My 2017 New Year's (Blog) Resolutions!

For the umpteenth time, I'm back for a new year's worth of blog resolutions.  If you missed my look back at how I did on my 2016 blog resolutions, I covered my progress here.  Now, it's time to look forward to a new year:  2017!

2017 Resolutions:

1.  Barry Larkin Collection
I ended 2016 with a total of 494 different Barry Larkin cards scanned and written about.  Right now, I have another 80 or so cards that I have already scanned that are waiting for me to write about.  If I could get all of those done, plus twenty-six more cards I'll hit 600 different Larkin cards for my collection (which would be great).  Unfortunately, 124 cards is basically a new Larkin every third day which I think would probably get old for many of my blog readers.  Therefore, I'm going to essentially halve that target:  by the end of 2017 I want to have at least 550 different Larkin cards written about on my blog.

2.  The Great Reorganization
I made some progress reorganizing my collection in 2016, but with every year that passes I accumulate more cards!  Therefore, I hope to truly focus more on this goal in 2017...so much so that I'm going to make clearing off of my "reorganizing table" the goal for the year.  As of this moment, there are about 27 stacks (representing 27 different years) that I need to sort (and in some cases, place in binders).  This goal will probably NOT be reached in 2017, but I'm putting it out here now in hopes of motivating myself more than I otherwise would be!

3.  The Want List
I'm a set collector first, and a Larkin collector second - so it should be no surprise that my top three goals for 2017 all revolve around those ideas.  Much like last year, I have made a list of sets that I hope to complete in 2017 - all of which I am fairly close to completing.  I don't expect that I'll get them all done, but I would like to knock off a healthy chunk of the set this year (I had great success doing this last year).

Here are the sets that I am targeting for 2017:

2016 Topps Allen & Ginter:  Mascots in the Wild Insert:  1, 5
2016 Topps Allen & Ginter:  Ferocious Felines mini insert:  FF-1, 5, 6, 8, 12, 14
2016 Topps Allen & Ginter:  Laureates of Peace mini insert:  LP-1, 2, 4
2016 Topps Allen & Ginter:  Subways & Streetcards mini insert:  SS- 9, 11
2016 Topps Allen & Ginter:  US Mayors mini insert:  4, 8, 12, 15, 27, 34
2016 Topps:  Perspectives Insert:  P- 2, 7, 11, 17, 20, 21, 24
2015 Topps Allen & Ginter:  Keys to the City insert:  KTC- 3, 8
2015 Topps Allen & Ginter:  Box Loaders:  Pride of the People:  PCB- 2, 3, 4, 6
2015 Topps Archives:  Will Ferrell Insert:  7 (as a White Sox)
2014 Topps Allen & Ginters:  Into the Unknown mini insert:  ITU-16* Hernan Cortes
2014 Topps Allen & Ginters:  Little Lions:  LL-09, LL-16
2014 Topps Allen & Ginters:  Where Nature Ends: WNE-17
2014 Topps Allen & Ginters:  World’s Deadliest Predators: WDP-16, WDP-22
2013 Topps Chrome:  Base:  1, 10, 16, 32, 119, 220
2013 Topps Archives: Base:  237, 240
2013 Topps Archives: All-Star:  CR, GB, GC
2013 Topps Archives: 1972 Basketball Design:  JB (Johnny Bench)
2012 Topps Archives: Classic Combos:  58- KK, LM, SF
2012 Topps Archives: In Action:  82IA- CR, I, JE, JH, KG
2012 Topps Archives: Archive reprints: 164 Roberto Clemente
2011 Topps Heritage:  Base:  460
2009 Topps Allen & Ginter:  Creatures of Legend, Myth, &Terror (minis): 5, 7, 14, 15
2009 Topps Base Series 1 & 2:  Legends of the Game (Series 2) insert: Mariano Rivera
2009 Topps Base Series 1 & 2:  Topps Town (Gold Version): TTT29
2008 Upper Deck Timeline:  Base: #308, 336, 341, 345, 356, 361, 363, 366, 373, 374, 375
2008 Topps Heritage (low and high series): Base: #464, 465, 480, 488, 495, 500
2007 Topps Allen & Ginters:  Roman Emperers:  1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10
2007 Topps Allen & Ginters:  Snakes:  1, 3, 4, 5
2006 Fleer Greats of the Game:  Decade Greats:  BJ, CR
2006 Fleer Greats of the Game:  Tigers Greats: KG
2006 Fleer Greats of the Game:  Yankee Greats: WB
2001 Topps Stadium Club:  117, 166, 167, 168, 170, 186, 188, 191, 196, 197
1999 Fleer Ultra:  Base:  74, 223, 224, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 241, 248, 249, 250
1995 UD Collector's Choice:  Base:  186, 188, 189, 190, 192, 194, 196, 197, 198, 200, 494, 500

That's a fairly hefty list (but only a small fraction of the sets that I'm trying to complete)!

4.  My Frankensets
Of all the resolutions from 2016 (and now 2017), this is the one that I probably care the least about.  That said, if I am able to (finally) complete my Great Reorganization of my collection then the Frankensets will be the next thing on my hobby to-do list.  I plan to have more information about my Frankenset ideas once the time gets closer to where I can actually start them.

5.  My LEGO Blog
This year, I had some decent content on my LEGO blog (mostly reviews) but also a few other things that I was happy to write up.  For the 2017 year, I hope to devote even more time to my growing LEGO blog (visit me here).  I also hope to continue working on my custom LEGO city in my "man cave" - more on that at a later date as well!

6.  New Content at Nachos Grande
Although I do hope to continue to grow my LEGO blog, I don't want to give up on my "main" blog which is right here at Nachos Grande.  I have some ideas for some future blog series that might help to inject some new life into the blog.  In terms of a resolution, I hope to manage to blog every day once again...but more importantly, I hope to maintain the sense of fun that I've grown accustomed to here at the blog!

7.  Teaching
This isn't a blog-related resolution exactly...but it does affect how much time I have available to blog...and that's my teaching.  As you probably know, I teach college math - and this coming spring I'll be co-teaching a brand new course (History of Mathematics) at my college - a course that culminates in me taking 29 people overseas to Italy and Greece.  My goal here is to find a good work/life/hobby balance...and to get everyone to and from Europe safely (while ideally having everyone have a great time and also learn a lot while overseas)!

8.  Woodworking
My woodworking "shop" is basically in the back of my (unheated) garage...which means I can't do much in the way of projects during the cold months.  However, in the summer I do hope to get back to doing some wood projects - including a bunch of new shelves for my man cave (and for the storage room that we have).

9.  Blog Trading
I hope to continue trading baseball cards (and the occasional LEGO related item) into 2017.  I keep a running tally of my trades throughout the year - and for 2016 I completed a grand total of 70 different trades.  That's pretty good (though a far cry from 2011 when I somehow completed 166 different trades)!  One thing that I know for sure is that if I don't buy more new product, it'll be harder and harder to complete many trades...I think a lot of my lower trading numbers are a direct result of me buying less and less of the "new stuff" that's put out there by Topps, etc.

I think that will do it for my 2017 Resolutions.  As you can see, I have a lot of grand plans for the new year - and if I am able to do as well on my 2017 goals as I did back in 2016, then I think I'll be able to consider 2017 a success!

I wish you and yours a very happy (and healthy) 2017.  I hope all of you continue to check back in here at Nachos Grande...and hopefully I can even do some trading in January to start up on my ninth resolution for the new year!