2023: Year of Project Completion

I tend to collect in projects. Yes, I'm a Packers/Cubs/BYU fan and will always take new cards of those teams. I try to build a set or two in both football and baseball each year. Those are the kinds of collecting habits that many people have and wouldn't interest too many people unless they also liked cards. But I also love to use my collection to curate history that means something to me. It's these projects that actually get a, "That's kind of cool," reaction from my friends who aren't collectors. Some of my projects include:

• One page of every player on the NFL's All-Decade team (1980s, 1990s, 2000s)
• The same for the 2010s All-Decade Team, but with different collecting rules for myself
• One page of every MLB All-Star Game MVP
• One page of every MLB Rookie of the Year, including at least one card featuring each team they played for in their career
• One card of every player to ever make a Major League All-Star Game
• One page of every Heisman winner (in their college uniform)
  
• One card (with certain parameters) of every player on the NFL's 100th Anniversary All-Time Team
• A 9-pocket team of every NFL team's best players ever (my Franchise Nine)
• A collection consisting of the three best players to ever wear each number in Major League Baseball

I've been doing some reflection on my collection as I can see the light at the end of most of these projects' tunnels. Once I have finished my Rookie of the Year project, am I really interested in accumulating more cards of, say, Vince Coleman? Do I really care to have more Jamal Lewises when my All-2000s team is done? If not, where do I focus my collecting interests after a decade of trying to work on specific collections like this?

 

I don't have the answers. But I do know that my collecting goal for this year is to put as many of these projects to bed as I can. To that end, I've already made two Sportlots box buys this year. 

 

These assorted defensive backs from the 2000s All-Decade Team filled all of the last slots in their pages. Ronde Barber, Ty Law, and Brian Dawkins--done!

Another 2000s DB, Troy Polamalu, and his Steeler defense teammate, Joey Porter--also done.

Another couple of 2000s defenders--Richard Seymour and Derrick Brooks--have completely full pages now, as well.

Offensive linemen and specialists are the hardest to find. Bears' center Olin Kreutz's page is now complete. Punter Brian Moorman is done. This Larry Allen was used to complete his 1990s All-Decade page. That was the final card needed in that entire binder. Now he still has just one slot in the 2000s binder. Allen's one empty space plus three more on Alan Faneca's page make up all the empty spaces in that binder. Four cards away from a complete All-2000s Team binder!

 

My 1980s binder has a few more blank spaces. Some of them will probably never be filled, just because there aren't enough cards out of some guys to even fill a full page. These cards polished off Randy White's page and brought Lee Roy Selmon's to within two.

On the baseball side, many of those pages are getting filled, too. Here are two recent award winners in my collection. None of these are base cards, with the gold star parallels coming from factory sets, I believe. The 582 Montgomery was a parallel to be found in packs. Not to be confused with the 582 Montgomery club box set that Topps sold, featuring cards with more than just a foil stamp on them.

Of course, I do still have my team interests. Here are BYU (and SUU) alumni that I picked up from the Sportlots order.

And finally, I can't forget about my various set builds. Speaking of closing out projects, the Bricks and Ivy card kills off my 2016 Topps 100 Years of Wrigley insert set. Done!

So this year I'm going to focus on completing projects. I think I'll be able to polish off the All-Decade Teams, the All-Star Game MVPs, and the Rookies of the Year. They are all down to a maximum of a couple dozen cards needed in the binder (but mostly less than that). Some of them--like the Heisman, Franchise 9, and jersey numbers--are all but finished anyway. That will basically leave me with the NFL All-Time Team and about 600 MLB All-Stars to track down. Even those seem feasible by the end of the year. So where will my collecting attention turn then? I'm not sure. But for now, I know that my Sportlots, COMC, or wherever else shopping will lead me closer to completing these projects each time.