Taking inventory

I may not set concrete first-of-the-year goals, but there is something about the start of January that makes one take stock.

Because of a little extra time this week, I've been able to devote more effort to the collection and the blog, and I've realized there are some things that I want to do in the future. Are those goals? I suppose, in a very vague way. You won't see me checking anything off a year from now, but there are things that I want to get done.

So, yes, this is now a housekeeping post, but look at it on the good side: These posts help me keep my wits about me. You don't want night owl to go insane, do you? Sure, the posts will be entertaining for a little while, but I don't think they allow laptops in rubber rooms.

So here we go. What I Wanna Do Card-Wise:

1. CONTINUE TO CATALOG CARDS

Yesterday I finished cataloging my 2014 cards. This is always a rewarding moment, but it also underlines how far I have to go in the grand scheme of the collection.

I'm still trying to catalog all of my cards and made some good progress in the past year -- I am now up to the letter "P". I'd like to continue at that pace in the coming year. Who knows? At this time next year I might be able to tell you exactly how many cards I have in my collection. And I'll tell you one thing right now: that number will be wrong.

2. CONTINUE TO PROPERLY STORE CARDS

Yesterday I also placed my complete set of Kellogg's 3-D Dodgers -- all 48 cards -- in toploaders. I still need to find a proper storage spot, but the key part is finished.

Apparently, there are different schools of thought on how to properly store Kellogg's cards. Some say you need to let the cards curl a little, others say that's bunk.

I decided to take my Kellogg's cards out of pages in binders, where they had been for years, because I had a few cracking incidents. My theory is that by handling the binders and pages, it got a little too rough for the dainty 3-D cards. Placing them in toploaders will take care of the handling issue. And I've also done a small amount of research so I've come across collectors who have these cards in toploaders and have never had an issue with cracks.

3. CONTINUE TO DOWNSIZE IN ORDER TO FIND MORE SPACE

OK, this is new, but it's the wave of the future.

I have limited space for cards. I'm almost at a point where I can't add any more binders without having to rethink the entire storage situation (and I use my hands for writing so you won't see me building any shelves).

One thing I plan to do is get rid of a bunch of Dodgers relics.

In fact, right now, I have more than 40 that need to find new homes. I'll let anyone who reads this get first crack at some free Dodgers relics, although I warn you it's the usual suspects:

Jeff Kent, Brad Penny, Paul LoDuca, Eric Gagne -- you know, upstanding citizens.

But there are a bunch of Shawn Green relics, too, and a couple representing more well-liked players like Andre Ethier, Eric Karros and Matt Kemp.

The vast majority of these were sent to me out of the goodness of people's hearts and I don't want to seem ungrateful here, but they don't fit into the collection anymore. I enjoyed them quite a bit at the time, and am keeping the majority of relics that I own, but others have got to go.

So, if you're interested in some, let me know by comment or email and I'll ship them off. You can do whatever you like with them, keep them, sell them, burn them. Just as long as I have my space.

Both of these Ballpark Collection quad swatches are available, by the way. I never understood these things.


4. CONTINUE TO MAIL OUT CARDS

There's this rumor around that I don't send cards out anymore.

That's a blatant and scurrilous lie. In fact, I mailed out three card packages today! And I expect to do it again next week! Enjoy it while it lasts because next fall you're probably going to be wondering where the packages went again.
 

5. CONTINUE TO WRITE BLOG SERIES

I have many, many series, all in an effort to keep me interested in writing this blog. Like anything that must be maintained, sometimes I get lazy and the series falls apart or is completely forgotten. Here is my attempt to not forgot them:

a) Most Hall of Famers in a Set: This is my continuing effort to determine which set features the most Hall of Fame players. I haven't done one of these since last January. But I have one planned before the end of the month. I just need to wait for who gets into the Hall of Fame on Tuesday.

b) The Card After: This is my attempt to put the spotlight on the card that follows a very famous card. The first one I did was featuring the 1990 Fleer Billy Ripken card, which of course followed the world famous 1989 Fleer Ripken card. I enjoy doing these posts a lot. I did two last year with mixed results. But you can expect more.

c) Cardboard Appreciation: This is a blog staple and you better believe it will continue. Sometimes I wonder if the audience that used to turn out to read a prolonged tribute for a single card left en masse in 2012, but there are still plenty of cards out there that haven't seen the light of day and I want to write about them. And there's the matter of electing another card to the Cardboard Appreciation Hall of Fame, which may happen in 2015.

d) Match the Song Title: This is where I take an famous record and try to find a card that matches every track on the record. After much fanfare, I didn't do a single one of these last year. They're not easy posts to do and they're niche posts, too. Music fans -- of which I am one -- enjoy them. But I think some collectors don't get them. I'll drop a couple on you here and there.

e) Legends of Cardboard: I like this series a lot and I think others do, too, so you can bet I'll be doing more. Subject matter is tricky but I think I have at least enough candidates to get through another year.

f) Define the Design: Haven't done one of these in a long time, probably since the 2014 Topps base set came out. I must rectify that soon.

g) The 100 Greatest Cards of the '70s: I promise this will happen this year. Maybe.

h) The 100 Best Worst Cards in my Collection: I don't even know why I'm bringing this one up, it's pretty obvious to me I'm not going to do it. Probably could be a lot of fun, but it's not going to work if I can't invest a ton of energy into it.

i) '56 of the Month: If I do any damage on the '56 set this year, you'll see this series reappear.

j) Best Of the '70s: I love the '70s, so of course this series will continue.

k) Awesome Night Card: Nobody reads these but Night Owl Cards wouldn't be NOC without ANC.

l) Best Set of the Year: This brings out a fair amount of debate and crankiness. I'll still be doing these.

m) Team MVPs: This is where I find the best card for each team for a particular set that I have completed. Another time-consuming series, but one worth continuing. We'll be covering the early 1980s in 2015.

n) I'm Bad Ass And You're Not Club: After discontinuing this series I might revive it again in the coming year. It can still be fun as long as it doesn't show up very often.

o) One-And-Done Players: This series in which I try to pinpoint players who received one and only one card is very interesting to me. It's a super pain in the butt to research but with help from other bloggers I think I can continue to do this.

p) Joy Of a Team Set: A very simple and pleasing series. Count on more.

Hopefully this ensures I have enough blog material for 365 more days.



6. CONTINUE TO BLOG

Given the pattern above, the outlook isn't great for this year. But I think I can at least match 2014.

Truthfully, I have no idea how I wrote so many posts between 2008-13. I must have been a cyborg. I can't even conceive of having the time or the energy to have committed that much time to this blog. I know some of the decline has happened because I've been running three blogs since 2012, but still I think those rumors of ghostwriters might have been true.

All in all, I'd like to think you get more quality over quantity these days.

And if you don't agree, just remember what I always say:

Tough. It's free.