Well, with the year half over I thought I would do a quick review of where I stand on my
2020 Collecting Goals. Not going to lie, this has been a tough year with work and COVID-19. Oddly, my time to even blog has been drastically reduced due to inefficiencies of teleworking and having to spend more time "at work" to make up for the time lost trying to coordinate everything virtually.
I know there are a fair amount of collectors that don't like to do collecting goals...However, I'm one that likes to lay out the year to help me focus and to generally guide my collecting habits. I seldom vary from my larger collection so I don't have a ton or random collections that are half-started...just expanding my normal collections and then maybe tackle one or two more. Anyway, looks see how I am doing.
Goal #1: Blog at least once a week - 52 posts this year! Current Grade - "F"
Oh boy, this has been the toughest to do and I am likely not going to get to the magical 52 posts. Right now I stand at 23 posts and feel like I am on the struggle bus to even hit 40 let alone post more times than I did in 2016! I'll keep working at it and hopefully I can find a little bit more time this fall.
Goal #2: Publish the 5th Edition of the Sumo Menko and Card Checklist - Current Grade - "F"
Yikes, I doubt this is going to happen this year. I have a ton of newly-discovered sets that still need checklisted and entered into my book. I need about 40 hours between now and the end of the year to somehow squeeze in to get the sets tidied up, entered, published, and the .pdf sent off to the printer. I can't see this happening this year unfortunately, but I will still whittle away at updating the draft as often as I can.
Goal #3: Add 5 more Sumo World magazines from 1973-1999 to my collection - Current Grade - "F"
I definitely have not nailed this one either and still need only 28 more to complete the entire run from March 1973 - November 1999. New auctions for these things have dried up and they are harder and harder to find. Ugh....so far I am batting .000.
Goal #4: Attend three card shows this year - Current Grade - "F"
Son of a.....well COVID-19 did happen so it is not my fault, right?! I really was hoping to hook up with Fuji for some Del Taco and cards. Crap...here we go...0 for 4 at the plate....still at .000 batting average.
Goal #5: Add three more 1973 Calbee cards to my set - Current Grade - "A"
Finally, I am on base. Not doing bad here...I think I added 3 already and I am easily going to get another 3 or more this year. Have some orders lined up too that should make this a homer. Plus to earn me some extra credit, I did discover that this 36-card set was broken up into two series. (Series 1: Cards #1-18 and Series 2: Cards #19-36) For some reason, Series 2 are much harder to find which makes that much more expensive too! I did pick up the really hard-to-find binder as well so doing well with Goal #5. Now batting .200!
Goal #6: Keep rounding out my Japanese yukata fabric bolt & card collection - Current Grade - "A+"
If you would have asked me 6 months ago if this would have been the one goal that I would be overachieving in, I would have laughed at you....but here we are 6 months later and my yukata bolt/card collection is on fire. I cannot believe all the product that is out there and no one is collecting this stuff. Unknown sumo wrestling cards, Unknown Japanese baseball cards, Unknown famous singers and actor cards. And to boot, the material and patterns are so fascinating. Anyway, this goal has been a grand slam and I can't wait to keep sharing all the bolts that I pick up. I would love to write a book on these someday! Now batting .333!
Goal #7: Publish at least 6 BBM Card Set reviews - Current Grade "F"
Well.....this one hasn't had any progress and I am likely not going to have any time this year to do this one. Plus COVID-19 has reduced the number of sets a bit, so....sorry Goal #7.... dropped to .286.
Goal #8: Add 20 more cards to my Non-Sport Collection - Current Grade "A"
This is another goal that has been on fire! I have been faithfully working on my Bruce Lee Yamakatsu sets, Myojo Noodle carfds, Zip Zaps, and Airport Trading Cards. All it all I am well at 20 if not a bit higher. I am hoping to show case some of my gatherings once I can get some of my international packages from Japan shipped. Back up to .375
Goal #9: Send out 10 care packages - Current Grade - "C"
I have gotten 2 or 3 of these out this year...not bad, but I need to step it up and somehow stock up my reserves to shoot some more of these out. I'll call this one a bunt....to bring my average up to .389.
Goal #10: Maintain/Improve Google/Yahoo/Bing Search Engine results for Sumo Card(s) & Menko - Current Grade - "B"
Still #1 on Yahoo!
Dropping on Google....uh oh!
Now #1 on Bing!
Final Batting Average = .425
Thanks for letting me walk through my current progress. I definitely have a little bit of work to do and if I can get my average over .500, I would call that a success.
How is everyone else doing on their 2020 goals?
If nothing else, at least you beat 2015's total :) I hit my goal for the year on January 5th but I set a VERY easy goal. I sort of have a new one I just came up with this week (hit 1000 pack scans on the Database, at 921 now) but I think that may be more of a 2021 goal.
ReplyDeleteHa, I did beat 2015! Goals are always fun to try and achieve. Good luck on your new goal.
DeleteReading over the first few I was wondering if you were going to get straight Fs, glad to see that you ended up with a better report card than that. Cool about the 73 Calbees! I'm not surprised to hear the second series is harder to find, it seems with those 70s sets there is always a short printed series!!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the second half of 2020.
Yeah, when I was going through them I was nervous it was going to be a bust. The 1970s are a beast of a set. Will be expensive! I am hoping my second half of the year will be a ton better.
DeleteI thought you might be heading back to the minor leagues for a second there. Overall, and for the amount of stuff on your to-do list, I think you're doing very well!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was close to getting downright fired. Ha. Thanks, goals definitely help me keep moving the ball forward as they say.
DeleteMy first goal for this year was to complete all of the BBM Sumo base card sets (excluding the 1997 Historic set, which simply does not interest me) and went into the year needing 2 2004 cards (#14,64) and 1 2005 card (#65). I may well complete the 2004 in the next few weeks, while that 2005 card (Tamaasuka) remains out of reach. My secondary goal was to finish several of those tough 1997-2003 BBM Insert sets--and amazingly, have done just that. My final collectiong goal was to work on picking up all of the Trump Sumo playing card decks from 1990 (the debuts of Akebono and Takanohana) until current. I have picked up quite a few, but am still in the process of trying to figure out just what years were produced and what the differences are between years (some are quite slight). I probably still need 10+ of these decks to finish....
ReplyDeleteGreat goals. Hopefully you can knock out the 2004 set soon. Yeah, the trump sets have been difficult to checklist, especially the early 2000s
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