Mountains to Climb in 2012

I had a very successful 2011 with regards to my card collecting endeavors.  As I recently showed, I hit nearly every one of my Mountains to Climb in 2011.  The great thing about a new year (yeah I am a little early) is I get set some new goals for the upcoming future.  I never really have been much of a written goal setter in life, but I find myself really attracted to the process with cards.  I am going to try and set at least one goal for every section of my collection.

ROCKIES GOALS

1. Complete the Rockies team set in every flagship Topps set (1993-2012).
This is going to be my biggest goal this year.  If I want to consider myself a team collector, I MUST have a complete Topps team set for all 20 sets that have featured Rockies. 

Perceived toughness - 2/10   Perceived cost - 1/10

2. Have 100 cards of 15 different Rockies players.
This one should prove do-able.  Currently, I have over 100 Rockies cards of three different players and my #15 guy is at 39.  It will not be guaranteed easy, but it should be completeable.

Perceived toughness - 6/10   Perceived cost - 5/10

3. Successfully complete a full rainbow with one of my 1/1s.
I have three 1/1 cards (1 Ubaldo Jimenez, 1 Brian Fuentes, 1 Christian Friedrich) for the Rockies which fall into a rainbow collection.  I want at least one of these rainbows completed by 2013, but it won't be easy because the easiest of the three still require tracking down a card #'d to 25.

Perceived toughness - 7/10   Perceived cost - 6/10

4. Start player collections for Rockies managers: Don Baylor, Jim Leyland, Buddy Bell, Clint Hurdle, Jim Tracy

I really wanted to get an under-appreciated player collection or two started and I kicked around several names including Dave Parker, Mark McLemore, Sal Fasano, and Ramon Ortiz.  While I may do that in the future, for 2012 I am going to work on former (and hopefully soon to be former) Rockies managers in their playing careers.  Obviously some of these (Baylor, Bell) will be bigger than others (Leyland with just 3 minor league cards).  I may put their managers and/or coaches cards in with them as well, but I am not real sure yet.

Perceived toughness - 2/10   Perceived cost - 1/10

 

OTHER COLLECTION GOALS

5. Start and get to (at least) 75% complete of 1974 Topps set.
I really wanted to begin a 1970s set this year.  My first two choices were 1977 and 1973.  These were chosen by Night Owl and Crinkly Wrappers respectively (trade with them, they are great guys).  While I could still collect them since they did make more than one set, I figured I would blaze my own trail with another of my favorites.  I currently own 2 (yes 2) cards from the set, Willie Stargell and Bill Russell, so this will be quite a challenge.

Perceived toughness - 8/10   Perceived cost - 8/10

6. Complete Rookie Cup collection from 1980-2012.
I was debating this goal and whether to include the entire run or a partial.  I went partial because I don't think I will be able to fully complete the whole run with all the other goals on this list.  I decided to make it 1980-present mainly because of the Ozzie Smith I still need to track down in 1979.  This should prove no problem, but there could be a few tricky ones in there as well.

Perceived toughness - 4/10   Perceived cost - 2/10

7. Get Tony Delk collection to over 150 cards.
After getting my Jamal Mashburn collection over 500 in 2011, I wanted to bump up another of my Kentucky players as well.  Tony Delk is probably my second favorite former Wildcat after Mash.  I am currently sitting at 126 out of a possible 298 that I know of.  150 will give me a nice 50% and could be accomplished.

Perceived toughness - 2/10   Perceived cost - 1/10

8. Finish the following sets: 1984 Topps, 1986 Fleer, 1987 Donruss, 1988 Fleer, 1989 Donruss, 1991 Donruss, 1992 Donruss, 1992 Score, 2005 Topps Rookie Cup base set, 2008 Topps Heritage
The only major blemish on my 2011 Mountains to Climb was my set collecting.  As I looked back at the goal, I realized I wasn't very specific also which made for a bit of a struggle when checking to see if I made my goal.  These are the 10 sets which I am fairly close to finishing and want lists will be listed in the right sidebar soon.

Perceived toughness - 5/10   Perceived cost - 3/10

 

BLOG GOALS

9. Get to 500 total posts by the end of the year.
I really intend to maintain an active presence throughout the year, so barring unforeseen circumstances, this won't be a problem.  Nonetheless, I still want it written down because sometimes I might need that little nudge when I am getting a bit lethargic with my writing.

Perceived toughness - 1/10   Perceived cost - 0/10

10. Hold 4 group breaks throughout the year.
One of my favorite blog activities last year was holding less expensive, older group breaks.  I pulled some really great cards for some people (Hey Potch) and was able to knock out some needs of my own.  I want to do this again if I can get enough support from you guys, which shouldn't be a huge problem. 

Perceived toughness - 2/10   Perceived cost - 1/10



Will 2012 prove to be as big of a success card-wise for me as 2011?  I hope so, but I also think these goal are a little bit tougher than 2011's as well, especially since one of them was to have fun.  Even if I can only hit a few of these, I guarantee you I will have a ball doing it.