My goals for 2012

Everybody else is putting resolutions or goals down for their blogs so I figured what the hell! I don't do resolutions in my personal life, because I believe if you truly wanted to make a change, you don't need a calendar to tell you its time. But I do like to set goals as to things I need or want to accomplish.

Now my blog isn't so much card oriented as it is my personal cards. Which is why I'm amazed I have as many readers as I do. Lets face it, if your not a fan of the White Sox or the Wolverines, then my blog doesn't really mean much to most of you. Some of you may be like me and read anything and everything card related, regardless if its always about a certain team or not. This leads me to my first goal, which I made when I started blogging back in the spring.

1. Blog what you want, don't conform to what you think everyone else wants. What this means is if I want to post a certain card or subject, then post it. Don't worry if it's going to get many views or if it's going to be that post that gets you another follower. Do I follow my stats? Somewhat. I watch them, but I don't check them on any regular intervals. Just whenever I feel like it. Do I know how many followers I have? I'm sitting in my break room at work on my blogger app and I can tell you that as of last night, before I went to bed, I had 56. So yes, I follow my followers and I usually notice right away when I get a new one. But I don't do a whole lot to gain followers. It's just a number that makes me think that people are actually reading my drivel.

2. As far as numbers do go, I want to get my PC's at some attainable goals. Or at least most of them. I'd like my White Sox collection to have:

• At least 4000 (currently at 1636) cards.  This will be a little more than double my current collection
• At least 300 (currently at 112) vintage ('79 and earlier) cards.  This will be a little rough as it’s almost 3 times what I have now.
• At least 100 relics and 100 auto's.  (Also tough, because they cost more.)
• And I don't have a number in my head for this goal, but considering I don't have any yet, I would like to complete some team sets in my White Sox PC. Which means part of my goal is to make a want list for each of the sets. I take that back, I do have 1 team set, I don't remember now where I got it but I'm pretty sure I either bought it or someone traded me the 2010 Topps flagship set.

3. Along with the completing team sets mentioned above, I do want to set a number for completing vintage team sets. I'm going to say I want at least 10 vintage team sets before 2012 closes. I think this goal may be tough due to lack of funds and some vintage is just hard to find. But I set it a little higher at 10 sets because I think the 70's won't be extremely difficult.

4. I don't have a number of posts or views I want to get because with the addition to the 1973, 1981 and today's 9, I have plenty of material for awhile. And as far as views go, I don't consider them accurate because I know that a lot of people (including myself) who use feed or RSS burners to read their blogs.

5.  As for my Wolverine collection, this is a little harder because there just isn’t as many cards out there and because of that, even base cards tend to cost more.  But here goes:

• 200 total cards (currently 71).
• 5 relic cards (currently 0).  They just don’t make many relics that are Wolverine jerseys only.
• 75 auto cards (currently 8).  There are a lot of auto’s out there that I don’t have already plus newer sets.  This goal might be a harder one, because of the only in Wolverine uniform rule but I’ll make a run at it.

And let’s take a look at my player collection goals.

6.  Paul Konerko collection

• 300 total cards (currently 107).  This shouldn’t be hard because there are a lot of cards currently out there that I don’t have.
• 25 relics (currently 7).  That’s a little lofty but again, there are a bunch out there already that I don’t have.
• 2 auto’s (currently 1).  Totally gonna try to double this one.  But seriously, the auto I have may or may not be actually autographed by Konerko.  So I would like to get at least 1 real autograph.  His auto cards aren’t outrageous but they aren’t cheap either so I don’t see myself spending huge amounts of money on autos so I don’t see myself going for 10.  At this point, 1 real autograph would make me happy.

7.  Tom Seaver collection

• 200 total cards (currently 165).  The main reason I’m at 165 is because I got a 100+ card set of all Tom Seaver’s.  So I can’t see myself going overboard on this one.  Plus he was a player of the 70’s and 80’s so there is only so many to begin with.  I do need to get more of his older base cards though.

8.  Billy Williams collection

• I’m going to go with 25 (currently 3).  I definitely need to get his vintage base cards but he has a number of inserts in previous sets as well so I feel 25 is reachable.

9.  Dave Dravecky collection

• 30 total cards (currently 19).  I haven’t investigated enough to know just how many cards he has.  When I get around to making wantlists for each player collection I’ll have a better idea just how many cards he has.  I can’t imagine is a huge amount but I could be wrong.

10.  Mike Hart & Peyton Manning (currently 11 & 30)

• I don’t really have a goal here.  These aren’t huge collections that I really go after.  I’m just not into pro football that much.  I just pick these up here and there, plus it gives a few more players people can send me for trades.

11.  I would like to be at least half way through the 1973 set (342 cards).  I’m currently at around 25 or so.  I haven’t gotten all those posted yet so I don’t have a set figure.

12.  I would like to be done with the 1981 Topps set.  This is a lofty goal as I’m only about 100 cards in.  But I don’t know of any real expensive cards in this set and I seem to be able to pick these up pretty cheaply on Ebay.  So we’ll go for it all.

A couple of short term goals are

• Get player and team set want lists up.
• Update my blog roll (so behind)
• Get my 1973 and 1981 sets in binders.

I guess that’s about it.  For the record, the way I do goals is, I look at what I have, figure out about how many I should get, and then add more to that number.  I figure it they are going to be goals, you should set them high in order to push yourself to achieve them.  So I really wouldn’t be shocked if I don’t even reach half these goals.  But they are there to push me, let’s hope they do.