fractor #/99

Chrome Update Gold #/50

Chrome Update Red #/25

Let's go smaller?

Topps also released mini cards again through boxes on their website. There are only a handful of these parallels so I just have a mini base and a mini orange so far. The orange is #01/25. The red, blue and gold have yet to show up in the usual places.

Bigger, you say?

There is a seller on ebay with the 5x7 versions sold individually. I believe these were only available through buying a complete set so thank goodness for resellers (sometimes). The base on the left above is # 01/49 while the gold on the right is # 01/10.

While I encouraged a few of you player collectors to go even bigger with the 10x14's Topps sells on its website, I myself showed restraint. Unfortunately, I missed out completely on the gold 1/1 but the base version numbered to 99 is still available. Maybe the next sale...

And a last minute addition, the pièce de résistance...

Base Card Magenta Printing Plate 1/1

So there you have it. My favorite card of 2017 and his 17 parallel siblings. The hunt so far hasn't been too difficult or even expensive, but there are still some "gettable" cards that I'm waiting for to show up. A Memorial Day camo parallel sold before I started my chase and another hasn't emerged since. And there is a waaaay overpriced Chrome Update printing plate out there that I'm waiting for the price to drop. Here's what else I'm still looking for.

Missing parallels:

Base:

Camo/Memorial Day /25

Clear /10

Platinum /1

Printing Plates (3 more) /1

Chrome:

Super Refractor /1

Printing Plates (4) /1

Mini:

Blue /10

Red /5

Gold /1

This is probably my last post for the year so Happy New Year! I've got a few things in the draft folder ready to go so see you in 2018!

My Cubs Card(s) of the Year Runners-up

Yesterday I started my blogging comeback with a couple of non-Cubs cards as runners-up for my favorite card of the year. Today, we're on to the Cubs portion of the nominees.

I added nearly 300 Cubs cards to the collection from 2017 alone but feel like I still have at least that many more on my makeshift want list. I couldn't keep up! It is a far cry from just a couple of years ago when the Cubs "team" sets were only 3-4 cards and maybe an insert.

I don't know how to talk about the World Series celebration cards without sounding pretentious, but there were quite a few to choose from.

There were a couple of World Series Highlights cards in Series 1 Flagship but this Topps Heritage card was the first one on my radar as something special. So much so that I contemplated buying one of the larger versions Topps sells on their website to frame up and potentially get autographed around the border and pant legs. I think blue signatures would really pop on this card design. That idea faded but writing this has me thinking again. Hmmm...

The Cubs had quite a few Topps Now cards again this year but the presentation of the World Series Trophy, the raising of the Championship banner and receipt of the Championship rings back in April were my favorites of the bunch.

This Postseason Celebrations card out of Topps Update was a late comer to the competition but gets bonus points as falling into my "I Was There" niche collection. The photo used comes from the championship parade I attended with a few million of my closest fellow Cubs fans. I wonder how many other cards have a player chomping on a cigar?

And speaking of the parade, Topps Stadium Club had a slew of SP photo variations from that day.



Ten of them to be exact. Almost a perfect binder page, but Topps took it one card too far. Unfortunately, none of these ten are in my collection yet so they are relegated to runner-up status. Although I was generally aware (and that's enough to convict in the NFL) of some of these SP cards existing, I hadn't actually seen them until recently to know how they would fit in my collection apart from just being Cubs cards. For me, SPs are welcome but not necessarily sought out. Until now. This will probably be a main goal for 2018 now that we have a new defending champ and prices may die down a bit.

Back to Topps Now for a minute, there were a few more that fall into the "I Was There" category.

In Washington on my dad's birthday...

A few weeks later, a spectacular Cubs debut in Baltimore...

And my second postseason game (after the 2015 Wild Card Game in Pittsburgh). Back in Washington, amazing, and then heartbreaking as the Cubs fell in the late innings.

Lots of quality cardboard with personal meaning right there. My pick for Favorite Card of the Year might seem anticlimactic in comparison!

My Non-Cubs Card(s) of the Year Runners-up

Testing, testing, is this thing on?

Wow, times flies doesn't it? It's been one of those years of long days and quick weeks. I've had a few other things occupying my time and money this year but I've tried to keep up with everybody as best I could in terms of reading and commenting. I've followed a few newer blogs in recent weeks but if there any other new ones, send links my way!

As for my collection, I think I added more non-Cubs cards than Cubs card in 2017. That sounds crazy for a year in which the Cubs were probably overrepresented in every set but with a few budget restrictions and much of my collection packed up, I tried to let the hype (prices) die down a little bit on Cubs cards and focused on things I knew I didn't have.

For example, I really went to town on my Ivy collection/Frankenset. For those who saw/remember my post way back in August 2016 showing off Page 1 (again, time flies!), a lot of changes have been made. I can't wait to do a few posts on those additions.

In the meantime, I did pick up a few 2017 cards that caught my eye for various reasons. I'm not quite ready to post my Favorite Card of the Year, a contest sponsored by P-Town Tom of Waiting 'til Next Year, so please bear with me as I show off a couple of runners-up. Since I can't in good conscience pick a non-Cubs card as my favorite, here are a few of those, in no particular order, grouped by set.

A trio of Ivy cards from Topps Flagship leads off. Hernan Perez and Denard Span may end up in the Frankenset depending on the competition with their card number. The horizontal Jace Peterson falls under the "Por Que No Los Dos" sub-sub-collection. Addison Russell makes a cameo sliding underneath.

Topps Now is something I continued to pursue in 2017, although this year I stuck to the resellers on eBay rather than going through Topps in bulk. I added most of the Cubs cards and the above Brett Gardner for the Ivy collection (despite what it showcases). Interleague matchups are a tough find for this collection.

I added a Giancarlo Stanton from a Nationals/Marlins game I attended later in the season. With a chance at him getting 60 homeruns, I couldn't pass up free tickets to bear witness. It was a rainy evening (note the empty seats) but cleared up by game time. The "I Was There" niche collection also grew quite a bit this year, mostly because of Topps Now.

The final runners-up come from the ever popular Stadium Club set. As always, lots of great photography in this set but two in particular fit my niche collections. If I have to have a Cardinals card in my collection, it better have some beautiful Ivy such as the Randal Grichuk. Ivy generally shows up as a blur on these cards so being able to make out individual leaves is pretty cool.

As a military brat, I lived in Fort Leavenworth, KS during the late 80's Bo Jackson hype and managed to take in a few Royals games. What a beast he was. But this card was added to my Ryne Sandberg collection as that's Ryno making a cameo behind Bo and an umpire getting into position.

I hope to give these cards their own posts eventually as they certainly deserve them. Since they are all from 2017, I can easily find their source photos and go more in depth on them. My next post will be my Cubs runners-up and then finally, my pick for favorite card of 2017. Sorry to drag this out over 3 posts but I'm trying to get my writing groove back.