New card projects for 2024

 

At the end of each year I publish a wrap-up of my card-collection experiences for the previous 12 months.

In that annual review, I list "sets I will complete in (fill in year)" as a friendly jab at both new year's "goals" and my inability/refusal to set new year's goals. I don't have any concrete plan to complete the listed sets in my review.

For a lot of reasons -- even more now than ever -- I keep my expectations low. One of those reasons is I'm working on so many sets already that I could travel through the entire upcoming year just working on those without adding anything else onto my plate.

But a card-collector's eyes are bigger than his stomach -- despite what you see of the clientele at card shows. I can't help but add more set stuff to chase.

In the coming year, I'm quite sure I'll be adding 1987 Fleer and 1992 Topps to my "officially chasing" lists, just because they're key (and easy-to-chase) outliers in the sets I haven't finished from that important '70s through early '90s period of my collecting history.

Another set I'm sure I'll pursue at a super-casual rate in 2024 is 1984 Topps Traded.

These cards arrived in the latest mailing from Cards On Cards. I was surprised and delighted. I had forgotten I had added my '84 Traded want list to TCDB. These cards are the first arrivals since adding that list.

1984 Traded is one of three '80s Topps Traded sets I haven't completed. Two of them -- 1984 and 1986 -- are held hostage by a familiar-named rookie. I'm not going to shell out that kind of money for a complete set just because of one card, so I'll gather them separately until I have to think about tackling the Gooden (maybe I should just look for a set minus the Gooden card -- but that would require coming up with a plan).

 

Aside from sets I just mentioned, I may look into starting on some other TCMA sets in the new year. I'd also like to get serious about extending my Dodgers collection into the '30s and '40s more than the handful of cards I have. There will be other new set chases that come up in '24 but hopefully not too many because there are still some projects that will overlap from this year -- stuff like 1969 and 1970 Topps for example.

 

And 1985 Donruss, let's not forget about that. Still about 30-40 percent of the cards to chase, but these two from madding are off the list!

I have thought about cutting way back on my Dodgers team chasing in order to spend more time on set pursuits. It would save on binder space and keeping up on new sets that I have increasingly less interest in adding.

But that's not a serious thought right now, so I appreciate these 2023 Update needs (and one from 2022 -- Mookie got dinged in a slippery cards mishap). This spurred me to add the rest of the 2023 Update Dodgers at a really cheap price!

A couple Update inserts were in the package, too. Update really expanded the definition of "Stars" in Update for the "Stars of MLB" inserts. I got a few more of those in a different mailing and Miguel Vargas is not a star yet, Topps.

 

A couple of less-modern Dodgers cards which are really appreciated. The Sheffield card is from something called "SP Game Bat Milestone" from 2001 and that's the first time I've heard of that set.

 

HOW 'BOUT THEM BUFFALO BILLS!

The Bills' defense was pretty darn good yesterday despite having lost a bunch of their starters this year, including Matt Milano. This card is from the SI For Kids set from this year.

No plans to add any new football chases for next year although every time I see a 1976 Topps football card my eyes light up and I have to remind myself that Walter Payton's rookie card is in that set and my stomach is not that big.