Yes, the first two years I had a list of ten things I wanted to accomplish. Doing so, so the first year, and then doing great the second. Then a few others started mentioning that they were giving up on the bloggerlutions. Being I honestly never was a resolutions person I though why not join the bloggers just going with the flow.
Despite not having any set goals what I did do is lay out a plan of some things I was looking to do during the year to keep the hobbies moving forward.
--Baseball Cards--
For 2015 I wanted this to be a year where I focused more on the quality of the cards rather than the quantity. I think I did a great job in accomplishing just that. While sad to say I didn't get to more than maybe three card shows this year. What I did do was buy very few packs, and focus more on adding players to my collection. This put me in a spot that during those shows when I saw a card that I'd normally balk at purchasing. I ponied up the cash, and came home with some cards that would have normally escaped me.
Thanks once again to some great trades even more cards that I'd never consider joined the collections as well. While it wasn't the amazing year of adding 30 cards each of Mike Trout, Rosario, Seager, and Arenado. The cards that were added had a potpourri of amazing, and regular edition. All this made it well worth going this route.
I didn't go without buying packs though as Target had an amazing sale of Opening Day this summer, and I bought a bunch of packs for the sweet price of 69 cents. That was a great way to feed the pack buying desire, and not break the bank at the same time. It also reminded me of why I was going the route I did. Very few of the cards served any purpose to the personal collection. It won't stop me from doing it again this year as we all need the reminder sometimes. Who knows, I might even attempt to build Opening Day, and all its subsets this year. Still haven't learned from all the cards still missing in the 2013 attempt.
On the downside to all this player collecting was the set collecting didn't fare well. At the end of the year I added a bunch of new cards from trades that still need to be shared. All these trimmed down the wants for some of the sets, but didn't close any of them out. One set did manage to see completion and it was the 1993 Triple Play Action Baseball. Hopefully 2016 will see a few more through to completion.
--Artelopes--
This was an interesting year for the artelopes. Going into the year the mindset was to create more like the one above. Instead of doing nothing, but drawings that contained the team logo, or some variation. Some teams got the new look of a drawing that kept the logo out of the equation. Yes, the team logo thing in either its original form, or some sort of variation is cool. Sometimes you have to mix it up, and I think both the daughter in her few, and myself did a great job in mixing things up. Hopefully we can keep the trend going as it was fun doing artwork like the one above.
In the creating these, and sending them out it was the biggest year yet. During 2014 there was 59 requests with the artelope label on them. 2015 went way beyond that in just the return category. A record 72 requests came back, 15 went missing, and 5 are still unaccounted for due to being mailed out in early December. I still have hopes for four of the missing, but the fifth was to the Steelers, and with the NFL preparing for playoff football I'm not holding out much hope.
Still this was an amazing year for artelopes, and honestly may never be duplicated. With the business cards list shrinking, and for some teams this being the reason for the request. I still have the teams for the schedules collection, but some of those haven't been getting the artelopes touch. Who knows maybe I will change that up to keep this project running strong.
--Business Cards--
Quite possibly being my favorite of all the hobbies I do. The sports related business cards hobby was one I had vowed to put serious focus on in 2015. Going into the year I was still working on getting my wantlist for every sport updated as it was insanely out of date. There were teams that hadn't existed for a couple years on the lists, and new teams missing from the lists.
Once I got the lists in order it was time to start the attack. Starting of the year I had vowed that teams missing from the collection would not get past without atleast an attempt to get a card. As you can tell by the 92 artelope requests that were sent out I held true to that goal. If there was a team on any of the wantlists they got an artelope. Any team still on the wants are because they are still holding out in sending a business card. Maybe soon they will finally learn because eventually they will end up in the collection.
A very minuscule amount of teams went belly up, and never did send a business card, and are now a lost opportunity. Unlike the past though I can't kick myself over these as the missing card is due to their failures not mine.
Statistically the new attitude paid off as 35 teams were either added, or had their business card updated. Second biggest was the NBA Developmental who added 9 cards, and remains at 5 missing now. First though was minor league baseball who went through a bunch of new teams, logo changes, and affiliate changes. Only 11 were added though so it was a close race in who would win out.
--Recap--
Despite not having any hard set goals for the year in hobbies. I would have to say 2015 was a great year in moving all the collections forward. Hopefully what I have planned for 2016 will keep the momentum going, and who knows. If all goes according to plan the hobbies will all be organized for the first time ever. I'm not sure though if that would be a good thing or not. Organizing our cards, and playing with them is the fun of hobbies. If your totally organized does that change things, or do you do other things, and enjoy them on another level. Hopefully by years end I will get to know that answer.
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