At this time of year, it is only natural for the media to reflect on the year that was. I am going to do that as well. At the beginning of the year, I outlined a group of collecting and/or blog-related goals for the year 2012 called
Mountains to Climb in 2012. I figured today would be a great day to show my work, so to speak. I will score myself in the same manner as I did in 2011, on a 10 point scale. Just to end the suspense, I did not as well as
my 85% score in 2011. However, read along and see how close I came.
ROCKIES GOALS
1. Complete the Rockies team set in every flagship Topps set (1993-2012).
Status - COMPLETE (well, sort of)
This was my biggest goal of the year, and I finally got it finished in late October when I was sent card #696 from 2003 Topps. Who would have thought a Todd Helton All Star card would be so hard to track down? The caveat of "well, sort of" refers to my still missing 3 cards from 2002 Topps Traded. I didn't include the Traded and Update sets in the original goal language, but to be honest I intended them to be included. To be fair in the other direction, the three I am missing from that set (#35 Kent Mercker, #67 Gabe Kapler, #97 Todd Zeile) are all from the short printed first 100 cards. Those short prints are RIDICULOUS to track down, but I did find 3 of the 6 Rockies.
Final Score - 10/10
2. Have 100 cards of 15 different Rockies players.
Status - INCOMPLETE
I was really trying to get this one finished, but came up a bit short. At the beginning of the year, I started with 100 cards of only Todd Helton, Larry Walker, and Troy Tulowitzki. At the end of the year, I finished with 100 cards of 10 different players with Dexter Fowler and Brad Hawpe close behind at 98 and 96 respectively. I also added an additional 100 cards to the Helton, Walker, and Tulo collections for whatever that is worth. My #15 guy was at 39 in January. Currently, my #15 guys (Preston Wilson and Jason Jennings) are at 69.
Final Score - 7/10
3. Successfully complete a full rainbow with one of my 1/1s.
Status - UNCHANGED
I never really got going on this one. Call it lack of funds or working on other goals. I will be making this a goal for 2013.
Final Score - 0/10
4. Start player collections for Rockies managers: Don Baylor, Jim Leyland, Buddy Bell, Clint Hurdle, Jim Tracy
Status - RELATIVELY UNCHANGED
Another goal that never really got off the ground in 2012 was the player collections of all the Rockies managers. I pulled out a few cards, but never got any checklists made
or anything else. I will continue this goal with the newest addition of Walt Weiss in 2013.
Final Score - 2/10
OTHER COLLECTION GOALS
5. Start and get to (at least) 75% complete of 1974 Topps set.
Status - INCOMPLETE
I started out okay on this goal until my job issues came about. I did start the set and I accumulated 119 of the 678 cards in the set (including major variations) for around 18%. So I didn't get to my pie-in-the-sky goal of 75%, but I do currently have my biggest chunk of any pre-1983 set and a realist goal of completing it in the next year or two. I am still happy with my progress.
Final score - 5/10
6. Complete Rookie Cup collection from 1980-2012.
Status - INCOMPLETE
I figured this one would be a lot easier to finish than it was. I still need a couple of big one such as the 1982 Cal Ripken and the 2002 Albert Pujols, but I also need relatively mundane ones such as 1983 Tom Brunansky and 2000 Chris Singleton. Out of the 33 years that were in my original goal, 20 are complete with another 6 within 1 card of completion. So all in all, I didn't do that bad with this one.
Final score - 7/10
7. Get Tony Delk collection to over 150 cards.
Status - UNCHANGED
This is another one that I just didn't get around to working on in 2012. My Kentucky basketball collection is what originally got me back into cards in 2008, but has taken a back seat to my Rockies collection over the last 2-3 years. I did manage to get most of my checklists updated and accurate with the Beckett website, so I did do a little something.
Final score - 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.
Status - INCOMPLETE
This is a goal that looks to be unchanged, because technically I have none of these 10 sets completed. However, I did take a big chunk out of most of them including getting 89 Donruss down to a single card. I am disappointed that none of them are finally off of my things to do list, but each of them is closer. I will continue this goal in 2013.
Final score - 0/10 (I still didn't complete any of the 10)
BLOG GOALS
9. Get to 500 total posts by the end of the year.
Status - CAME UP SHORT
This post is a nice round number, but it is only post #400. I came up 100 short and the biggest factors were the two months I spent without internet access and my one month absence due to my father's passing. With those three months, at an average of one a day, I would have been very close and probably would have made it. I am still very proud to be at 400 posts considering I rarely post more than once a day and most of my posts are relatively large.
Final score - 8/10
10. Hold 4 group breaks throughout the year.
Status - NOT GOING TO HAPPEN
This goal is the only one of my goals that I didn't work on that I do not plan to continue in 2013. I still may run a group break at some point in the next year, maybe even more than one, but it isn't necessarily a goal. There are several other blogs that are doing the group break thing right now, so you guys still have plenty of choices.
Final score - 0/10
Final thoughts
Last December when I made these goals, I did not anticipate how personally and financially difficult this year would be. I intended for the goals to be extremely challenging and they were. I am very happy to now own every Rockies card in the Topps flagship set along with every card I have accumulated. I am not currently where I intended to be at this time last year, but without down years you couldn't have great years. I'll be back and better than ever in 2013. I will have my 2013 goals ready this time next Sunday.
Final score - 40/100
By god, I am STILL happy.
Thanx for reading.
