Reviewing My 2018 Goals

This post is a few days late, but I actually forgot about going over my 2018 goals until last night when I was catching up on reading some blogs.  All my family has went back home from the holiday break, so things should be back to normal by the weekend.  This means my hobby time will also go back to its daily routine.  On to the recap.

1.  Add 5 new Ray Lankford cards.    I knew this one would be tough.  I did manage to acquire 3 new ones:  1998 Studio Media Test issue, 1991 Topps Bold Logo variation, and a Bowman Buy back. 

2.  Add 5 new certified Cardinals autos.   I managed to add 6 new autos from Zach Kirtley, Sandy Alcantara, Alex Mejia, Harrison Bader, Ryan Helsley, and Bob Tewksbury.

3.  Complete 100 trades.   I am pretty sure I manages more than this as I completed 74 trades on TCDB, 20 on The Bench, and numerous trades on the blog and with Trading Bases members.

4.  Make 150 posts.   I failed at this one, coming in with 119 posts.

5.  Complete 1 of my remaining 1970s team sets.   I knocked this one off in June by completing the 1973 Topps set.

3 out of 5 is not bad, with a somewhat close call on the other two.  My 2019 goals are fairly similar.


1.  Add 5 new Lankford cards.   Maybe this year Topps will include him in the Archives set.

2.  Finish my 1970 Topps team set.  I only need card #716 to complete this one.  I hope to find a nice copy at a card show some time.

3.  Make 150 posts.  I have never possessed the gift of gab, so maybe this year I can turn a new leaf.

4.  150 in person autographs whether they are free or paid signings.  I have never counted how many ip autographs I have, so this could be easy, or could be a major challenge.  A lot will depend on how many minor league games I can attend.    

5.  Go past 21,000 Cardinals in my collection.  I am a few hundred shy of 20,000 right now.  How greedy Topps gets this year with putting out sets my determine my success with this one.

I have keep track of all my card related expenses each year.  I break it down into types of cards, where I buy from, and how much I spend on postage.  Being very budget minded, I was not surprised that I only spent $187 on cards this year.  I was a little shocked to see my postage bill was $230.  I guess that should be expected with over 100 trades done.