Hollywood42's Rolling 2024 Pickups + Hobby Thoughts and Brain Dumps

[Hollywood42]

This morning I wanted to check in with myself on my 2024 hobby goals and see how I'm doing. I don't believe I've done this yet this year, so seemed like as good of time as any to touch base with my past self and see if I'm keeping up with what I set out to do.

Originally Posted by Hollywood42

1. Finish my Twins checklisting project through 2010

I'm currently in the year 2003 on this task of typing up all of my Twins needs in a format that works well with my website. I started the year off in 1996, so I'm coming up on 10 years of Twins cards documented this calendar year. I think I'm just slightly behind pace for finishing with 2010 by the end of this year, but it's close. I won't be too broken up about it if I don't get through 2010 this year. This is one of those things that is a goal for me and I want to be making progress towards, but it can be pretty tedious. I'm a big proponent of enjoying the time you spend on the hobby, so if I find myself not enjoying the process, I just take a break. That leads to progress in spurts, I'll knock out a good chunk over a few weeks and then take a month or two off. But I think it's important to keep perspective and make sure you're enjoying what you're doing!

Originally Posted by Hollywood42

2. Process a small backlog of Twins cards

Not too much progress on this one yet, but I'm planning to knock this out during a vacation this fall

Originally Posted by Hollywood42

3. Clear out non-PC cards I don't want/need

I've taken the time to organize a bunch of stuff that's just taking up space and hope to start thinning it out in trades or other sorts of deals. I've trashed some stuff that I don't think is even worth hanging on to, but I may try some other stuff on TCDB and see if that helps lead to some trades where I'm not only thinning out random cards I don't want, but also using them to bring in some cards that I do need as well

Originally Posted by Hollywood42

4. Start a Minnesota collection and add 15 cards to it

The Minnesota collection has been started and is well underway! It currently has 7 cards in it. I don't think I'll make it to 15 this year just with competing priorities, but 10 is probably doable. I haven't added to this portion of the collection very consistently this year, but it's been a card or two here and there pretty sporadically. But I've had a lot of fun with this too!

Originally Posted by Hollywood42

5. Start a method for telling the stories of my Minnesota collection

This one is a work in progress. I have some ideas in my head about how to share the cards in this collection, and even more so, the stories behind them. I'm still sorting out exactly what I want to share about them and how much detail to go into on different component, and it takes me awhile to put together that narrative for each card. I'm hoping to finish this for a few different cards before I start sharing so I have a little backlog in place and can tap into that if I fall behind. But I'm on track to start sharing this by the end of the year!




Overall, not too bad with my goals. I didn't put together very many card-specific goals this year because I was pretty happy with my approach from the last few years of not putting many boundaries on what I want to do and allowing myself to change speeds and focuses as the year goes on, and that much has held true again this year

[Hollywood42]

Couple of fun goodies from the past few weeks-




Still chugging away with collecting this year, but it feels a little slower of late. Some of that is I don't really have any current year rainbows or rookie projects I'm going hard on like I usually do. A lot of different factors that have led to that and don't need to rehash them here, but largely just a reflection of the landscape as a whole. The other factor is I've had a few opportunities to land some BIG packages this year that I just couldn't pass up - the Dozier superfractors are definitely one of those, but I also have a few more in the works that I'm excited to share when the time is right! Very exciting things that everyone as a collector dreams of, but it has had the impact of slowing down my more sporadic day to day buying. Very content with that trade off, but it does make things feel a little slower sometimes. At any rate, stay tuned for more cool things!

[Hollywood42]

Random mishmash that I haven't shared yet - First up is a complete set of Twins No Number minis from 2010 Ginter! A&G has always been one of my favorite sets, and I particularly like the minis and love going after all the Twins. One semi recent development has been putting some work into formalizing a collection goal to collect all of the Twins minis from each year of Ginter, from base mini down through Bazooka/Brooklyn Backs /25. Needless to say, big goal that will take a lot of time, but I've had a handful of really fun maildays that I've shared already that knock out a lot of progress at once. This one was an unexpected find, I just happened across an eBay listing for an entire 2010 NNO Twins set, and even though I already had a handful, it was too good to pass up at just a couple bucks a card. So that's a nice big chunk crossed off of the 2010 list!




These rookies have been smattered about from the last few months and just getting around to posting. Really fun mix of current guys, with a Jose Miranda Sapphire Purple /10, Royce Vintage /99, and a Matt Wallner flagship Blue /50. Both guys have had their cold streaks this year, but they've all been red hot before as well, and will be fun to watch and collect moving forward!




Lastly for today, a little bit of ink. I have really come to love some of the autographed vintage inserts from recent years of Archives. Cool crossover of old and new, and this 2021 Kaat modeled after the 1969 Peel Offs is a perfect example! Also finally had my redemption for a Joe Ryan TC rookie auto completed recently after months and months of waiting. And it's still a lot of fun for me to collect guys like Sano who fizzled out and are no longer relevant, but once were hot in the hobby and had some excitement around him. I don't even know what this TC orange auto /25 would have gone back in 2016 compared to what I got it for now!




That's all the pickups I'll share for now, but I still have some cool things in the works that I'm excited to share when the time is right! Lately I've also been continuing to plug away at my Twins checklisting, and I'm now all caught up from 1961 through 2005. Just about 20 more years to go until I'm all completely caught up! It's a lot of fun being up to the era where I'm running into checklists for some of the sets that really brought me into the hobby into the 2000s, makes things a little more exciting than slogging through all the mass produced 80s/90s stuff!

[Hollywood42]

Really fun mailday last week with a couple of eBay lot wins from a single seller. Was watching several lots they had, and missed out on a bunch too, but these 3 here were my highest priority and really feel like I got great prices on them!

First up, something I'm always excited to do, add a bunch of different Co-Signers parallels. There's a big range of these here, but they go down to a /10:




Little smaller lot was a handful of Triple Threads base/parallels:




And to top it off, a bunch of different parallels and inserts from various 2005 sets. Big diverse mix here, but these range down to a couple /25s and /10s as well. In particular I really like the Polo Grounds inserts, I've posted about them before but there's just something about them for me!



Haven't gotten around to processing everything from these lots yet, but this is the bulk of it. Still have a handful of other things I haven't gotten posted yet either, and I'm expecting a huge package in the mail later on this week, so stay tuned!

[PuddleMonkey]

Recent lots severely lacking Kirby.

[Hollywood42]

Honestly, Puckett is a little bit of a soft spot in my collection for being in my opinion the 3rd best player in Twins history. That said, Puckett ranks #9 for most cards of a single player in my Twins collection, and everyone he's behind comes from the 2000s-present where it's a lot easier to have a lot more cards of each guy. But I have noticed myself in the past not putting a super high priority on Kirby for some reason. I think part of that is I just missed being alive for 1987 and 1991, so I don't have any memories of his major post season moments. And his off the field struggles prior to his playing days does make me not want to celebrate him as much as, say, Harmon Killebrew or Joe Mauer - without getting super into the can of worms of balancing cards of a player vs cards of a person. But perhaps the biggest factor, his stuff is expensive

Originally Posted by PuddleMonkey

Recent lots severely lacking Kirby.

Here's a few more cards that I think sum up my collecting habits pretty well - a bunch of cool numbered rookies, some of good players, some of not so good players, along with a printing plate I picked up for cheap. I absolutely love this type of stuff

[PuddleMonkey]

Originally Posted by Hollywood42

Puckett ranks #9 for most cards of a single player in my Twins collection

Where's Kent Hrbek? He better be way down there. Ron Gant should have punched him in the face.

[Slette]

Kent Hrbek was a hunting buddy of my dad's friend, and lived two houses away from my second cousin. We're practically BFFs, aside from having never actually met him.

[Hollywood42]

Herbie is 17th in my collection, and also he did nothing wrong

Originally Posted by PuddleMonkey

Where's Kent Hrbek? He better be way down there. Ron Gant should have punched him in the face.

Love it!

Originally Posted by Slette

Kent Hrbek was a hunting buddy of my dad's friend, and lived two houses away from my second cousin. We're practically BFFs, aside from having never actually met him.

[PuddleMonkey]

Originally Posted by Hollywood42

Herbie is 17th in my collection, and also he did nothing wrong

Fake Champions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiraekmCNv4

[Hollywood42]

Had a crazy fun day of mail this week, with a MASSIVE haul of Twins minis from 2006 Allen & Ginter:




This had the last few base minis I needed for my set including the Johan EXT, the last few A&G Back minis I needed for my set, 10 of the 11 Twins NNO minis, and 10 of the 11 Twins Bazooka Back minis /25. Just a crazy awesome group from the toughest year of Ginter minis and a massive boost to my Twins A&G mini project where I'm working on building the team set of each Twins mini of each parallel through Bazooka/Brooklyn /25, for each year of Ginter

Here's the updated look at my 2006 progress all side by side. I'll be doing a little shopping soon to bang out my missing blacks, and that'll bring me down to only two tough ones remaining in a Killebrew NNO and a Torii Bazooka /25 to completely polish off 2006!




If you want to see if you can help me out for the larger project, I'd love to continue knocking off more Twins Ginter minis for my project! I have my needs posted and up to date in this thread - https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1585002

[TGutta]

Always love following along and seeing all of your pickups! Awesome work!

[Hollywood42]

Thank you sir!

Originally Posted by TGutta

Always love following along and seeing all of your pickups! Awesome work!

Here's a brain dump topic that's been on my mind for awhile this year - FOMO, or the lack thereof. This topic fits in well with the theme of Black Friday and hunting for bargains:

Everyone knows about FOMO by now, the temptation to follow the masses and dive into the hot player of the month, chase the latest and greatest big hit, being driven by impulse. I am not a person that's finding myself having to battle this very often. In part because my PC rarely overlaps with what is hottest in the general hobby, but also just my mindset in general of being content to wait out the post-release hype inflated prices or the prospect call-up hype, etc, until prices come back down to what I view as more reasonable. So FOMO isn't really a concern for me, just not something I find myself having to battle

What I've noticed, though, is that sometimes I go pretty far in the opposite direction of being content to wait and wait and wait for certain cards until I can find a good deal. Now in general I think this is a prudent, sensible thing to do, but I've found this extends even to cards in the $5-25 range that really isn't a big deal to just pick up whenever. Or even for cards worth even less than that - for example, the last cards I often need to complete rainbows are the very most common cards, base and standard refractors, because while I can pick them up literally anytime for, say, a dollar, I know the cards aren't worth a dollar and find myself holding out until I find it somewhere for 25 cents. Or even on the little larger of a scale, such as liking some recent Topps inserts like Home Field Advantage or Heavy Lumber. These go in the $10-20 range usually, and it wouldn't be at all an issue for me to just pick them up at that price point to have it, enjoy it, and move on to the next. But here too I find myself wanting to find a deal, rather than just picking it up at the normal fair price point. This doesn't go for everything, but definitely is prevalent for me towards more common stuff

All this is a little nuanced. Like I said, to a point I think this is a logical healthy behavior. If you don't have enough patience and willingness to wait for the right price, you'll pay more for things and can easily bleed over into the FOMO territory and paying more than you need to. But at some point, with certain cards, why not just pay the $5 rather than waiting to see if you can get it for $3? Those extra 2 dollars are no big deal, but I do find myself battling this mindset sometimes on cards I want to pick up and have been on my list for some time. I've been trying to get a little better at this over the course of this year and not being so worried about trying to min/max every single dollar. But, at the same time, I'm still trying to be reasonable with it too, because it does add up over time!

Kind of an interesting behavior I've noticed about myself. Curious if anyone else is the same way and finds themselves holding off on $1-20 dollar cards they could get anytime while holding out for a deal!

[Hollywood42]

And because it's been awhile since I've shared any pickups, here's a pair of blue rookie autos I haven't posted yet!

[Hollywood42]

I have lost a little motivation to stay up on this thread as much as I have in years past, in part because I'm slowing down a bit for the year, and in part, if I'm being honest, because it seems like BO is less and less """true""" collecting focused as the years go on. But I'm still having a good time! Decided to post up everything I have in my backlog folder to get caught up on a bunch of different things. And after that, it'll probably be a bit slow of a finish to the year for me as I try not to spend a whole lot over the next few weeks. But if nothing else, I'll be back with my annual year in numbers wrap-up once the calendar turns!

Ok, a bunch of different things to share. First up, a fun group of random cards - couple current rookie autos, a Pablo Lopez Golden Mirror that I absolutely love, shown after the Twins beat the Blue Jays in the 2023 playoffs, a random Solano and Cuddyer that caught my eye, and then some more Julien - still hopeful for a bounceback! This was also my first TAG slab - I definitely didn't seek it out, but I thought it was a good price and was happy to have the card. Some pros/cons, the slab itself is super clear and really helps the card pop. But also so clear that any little speck of dust is very noticeable. Took a couple passes getting it into the sleeve clean until I was satisfied. I am also not a very big fan of the flip, the QR code (which is very cool that it links to a detailed grading info page, if you're into that) is way too big and ugly, and the text listing what the card is, is so dang small! I do think the slab looks better in person than scanned. Overall, I don't grade much and this won't convince me to seek out TAG in the future, but I did like it better than I thought I would, and won't avoid TAG in the future either




Next up, I added 2 more Morneau Triple Threads relics!




Alone, they aren't anything special, but I have a huge chunk of the 2011 TTT Unity rainbow for Morneau including all three 1/1s, so I am always on the lookout to keep filling out the rainbow. I haven't seen any of the /3s since I started this, and while some of the /18s and /27s are out there, those I'm content to wait for prices more up my alley. But this rainbow is starting to get close




If you didn't see a dedicated thread I have for this project, I had a fun mailday tracking down a 2014 Bowman Chrome Carbon Fiber Refractor /10 of Brian Dozier for my ultimate Dozier Bowman Chrome rainbow. With this one checked off the list, I am down to only needing a Shimmer Refractor /15 and a Red Refractor /5 for the 2014 rainbow, and I'm just 3 cards away to fully completing the entire master Bowman Chrome Brian Dozier non-1/1 rainbow. Here's an updated look at the 2014 rainbow




This week I've been focusing on picking up some Pablo Lopez cards. Anyone that has talked to Lopez raves about how genuine he is, and he seems like one of the true good people in the sport. That always makes collecting a player all the more fulfilling, and that's reflected here with a couple of 2024 Sapphire parallels. Fun to knock out a big chunk of the rainbow in one shot!




And finally, last one for today - I picked up a 2022 A&G Rod Carew auto. It still absolutely blows my mind that you can find autographs of notable Hall of Famers for about the same price as a blaster, and that's something I've tried to take advantage of more this year. This card also marks the official start of yet another collecting sub-project - because lord knows I don't have enough of those already! But this one is to track down a copy of each Twins Allen & Ginter autograph and relic from over the years. I was looking through the Twins checklists, and really there's only a couple autographs that will be pricey or harder to find, and everything else should be attainable in the $5-25 range. On the relic side, there's a bunch of them, but pretty much everything should be 10 bucks or under, so why not! Ginter is one of my favorite products each year, one of the sets that helped bring me more seriously into the hobby in the 2000s, and I'm also chasing all the Twins Ginter minis over the years, so bringing in the autographs and relics was just the natural next step





If you followed along at all this year, thank you! Right now, I'm not sure if I'll create a thread for myself in 2025 or not. I do enjoy being able to scroll through my past threads from time to time and look at where my head was at and what I was focusing on, but it has increasingly felt like I'm just going it for myself, so not sure yet if I'll buck the tradition next year or not. I'll probably post some pickups here and there in some form, but maybe a little more selectively or maybe wrapped into the annual Twins thread. Not sure yet

But maybe that leaves me with one more little brain dump for 2024 first - if you see someone doing something you think is cool, tell them! I know for myself, I am plenty content collecting for me and what I like, but it always takes things to a next level if I can connect with others that think similarly or have an appreciation for what I'm doing. And to all that have reached out to me in one form or another this year, thank you! It always gives me a little boost to help keep me going. I have tried to get better over this year reaching out to others as well. Cards are sweet, but connection is what it's all about

[mattglet]

Definitely keep it up for 2025.

There are a lot of people who just lurk and enjoy your threads - me included - and don't respond, but there are still plenty of collectors out here in the same boat as you!

[Hollywood42]

Thank you! I know yall are out there, just lose sight of it sometimes!

Originally Posted by mattglet

Definitely keep it up for 2025.

There are a lot of people who just lurk and enjoy your threads - me included - and don't respond, but there are still plenty of collectors out here in the same boat as you!

[akaus21]

Please create a 2025 thread. I always love looking at your Twins pickups. Keep it up!

[Hollywood42]

Thanks for the kind words!

Originally Posted by akaus21

Please create a 2025 thread. I always love looking at your Twins pickups. Keep it up!

[Hollywood42]

I was scrolling through this thread and starting to think about how to pick out my annual top 10 list, and I realized that somehow one of my biggest maildays this year didn't get posted in this thread!

In a follow-up deal to this insane mailday, I was able to work out a second deal for a few more amazing Brian Dozier cards. Cutting right to the chase:

2012 Bowman Sterling Canary Diamond Refractors 1/1 RC
2012 Bowman Sterling Red Refractors 1/1 RC




2012 Topps Finest Rookie Autographs Printing Plates Black 1/1 RC auto
2012 Topps Finest Rookie Autographs Printing Plates Cyan 1/1 RC auto




And a pair of cherries on top:

2015 Topps Platinum 1/1
2016 Topps Allen & Ginter Glossy 1/1




Adding just one or two of these would be a major highlight of my collecting career, so to get all of these in one shot, let alone in addition to the 8 () Doze superfractors I've already posted. It truly has been an insane year of collecting for me with these and many more items. I am still looking back in amazement over it all!

[MiamiMarlinsFan]

Congrats on that platinum, man! I have good memories from Dozier on my 2016 Fantasy Baseball team. He got off to a sluggish start that year, and everyone told me to cut him, but I stood by him and, as we know now, he had a monster 2nd half.

[Hollywood42]

Thank you! Doze's run was so much fun. He carried the team for a pretty insane short few year peak, definitely gave fans a reason to tune in for some years that the team was not very good. So many great memories. I only wish he could have stuck around at that level for a few more years so he got to be on some really good Twins teams. But hey, he appeared in back to back World Series and went out on top with a ring, so it didn't turn out too bad for him!

Originally Posted by MiamiMarlinsFan

Congrats on that platinum, man! I have good memories from Dozier on my 2016 Fantasy Baseball team. He got off to a sluggish start that year, and everyone told me to cut him, but I stood by him and, as we know now, he had a monster 2nd half.

[Hollywood42]

Definitely winding down here for the year, have all my pending deals in-hand except for a bunch of trades that should come in over the next week or so. Most of that will be cards I don't typically post here (Topps base, common chrome parallels, etc), but maybe I should occasionally since I love the common stuff too and working on filling holes in my collection. But for more notable cards, this might be it for the year barring any last minute entries

Getting caught up on the last while's mail:

Recently got a nice batch of 2024 Twins Ginter minis. I always have opportunities to pick up a card or two at a time after new releases come out, but I like to hold out for awhile and see if I can nab a bunch at once in a single deal instead to help save on shipping costs. I always feel justified when it plays out that way




Next a few new rookies. All stuff that is right up my alley and one of the main few pillars I'd say my collection centers around. Special shoutout to my sister for the Herrmann pink, she had the idea to look at my website, figure out what all these foreign words meant to someone not in the hobby, and track down a card I still needed for my collection. Super meaningful, I don't mind giving my family members a few ideas or even a few direct eBay links if they are interested in giving me a card but don't know what to do, but the thoughts behind making it happen on their own is just awesome and takes it to the next level. I always feel a lot of gratitude and appreciation for unexpected, thoughtful gifts like that. I haven't posted much of anything to my Herrmann collection lately, in part because I've been focusing on other things in recent years, in part because there's so few non-1/1s that I don't have a copy of already, but I might be overdue for a collection update in the near future




Lastly, some ink and some relics! I recently expanded my Twins Allen & Ginter project from "only" the mini rainbows of all years base to bazooka/brooklyn /25, to also include autographs and relics as well, so it's been fun to pick up the first handful of cards for that project since making it official





That'll be just about it for new adds for the year, but stay tuned for my end of year summary posts including goal review, the year in some numbers, and top 10s!

[Highlander23]

Just read through the whole thread today! Enjoyed seeing all your additions through the year. I've gotten away from cards the past few years and focused on autographs...mostly TTM ones, but the siren call of cards has been luring me back recently so it was fun to see a collection like yours and how you put it together. Not sure what I will do next, but I would definitely encourage you to keep sharing.....it does connect with a lot more people than you think! I will definitely keep an eye out for Twins cards now as I get more stuff!!

[Slette]

Oh wow, and holy crap - I completely missed your Dozier pickups from a while back. Simply incredible. Did you get those from that big Twins collector who sold off a whole bunch earlier this summer?