Blogger may be trying to kill off our card blogs but it can't kill off the Blog Bat-Around. This is the second one I've done this year!
I have a little window of time today that I didn't expect to find, so this is a nice, quick topic to address as year 19 gets under way.
Torren' Up Cards touched off the Blog Bat-Around by listing the three hobby accomplishments that make him the most proud. He should be proud, too. I can't even conceive of doing most of the card things he mentioned.
I have some obvious ones myself, though. I'm going to mention just the three, though I could do much more if I thought about it a little. Here they are:
1. Ran a card blog for 18 years and counting
What's the record for consecutive years operating a blog? I certainly don't know. In terms of sports card blogs I know I don't have the record, there are a handful that started before I did and are still going in some form or another.
But the part that makes me proud is I've been able to write this for 18 years while posting at least once a week and, for virtually the entire run, at least 4-5 times a week. I'm also proud of varying up the content and some of the card discoveries I've made along the way. And I'm proud that I have a running account of my collecting history all on one blog. It comes in handy all the time.
2. Completed the 1956 Topps set
Technically I didn't finish this until adding the two checklist cards this year. But the hardest work ended in 2021 with the final cards over the first few months of the year.
I'm guessing this feat seems even more impressive today given how expensive vintage cards have gotten over the last five years, I feel fortunate I completed it when I did.
Ever since the first 1956 cards came into my collection as a teenager, I was drawn to this set and at the same time figured completing it was never possible. It's the best hobby example I can put out there of "you never know."
3. Landed a gig writing about cards for a national magazine
I haven't written a Beckett magazine article this year. I haven't even floated an idea. It's just not anything I can handle right now in my life. It's been that way for most of the past year.
But I hope one day -- maybe at some point next year -- that I'll have the time again to write some more for the magazine, if it's still around and they'll have me. Because it's been so cool to create articles from some of my ideas and see them in colorful, glossy print.
From 2020-25, I was writing up a storm at Beckett and I loved it, another childhood dream realized. I still have all those issues with my articles. Hopefully I'll get to do it again when the time is right.
All three of these things make me a proud papa -- of my blog, my 1956 set and my magazine articles. I'm the collecting sort but I'm also the creating sort and I am very proud that I've been able to create in this hobby space.
Here's to more creating in the future.
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