Have you ever had a to-do list that has been there for awhile, and then out of the blue you get this burst of motivation to make some progress on it? I reached that point with my card collection earlier this summer, and the result was a Sportlots order that shook things up for me:
Progress Made - A Set Completed!
Back in 8th Grade, I bought a box of 1988 Leaf. (Side note: I miss the days when kids could buy a box of cards, go home, rip all the packs and come out with a near complete set of cards...) Anyway, this set has been lingering on my So Close! page pretty much since I created it, with an occasional card being acquired here and there. I finally picked up the remaining cards I needed to finish this set!
Progress Made - An Inset Set Completed!
I also picked up the lone card remaining from one of my favorite insert sets, the artistically brilliant Pro-Visions series from Fleer. Bo has been the lone hold-out for a long time.
Progress Made - Another Insert Set Completed!
If there's a set dedicated to a player on your favorite team, all from his time with that team, it's pretty much a given you'll attempt to finish that set. For me, it's the Mookie Betts Star Player Highlights set from 2019 Topps - an uninspiring set dedicated to a Red Sox legend in his last year before terrible things happened (unless you're a Dodgers fan that is). I'll enjoy this set and wonder when the Red Sox will start trading for mega-star players instead of trading them away...sigh...
Progress Made - Team Sets Completed!
I also knocked out some Topps base set cards that allowed me to complete all of the Red Sox from those years. I now have all of the Red Sox cards from the 1983, 1995, 2001, 2005, and 2010 Topps base sets!
Progress Made - Team Sets Closer To Completion!
I bought a lot of base set cards. Although these ones don't finish out any particular year for me, they get me much closer to that goal. With these purchases, I'm getting to a point where my Missing Sox page is going to need to expand beyond just the Topps base sets from 1975 onward! Hopefully I'll have a nice revision before the year ends.
Progress Made - Golden Sox!
After the Red Sox won the World Series in 2018, I decided I would commemorate the victory by picking up the gold parallel of every Red Sox card in the 2018 Topps base and update sets. Over the past few years, I've stagnated on completing it. (It may never get complete due to that Rafael Devers rookie card!) Still, I decided to at least make a little progress by adding these two cards of J.D. Martinez.
Progress Made - Collecting Someone I'm Not Related To!
There's only one person in MLB history with the same last name as me. Bob Keppel pitched for 3 teams between 2006-2009, and according to the TCDB, he has a total of exactly 100 cards. I made it a goal of mine to be the #1 collector of his cards on the TCDB. Before this order was entered in, I was in a multiple-person tie for 48th place with 2 cards. I'm now in 3rd place with 9, just 5 cards back from the #1 spot.
Progress Not Made - Just For Fun!
These cards don't knock out any particular wants other than their Red Sox cards I found pleasing to the eye. The Spring Training card was one of my top Red Sox cards from 2020. The Bogaerts is from the 2019 150th Anniversary parallel, an insert set I've considered chasing. Loretta is one of those random players you often forget were All-Stars. The rest just caught my attention!
I'm going to have to redo/update my other blog pages after this one!
