2014 Year in Review

That pretty much says it all about my 2014 as a collector.  There were a two main reasons for this.  First, I was busy as all get-out at work.  The first nine months were a great time to be in the Oil and Gas industry and I was consumed at the office.  Second, was my self-imposed insistence that I only work on one major set at a time. Sure I work others in the margin, but when it comes to flagship sets, I have only worked one at a time.  Alas, now that I am getting into the sets that were issued in series, thus having to deal with rare high numbers, the time it takes to complete a set is elongated (as you will see.)

So, what is the 4-1-1 on my year?

Sets I wanted to complete:

1. 1960 Fleer - Nope.  Although I only need one more card to complete it (26 - Bob Feller)
2. 1973 Topps - Nope.  When I reviewed my years goals, I got disgusted with my lack of accomplishment.  As luck would have it, someone was advertising a lot of 1973 high numbers for sale on Net54Baseball.  I contacted him and was able to strike a deal for all of the remaining base cards I needed, high number or not.  Alas, the package is still in transit as of New Years. Additionally, I still need 18 of the 24 unnumbered team checklists. Added note:  1973 was also on my 2013 list of sets I wanted to complete.
3. 1975 Topps - Nope. I did start it though. I had taken some birthday money to a local card shop and had started pawing through boxes of commons, when I came across a box of a near complete set of NM 1975 commons.  I stopped my painstaking search and struck a deal with the owner for that box.  As it stands, I am 43 cards (most stars and minor stars) away from completing this set
4. 2004 Fleer Greats of the Game - Nope. I am chosing to ignore the blue parallels, auto cards, and Yankee Clippings insert set, and so only had 4 cards to go from the Forever insert set to call this one complete.  I managed to snag two of them. I still have Fernando Valenzuela and Ryne Sandberg still to go.

Sets to work on:

1. 1961 Fleer - Barely. I picked up a few cards here and there, but still am sitting at about 2/3 complete.
2. 1972 Topps - Nope
3. 2009 Obak - Picked up a few cards, mainly T212 minis. I think I knocked off only 1 of the 10 short prints I needed.

Other distractions:

1. 1963 Fleer Autograph Project - My one success this year. I wanted to get to the half-way point (33 autographed cards) and I made it to 35.  And I still haven't done any TTMs after The Lost Collector sent me a list of addresses for players featured in the '63 Fleer set.
2. 1955 and 1956 Topps - Nothing on 1955, but I did find a source for high quality (EX or better) 1956 commons for $4 each.  I managed to get up to the 46% complete level before some other collector bought all of the dealers '56 commons out from under me.  Jerk.

I am hopeful to get back to semi-regular blogging this year.  But, 2015 is going to be another busy year at work (although for different reasons), so I am not making any promises.

So, to recap, my 2014 as a hobbyist: