So.....2015

I had planned to talk about my 2015 goals a couple days back, but then life got in the way and I never really put my thoughts into keyboard taps until now. And like many others have stated, these are goals and not resolutions. I suck at resolutions and don't bother setting myself up for failure. Instead, I set a goal and if you make it realistic, you have a chance to achieve it. And potential for a high five.

Don't leave me hanging, bro.

So what are my plans for 2015?

Organization - I have all my player projects in my Zistle account, along with my bunting, double play and throwback binders. I have my want lists for Sox teams set needs from the 50's through the 70's. I guess I should link to them on my blog, huh? Here: 50's, 60's, 70's - help is appreciated. The only thing I really need to do is catalog my 5000 count White Sox box. It's all sorted by year. I just need to get it into Zistle. This is a low priority goal, so I'm not going after it with a lot of gusto or drive.

Sets - I have enough on my Wants and A&G Wants to keep me busy. Most of them are really simple, and I just need to get over to JustCommons, Sportlots, COMC or wherever to finish them. That's the plan for a few of them. In regard to 2015, I will for sure build A&G. High chance I will build Stadium Club (depends if they keep it simple like this year or screw it up like Topps tends to do with parallels and inserts). Heritage and GQ are maybes this year. But flagship is out. I'll pick up a team set for ChiSox, but the only thing I may do is buy a boxed factory set. And that's a weak "may". But I plan to focus hard on my '64 set. I'm not going to finish it in 2015, but would love to get past the halfway point as commons are pretty inexpensive and the set has few high $$$ cards.

Player Projects - Nellie Fox has stalled, for the main reason is that it's an expensive player to collect. I'll keep hunting for the right Fox cards, though, to keep that one moving. Sherm Lollar should be done in 2015. I hope to get Aparicio to a halfway point. I just started Ted Wilks. I would like to get to 50% on him as well. He's very small and not too pricey.

Cost - Speaking of pricey, that is my undoing year after year. I spend money on what I shouldn't and not what I should. I need to get out of the pack rip mindset. It's SOOOOOOO tough. Ripping wax is fun. But in my desire to do that, I buy useless stuff, get useless cards and still have holes I want to fill. So I am going to work hard to tame that pack opening monkey on my back and not hit the card aisle in Walmart or Target every time I visit. Why drop $20 on a blaster, get 3 or 4 cards I want and have junk for the rest of the year? Pick $20 worth of cards at JustCommons or COMC and know that every card I open is a want.

Trades - I have no goal on trades. I want to keep on the focus of sending out cards whenever, and get Club PWE back up to a regular mailbox trip. I severely lacked in sending out 6 card envelopes and I apologize.

Blog - No goal here either. Number of followers is fine. Number of post (about every other day) is fine. I like numbers, but only for the fun of pulling them apart. Having a lot of readers or followers is not so important. Followers not make one great.

Use my words, you will not.

I do need to get my attention to my 1964 blog. I don't post there on a regular enough schedule. I have enough cards that I could do two post a week and almost make it to the end of the year (104 posts). So that is a higher priority goal - post at least twice a week about my 1964 set. If I get my set to the halfway point like my goal is, I could stop collecting it in 2016 and still have enough to post. I linked it at the top - pay me a visit!

Collection - I will continue to just have fun with my cards. That is the primary goal like it was last year. Though I plan to get more into TTM autographs. Why not use all the generous cards sent by you people to get autographs of current and former White Sox players? In that vain, I am starting a collection called "2005". It just so happens next year is 10 years since the Sox World Series championship. I want to have an autograph from each player on that team. In my collection, I currently have 7. I am basing the 2005 collection on the list this person posted on another forum. Though, I may ignore a couple names there. I wish the World Series trophy was like the Holy Grail and they engraved the player's names on the thing.

Ok - that's all. All except a theme song for the year. How about this?

A look back on 2014

With 2015 right around the corner, and all the blogs showing the best cards, best sets, worst inserts, blah blah blah out there, I'd like to take a little look see at what I had planned for 2014 and see how well the year turned out for me. I made some not so lofty goals, because I felt it was far more important to have fun instead of putting unneeded pressure on myself trying to complete something that may be out of reach.

First though, let's take a quick glance at the goods - the best cards obtained during the year. If I had to look back and pick the best three cards I added to my collection, I will need to give the nod to these three:

From a group break run by Chris over at Nacho Grande, I lucked out by not only getting my White Sox, but securing this ùber rare Abreu diecut from one of the mini boxes. While prices on this card has been dropping over the months, there was never a plan for me to sell it. It's a fine addition to my throwbacks binder.

Certainly not a pull from me, this sweet relic card was a gift from the super insane (in a nice way) Wes from Jaybarkerfan. For a nerd like me, who gets a chance to play Star Wars dress up, I still geek out on the galaxy far, far away.

I was going to type that the three cards are in no particular order, but who am I kidding. Top pull from 2014 was this beauty I yanked from my LCS. Buy back auto of the best hockey player of all time. I think I was grinning for a week after this hit. Someone at my LCS wants me to sell it to him. Yeah - that's not happening.

Now, I like to look at the most popular posts for the year. The five most visited, in regard to page views:
1 - "I Walked Alone", discussing a visit to a card show in November. At almost 1200 views, I am pretty sure I am somehow stealing views from the video linked in the post.

2 - "Happy Birthday to Me", my 2nd anniversary post. Contests certainly draw page views, and 430 views made it popular.

3 - "Blogger Meet-up", a recap of DimeBox Nick and I hooking up at the Orland card show in February. Over 360 page views. I think the picture of an entire box of '75 minis made Night Owl visit the page at least 200 times alone.

4 - "Who gets post mail?", a post covering 6 different envelopes from 6 readers who sent me some great cards. I'm not sure what drove this post to 280 views, but it must have been interesting.

5 - "Card show visit", talking about a solo trip to the Orland show, with a side visit to Winston's for the greatest Irish soda bread anywhere. 225 page views on this post. There were some sweet vintage on the page, so I think that helped.

Personally, my favorite post with average page views concerned a multi-blogger trade I was a part of. Though my sad attempt as being Dr. Seuss was a close 2nd.

Ok - so that quickly recaps the big additions to my collection. So let's go into the way back machine, take a gander at the goals I had for this year and see how I felt I did.

Trades - I had put a goal of about 26 trades into my plans. I really didn't keep track, plus I less "make trades" and more "send out stuff to people". If I was to take a guess, I would say I fell short of the goal. However, to me, the idea of a trade is to get cards into the hands of people, and I did a lot of that, so I am going to say I did a decent job with this goal.

Collection - I had put goals to get specific binders to specific numbers. I WAY shot low, because all but one of those I beat by mid year. I set my goal for double play cards to 450 - I am at 779. My bunting goal was 250 - I hit 791. Throwbacks were going to get to 300 - right now I am at 583. And my Ben Petrick collections was going to be 90 - I missed that, currently having just 68. However, I had a Sportlots order to place which contains 14 Petrick cards so that gap will be closed in a couple weeks.

Organization - Organization was a huge goal, and I nailed that one. I have a fantastic grasp on what I have to keep, what I have to give away, and what I would like to add. Once I got my Zistle account moving with the initial card recording, everything flowed well. I have yet to add all my White Sox cards. I would like to do that, but it's low on my priority list.

Sets - This was the loftiest of all the goals, It's also the goal I really should have kept track of. I can't say if I knocked off 15 sets, because I kept adding sets to the lists. I think I completed 8 or 9 sets. I am also sooooooooo very close to a couple others. Feel free to click on my Wants and A&G Wants links at the top if you can help me out.

Blog - I didn't care about adding followers or readers. Thanks if you do both. Just know that numbers don't matter to me. I made a few changes to the links at the top of the blog, and along the side. I will keep tweaking as needed. I'll continue to write in a fun way, hopefully not bore you to death and maybe post a cool picture or two.

Is this one cool picture or two?

Tomorrow, we'll look to the future.

2013 recap - what did I hit?

Before I reveal my plans for world domination with tomorrow's post of my goals for 2014, and since we already touched on how 2013 went, let's take a fast glance at what I consider my pulls of the year. Now, I did receive some amazing cardboard rectangles through the year, and I have showcased them in trade posts. These are the items I pulled directly out of packs during the calendar year. It's going to be up for debate whether they are awesome or not (maybe), but I think they are great additions to my collection.

Let's start with relics. We all know the whole "are they or aren't they" stories, plus Topps and their disclaimer about who the hell knows when the uniform the swatch came from was actually worn, but I still get some joy pulling a relic from a pack. Three of my fav pulls in this department.

I pulled the Vonn relic from a few packs of A&G at my LCS. The Brock bat came from a Black Friday purcase of a box of Golden Age. And also from my LCS is the Team 8 swatch pull out of Score hockey. The flip side has the Blues and the Jets. I did fairly well with relics out of repack boxes this year as well.

Moving to the John Handcock's...

The Jones was pulled about 6 weeks ago during my LCS pack war night. I hope she does well in Sochi so I can sell that card. Dent was a pull out of a Target 10 pack repack box. And the Hobbie came out of a rack pack from Meijers. Yes - damn retail keeps sucking me in to making purchases.

Ok, my highlights for the 3 best pulls of the year.

That's not just any black border Bourn. My LCS got in a few boxes of Topps minis, so I bought a few packs looking for anything to put in my Beckham rainbow. Pulled this in one pack. As opposed to the regular sized which are number to 100, these are a scant /5. Yup - I pulled #5/5. I wish it was a player or team I collected, but I am certain that me showcasing it now will have a comment or two about it.

I showed this before. I pulled this from a box at the National this year. Anything old timer makes me smile, so getting a bat relic of a HOF first baseman with a stellar career (last man in the NL to hit over .400) made this an amazing box, because if you recall the post, that same Golden Age box yielded me...

...this card, which is my vote for the hit of the year. On card, clean auto of another HOFer (a third hit in that same box was HOF Jim Palmer auto). I have almost pulled the trigger on a few Kaline autos. Yeah, he's a dreaded Tiger, but you give props where props are due.

Not so fast, buddy. Red Wings get no props here.

 There ya have it. Tomorrow, let's talk about the current year. 

The year in two parts: part two - where we're going

So yesterday, I did a small - ok, long - recap of how I thought 2012 went. I found it pretty successful. I feel short in a few things, but I never had any set goals when I started this blog in March of 2012, so in a technical sense, everything was a positive.

Coming into 2013, I am going to set myself a few goals. It seems the thing to do - pick a peak and then scale it. Then pick another peak and work on that one. How many summits can I reach? How much oxygen will I need. Do I have any volunteers for sherpas? I have determined five catagories. Here they are and here are the criteria to get a successful completion:

Trades
I have most enjoyed the trading aspect of this hobby, and this group. We all hope for the pack that has everything we need, and we all have hung our head when it's nothing but crap (ie Red Wings). Just before I started writing this post, I had settled on the number of 52. A trade a week. I had to head out to my in-laws, and I had to buy new tires, and I have other bills that really need attention. So I have decided to halve that number - 26. I feel a trade every other week should do well. We all know shipping is expensive. Packs are getting expensive. Life is getting expensive. But if I can do 26 trades by 2013's end, I'll be happy.

White Sox Collection
When I first started, in trades I proposed I simply asked for "any White Sox or Blackhawks", and boy did you all respond. I must have a good 700-800 ChiSox cards I have yet to get organized. So my 2013 goal on my Sox collection is to get what I have organized and cataloged online, so any and all of those 26 trades will address specific needs. I'm fairly certain as I get my cards sorted, I will find a lot of dupes. That's ok - it's my own fault at this time. From this point forward, though, I should know what I have and what I need.

Sets
In 2012, I completed 3 sets - A&G Flora of the World, A&G World's Tallest Buildings and 2012 Topps series 1. I have plenty of needs that have been met in fantastic fashion. Yet, I still have needs yet to be filled. I can be out in the blogosphere as much as I can, but ultimately, the way I will complete sets is to meet other's needs. In turn, they should be able to hopefully meet mine. I currently have 14 sets on my wants page. The 2013 goal is to check 10 of them as complete.

Purchases
This will be a big change from 2012. In working last night to clear off my desk of all cards (failed), I realized just how much of 2012 duplicates I have. It's really unacceptable. Topps 2013 flagship design is not thrilling me, so I will probably take part in a group break or two and leave it at that. Pack ripping is fun, but I have to manage my money. I can spend $3 and get stuff I don't like or spend $3 on one or two cards I do like and get just what I want. It's a no brainer. My goal is to set a budget for spending per week and stick with it. If I don't buy for the week, that money can roll over. That will allow me to purchase a hobby box or two this year and then complete a couple sets or products I really like. My initial goal is $25 a week. I will hold myself accountable with a ticker on this blog.

Specific Collections
I have the Billy Pierce Project, which is progressing very well (and will be the subject of a post later this week). My Ben Petrick collection is a side project and not a full concern at this time. I have also been sort of working on a double play collection (GCRL's fault), throwback collection and player collections of Joe Crede, Tadahito Iguchi and Gordon Beckham. 2013's goal it to complete a trifecta of all the players (I do not believe there is a Pierce game used card available, so Pierce is not part of the goal). I will also work towards getting two lists of needed cards for the collections of Petrick, Beckham, Crede and Iguchi available online. Finally, I will get the Pierce project to 85% completion. This goal is the most ambitious of the 5.

So there we go. Bring it, 2013!!

The year in two parts: part one - where we've been

As 2012 comes to a close, I am going to take the time, like other bloggers, to go back through the year and see where 2x3 Heroes has been, and then get an idea where it will go in 2013. We'll talk about 2013 tomorrow. Let's see how I did here in 2012.

So looking back on this little part of the 1s and 0s of cyberspace I created 8 and a half months ago, I had no goals. Nothing. I was just jumping into this group of people that I had been reading and watching for a few months and decided to join up with the group. The only real goals I had mentally noted to myself were to get better focused on my collecting and to get more organized. After that, everything was gravy.

Sweet, succulent gravy....

 So looking back, there aren't that many goals I can say I achieved, as I didn't set a single one. I can tell you that will change for 2013, but for this year, let's just look at what I accomplished and give it a grade. I'm going old school in my grading too - E, S, N, and U. If you don't know what those are, you are young, let me tell you. Or Canadian.

At least you're not Dutch. Oh yeah.....right.

So here goes my grading:

Blogging: I never made any mental plan on when or how often I would write. If it hit me, I would write. If not, I wouldn't force it. Trust me, I can write some crap. But somehow, 42 of you follow me, and that's nice. I believe there may be more that never hit the follow button but still read me on a regular basis. I hope I make a visit to 2x3 Heroes enjoyable. I certainly try. grade = E

Posts: Again, no plan on how many times I would post. I've published 150 posts since I started, about one every other day. Not too bad. I have 3 fairly recurring features (Sunday Stuff I Like, Throwback Thursdays and Repack Wars). For those that care, here are my top three viewed posts:

Honorable mention: A non-Ginter post - 228 views

3rd most viwed: Special Edition SIL: a tremor in the Force - 247 views (helped with a FB plug from Ben)

2nd most viewed: Obilgatory 2012 Topps Archives Post - 260 views (my personal favorite post - this is me in a nutshell)

Most viewed: It's the 'Merry Christmas' post - 518 views (driven by Strong Bad I am positive)

grade = S

Purchases: I wanted to stop being so flighty and get focused on what I like, as well as getting what I have turned into what I like. I was always buying just a pack here and there, never really committing, and in that I would fail to get anything. So I worked on buying just what I liked, and keeping away from the things that gave me no thrills. grade = S

Collection: One of the main unwritten goals was to get my collection in order. So I worked to a) organize what I have, b) organize what I don't want, c) let people know what I have I don't want and d) add to my collection. Part a is still a work in progress. I have a LOT of White Sox cards to get sorted and listed out - grade N. Part b was a big move to understand what I have and know which I want to get into other hands. I still have a bit more to organize, but I am well on the way - grade S. Part c is out there in both my trade bait and my PWE trade pages. I am hoping to get some more inquiries on either of them, mainly because I just don't want those cards! Readers should ask about stuff, I'm pretty open - grade E. Part d I did very well on. I expanded my Pierce collection greatly. I added a lot of cards to my Sox wants. I'm content. So we have N, S, E, E. Overall grade = S+

Trades: I have over 25 trades made during the year. Again - I had a goal of nothing, so I think I did well. I know I have a couple trades I still need to post (if I even remembered to scan the cards), but I did flip a lot of what I have into what I want. I did pretty well. grade = E

Community: This is probably an odd choice many of you are thinking, but I think it's an important one. How well you are viewed in the community of bloggers, your presence, your attitude, your trustworthiness - that matters. My mental goal was to somehow fit it. Find my place in the group and fill the hole to the best of my ability. My holiday giveaways were my way of thanking you that would take the time to click on a link to my posts. Granted, you may have closed the tab instantly (and who would blame you), but as I said above, thanks for reading. grade = E

I'll end there. Tomorrow, I'll talk about my goals for 2013. If this cold I have doesn't kill me before then.