Collecting goals for the soon-to-be New Year

Well, a new year is just about upon us, so that means it is time to set new goals, reflect on the goals of the past year and aim to do better next year.

I would reflect on the goals of 2009, but, well, they sucked. I did terrible on all accounts, mainly because of a lack of funds for the first 8-9 months of the year and also because of a lack of motivation. I will admit for about 3 or 4 months, I spent a lot of extra money on excessive drinking, fast food and expensive German dining.

2010 will DEFINITELY be a complete 180 from that for two reasons.

1 - More income for the WHOLE family. I should be getting promoted to my next rank in Januaray and with that promotion comes a $300 a month raise AND the wife has a job interview tomorrow that could land her a part time job. This in turn would help with bills, savings and fun money.
2 - More focus. If i can keep up the motivation to write at least 20 blog posts a month, it will be an added boon to keep me focused on my goals. Add in the fact I will be using more sites (and blogs) at once to help me fill my needs, I should be able to have a much higher success rate this year.

Now, onto my goals for 2010. I have many, many goals for 2010, with most centering around my three primary player collections (and a few team and set centered goals) plus a new wrinkle, of a new player collection. Here they are, in grand fashion:

Richard Hidalgo

--Reach 20 autos (Have 10 already, but ones that I do not already own rarely pop up)
--Reach 400 total cards (Currently sit at 220, including incoming cards. If I can get hot on COMC and sportsbuy, should be easy)
--Reach 120 inserts (At 72, but since he hasn't been in any set since 2005, tough to locate older one that no one lists)
--Buy the Red Crusade (Own the Green and Purple, just need the seller to lower his asking price on the Red)
--Locate and purchase some sort of game used item. Be it a bat, hat, jersey, gloves, cleats, glove, whatever. And, if possible, get it signed.

Javier Vazquez

--Reach 20 autos (only saw 7 autos I didn't have this year and I won 5 of them, currently have 13)
--Reach 300 total cards (Have 152 right now and should be fairly easy since he is a current player)
--Reach 100 inserts (I am almost halfway there, so hopefully I can accomplish this)
--Get to 8 1/1 (I already have 4, just need more to pop up...at least at lower prices)
--Locate and purchase an autographed hat and baseball.

Hunter Pence

--Reach 20 autos (Kind of a pattern, eh? I currently have 8)
--Reach 150 total cards (He hasn't been in a TON of insert sets yet, so I am mainly trying to get GU, Auto and base...at 48 currently)
--Get to 30 total GU (I have 11 currently, and his GU is cheap...it will happen)
--Complete the Lettermen name "The Natural" (Not an auto'ed set and already have the A and L)
--Attempt to reach 3 1/1 (Have my first incoming, but his won't be cheap)
--Buy an autographed 8x10 or 10x16 for my son's room.

Set Related

--Complete my 2008 Topps set (and two insert sets) (This should be fairly easy...if I can locate a large amount of Series 2)
--Finish the year at 80% or higher on both the 1985 Topps and 2005 Donruss Champions sets (I focus on these two less than 08 Topps, but once the 08 is complete, I can focus on these more)

Team Collection Related

--Complete at least 12 years of the Topps Team Astros sets
--Have at least 2,000 cards (Engulfing all aspects of the hobby: game used, autos, inserts, base, parallels, etc.)
--Have at least 50 autographed cards (I do not have the exact numbers currently, but not a lot)

Through the Mail Project

--Without revealing any details on this project (I will some time in January), I would like to have a 75% or higher success rate with my TTM project

Micellaneous Goals

--Locate and acquire all 10 cards on the current Most Wanted List
--Acquire autos of the following players: Tony Gwynn, Mike Piazza, Cal Ripken, Jr., Wade Boggs, Greg Maddux
--Trade for or buy more football (My Titans collection is lacking pretty poorly, so I will try to work more on that next year)
--Enjoy the hobby more (I find myself enjoying the hobby on a more simpler level now. It's probably because I don't bust much wax, so I really only get what I want)
--Keep this blog up to date, funny, enjoyable, thoughtful, interesting and a place where maybe someone might learn something they didn't know before

Whew, that's a long list of stuff, for sure, but I like to keep many projects going at once. Makes it easier to never get bored and means there is ALWAYS something out there that I would like to add to my collection.

What are your collecting goals for 2010?