2025 year end

[michaelstepper]

2025 is officially in the books. Looking back at our yearly goals post, how did everyone do? I went and copied my list from the original post. Overall I'd say it was a great year hobby wise. Let's keep the momentum into and beyond 2026


In no particular order,
2025 goals:

1) Aquire one of the two gold refractor Griffeys I need.
2002 Bowman chrome
2004 Bowman chrome
no progress here. Seen a couple listed at $1200
2) Find 5-8 of the remaining 2005 Sweet Spot red-blue stitch autos I need for my set swap
found 6

3) pick up 5-10 HOF patch, leaf bat barrel or legendary signatures cards for the PC
Found quite a few actually. Here a few favorites

4) I'll bulk these together, Find 3-5 of ANY of my other Sweet Spot wants
Was able to add about 9 total from my other sets I'm working on.

5) Continue selling unwanted items
Definitely slowed down but I am moving items. Not as fast as I'd like though

6) Buy more Mags and supplies to get the PC all protected correctly
Bought a crap ton of Mags this year. Was able to put maybe 50% of the PC into them.

 

[CardBoredom]

My 2025 Goal Report:

1. Spend less than $120 on building my collection in the first six months of 2025. I need to keep expansion of the collection in check while I catch up on enjoying what I already have. If you change "first six months" to "last six months" then this goal can be considered a success. Finding my collecting white whale (see Goal #3) in late Spring had the effect of shifting the timeline.
2. Surprise at least six collectors with unplanned mail days containing cards from their want lists. Done. That was fun.
3. Add three more cards to either my Charlie Bishop or Jose Canseco player collections. Major progress here. Added three high grade Bishop cards (PSA 7 1953 Topps, SGC 7.5 Double Headers, and PSA 4 1955 Rodeo Meats). The Rodeo Meats cards is exceptionally hard to find and this example is the highest graded by any of the grading services. I gave up on the high grade portion of my Canseco collection and sold all but my favorite 10 slabs. I still have all my ungraded Canseco items and continued to add in 2025 with the top addition being a 1991 Desert Shield.
4. Bring the percentage of cards meeting at least one of my overall collecting goals up from the current 79% to at least 90%. The most likely path to accomplish this will be a significant thinning of the contents of my sell/give away box. Raised the proportion of cards meeting my collecting goals up to 92%. Thinning out the extras helped, so much so that my collection decreased in size from 866 to 740 cards.
5. Overhaul the “Other Cards” section of my website, separating out my player focused sub-collections into usable form. I made some improvements here and there but not quite to the scale I had envisioned when making this a goal for 2025.
6. Profile at least 60 cards on the site in the coming year. Done. Profiled 62 cards.

 

[michaelstepper]

My 2025 Goal Report:

1. Spend less than $120 on building my collection in the first six months of 2025. I need to keep expansion of the collection in check while I catch up on enjoying what I already have. If you change "first six months" to "last six months" then this goal can be considered a success. Finding my collecting white whale (see Goal #3) in late Spring had the effect of shifting the timeline.
2. Surprise at least six collectors with unplanned mail days containing cards from their want lists. Done. That was fun.
3. Add three more cards to either my Charlie Bishop or Jose Canseco player collections. Major progress here. Added three high grade Bishop cards (PSA 7 1953 Topps, SGC 7.5 Double Headers, and PSA 4 1955 Rodeo Meats). The Rodeo Meats cards is exceptionally hard to find and this example is the highest graded by any of the grading services. I gave up on the high grade portion of my Canseco collection and sold all but my favorite 10 slabs. I still have all my ungraded Canseco items and continued to add in 2025 with the top addition being a 1991 Desert Shield.
4. Bring the percentage of cards meeting at least one of my overall collecting goals up from the current 79% to at least 90%. The most likely path to accomplish this will be a significant thinning of the contents of my sell/give away box. Raised the proportion of cards meeting my collecting goals up to 92%. Thinning out the extras helped, so much so that my collection decreased in size from 866 to 740 cards.
5. Overhaul the “Other Cards” section of my website, separating out my player focused sub-collections into usable form. I made some improvements here and there but not quite to the scale I had envisioned when making this a goal for 2025.
6. Profile at least 60 cards on the site in the coming year. Done. Profiled 62 cards.

Thats awesome! Love how you expanded the collection over a certain percentage yet decreased the actual number of cards and picked up a whale. Congrats!

 

[deaconblues63]

@michaelstepper How far along are you on the Sweet Spot Signature Game Used set?

 

[michaelstepper]

@michaelstepper How far along are you on the Sweet Spot Signature Game Used set?

Have currently
20/36 bat barrels
4/5 gloves
2/12 baseballs

Never expected to get this far but if they show up, I'll give it a shot.

 

[thelesquad]

Ryne Sandberg goals:
1. Hit three needs from his playing years list - I hit exactly three, and two of them were big ones for me.
2. Complete a modern rainbow - not a huge rainbow, but 2025 Topps Tribute was completed.
3. Acquire 10 HR ticket stubs (currently at 144/256) - I ended up picking up 38 tickets, many from one seller.

 

[banjar]

So here's what I wrote for 2025:

"My goals for this year are simple as usual.

1) More Alomar pickups. And this time I am targeting one white whale.

2) More Parker pickups. This is turning out to be really fun. But as I keep building that PC, the ones I need will become more rare and expensive, so it'll slow down. Still fun though."


I'd say it went pretty well. I probably got 75 new Dave Parker cards, which has been really fun. Getting to know some of the older cards from the 70's and early 80's has kept me interested. It was sad that Dave died this year, but I'm glad he knew he got into the HOF.

On the Alomar front, it's been a banner year, especially when it came to big ones from the 90's and early 2000's. Here are some highlights:

1998 UD Retro Quantum Leap /50
1998 Pacific Invincible Cramer's Choice Gold /15
1998 Topps Stars Gold Rainbow /99
1998 Topps Stars & Steel Gold Holographic
1999 UD Textbook Excellence Quadruple /10
2001 Playoff Absolute Home Openers Souvenirs Auto /25
1998 Pinnacle Team Pinnacle Mirror /25
2003 Topps Kanebo Series 2 Bronze
2003 Topps Kanebo Series 1 Black
1998 Bowman Chrome Golden Anniversary /50
1998 Pinnacle Zenith Gold Impulse /100
1998 Pacific Aurora Pennant Fever Copper /20
1998 Donruss Crusade Red /25

 

[dano7]

1. Add 3 more Hassan T202 cards....ADDED 5 MORE

2. Continue to look for a Frank Chance B-18 Blanket with yellow pennants - SP so will be tough....STILL LOOKING

3. Continue to look for T209 Contentnea Roanoke players....STILL LOOKING

4. Make it to 1450 different Yankee autographs - made it to 1452

5. Get more college players autographs at Viirginia Tech & from visiting teams...VERY SUCCESSFUL

6. Get more in person autographs at ballparks this year and maybe visit Cary,NC for team USA autographs....VERY SUCCESSFUL....TO CARY TWICE WITH GREAT SUCCESS