A Look Back at my 2013 New Year's Resolutions!

It's New Year's Eve - which means I'm pretty much out of time to make any more progress on my resolutions for this year.  Before I make new goals for next year (of which I may or may not meet), I figured I ought to take a look at how I did on my 2013 Resolutions.

Resolution #1:  Complete at least five sets from the list I provided
How I did:  I actually did quite well here.  In fact, I did manage to complete exactly five of the sets on that list.

• 1988 Pacific Legends:  64, 111
• 1991 Score:  561, 812, 890
• 2006 Fleer Greats of the Game:  Cardinals Greats:  BG
• 2007 Topps Heritage:  New Age Performers:  8 (but I realized I'm missing #2 too)
• 2012 Topps Archives base:  203

In addition, I managed to make some headway on a few of the others.  Out of the 15 sets on the list, there were only six sets that I didn't make any progress (or totally complete).  The elusive sets for 2013 were:

• 1985 Topps:  181
• 2008 Topps Heritage base:  464, 465, 480, 488, 495, 500
• 2008 Topps Stadium Club:  15, 78, 108b, 117b
• 2009 Topps Allen & Ginter:  Inventions of the Future:  5
• 2009 Topps Allen & Ginter:  Extinct Creatures:  1
• 2009 Topps Allen & Ginter:  Creatures of Legend, Myth, & Terror:  5, 7, 14, 15

Resolution #2:  Put up a LEGO Minifigure want list and post about LEGO figures
How I did:  Exceedingly well!  Not only did I get my full LEGO want list up (and I kept it updated as new sets came out in 2013), I actually started a brand new LEGO blog that is just now beginning to pick up steam.

Resolution #3:  Decide which sets to complete and which to give up on
How I did:  Alright.  I managed to purge my collection of a few sets that I have no plans to ever complete (1990 Donruss, I'm looking at you).  However, I have way, way more to do.  In fact, I have about five bookshelves full of binders - and with very little additional room to grow, I need to start clearing out some cards that I no longer need/want.

Resolution #4:  Get my online Barry Larkin Collection to at least 200 scanned/written cards
How I did:  Once again, this was a great success story.  I ended up getting a total of 233 Larkin cards scanned and written (in total - not all last year).  I also think I managed to spread them out enough so that people who aren't interested in my Larkin collection weren't too bored with my blog.

Resolution #5:  Continue working on my education blog
How I did:  I'm going to give myself an F on this one.  In fact, I've all but abandoned that blog - I've found it too difficult to write what I want to say without worrying about privacy and all that.  Rather than have to think about legal ramifications in terms of student work, attitude, etc., I found it easier simply to work on my baseball card and/or my LEGO blogs - two areas of writing where I don't need to worry about offending students, parents, the college, etc.

Resolution #6:  Work towards making my collection self-sufficient in terms of budget
How I did:  Surprisingly, I did quite well here.  I had a $200 card that I sold get lost in the mail (in which eBay told me to take the complain to the United State Postal Service...and when I did the USPS never bothered to even acknowledge me.  Had I actually been able to pocket the $200 from that sale, I would have broken even this year - maybe even been slightly ahead.  Of course, I had great luck with my Ginter case (I pulled a Pele autograph as you may recall)...breaking even on baseball cards isn't easy!

Resolution #7:  Complete at least 120 trades
How I did:  A quick look at my trade counter for 2013 will show you that I came up quite a bit short in this area.  That said, I'll still give myself a B grade for this one since I was an active trader every month - I ended up selling more stuff on eBay (and Listia) than previous years in an effort to meet Resolution #6.

Resolution #8:  Grow my average blog readership
How I did:  F.  My blog readership appears to be down quite a bit.  Luckily, my LEGO blog is beginning to pick up readers so my net readership is probably about what it was last year.  If the trends continue, I'll actually have more readers at this time next year (even if the number of baseball blog readers continues to decline).

Resolution #9:  Be a more active blog participant
How I did:  Once again, I'll go with a B here.  I did participate some - and I did a bit better in terms of leaving comments.  I also was part of numerous contests (including hosting my own) and I did Crackin' Wax's Secret Santa for the first time.  I probably could be a bit more of a blog presence (especially since I read almost every post that you all write) but I'm not disappointed with how I did this year.

Resolution #10:  Avoid burnout and have fun
How I did:  I think I did quite well here.  I maintained my one-to-two posts every day for the entire year.  In fact, I'm fairly certain I had at least one post every single day once again.  I also had plenty of days with multiple posts - but I did better at not "forcing" posts, especially lately.  I think I barely avoided the burnout - mostly because I gave up on a lot of the newer stuff that wasn't interesting to me and started going back to some of the older sets that I liked as a kid.

All things considered, I'm extremely pleased at how my 2013 Resolution progress ended up.  Most of the goals were met completely with almost all the rest "satisfactory."  I did basically give up on the education blog but that's ok - think of that s my "go to the gym every day" resolution ;)

How did you do on your 2013 resolutions?  Care to share?  Leave a comment - or a link to your own post if you've written something similar lately!