2012-->2013, part 2: money money money mooooney...MOOOONEY!

Yesterday I covered my 2012 and 2013 resolutions, then promised that I would return today to talk about the financial aspects of my collecting habit, both last year and going forward.

After June I posted a mid-year look at my spending and selling, and I'm proud to report that I stayed disciplined enough that I continued to record every purchase (and sale), no matter how tempting it might have seemed not to do so.  That would have been a massive waste of time, though, and there really was no point in not keeping an accurate running total so I could keep my spending reasonable.  Also, I've maintained that I try to be reasonably transparent with my spending on my blogs, and I feel that I've lived up to that.

So today, you get to see my net spending for an average (?) year in my collecting life, including how often I bought stuff, where I was most likely to purchase cards, how I did trying to sell, and maybe some other useful info.

Before I begin, a few notes:

• Anything I purchased with "house money" such as gift cards, eBay bucks, and even bottle returns (a gray area, yes, but it's my blog and I'll do what I want) didn't count towards my spending total, though if those only covered a part of a purchase, I prorated the price accordingly.
• Purchase totals for online sources include delivery costs.  Basically, I was good about reporting the full price paid every time I bought something.
• Purchase totals for retail include Michigan sales tax.
• Selling totals (I believe) don't take into account what I had to pay to ship those items; I felt like it would be more interesting to capture the total price of each sale, especially since shipping costs are pretty much implied when you sell over the Internet.
• I didn't track spending on packaging for and shipping of trade packages and giveaway items.  I think of trading as a zero-sum game (where everyone wins!) and while those costs are a necessary evil, I don't believe they merit meticulous tracking.
• I also didn't include the cost of any supplies I purchased for myself, such as boxes, sleeves and top-loaders.  While those purchases are related to what I spend on this hobby, I also don't feel they merit consideration when looking at yearly spending.

Ok, on with the show!  First up are some buying numbers and charts:

Let's get down to some stats, shall we?:

• Total spending:  $3,173.76
• Average monthly spending:  $264.48
• Most spent in one month:  March ($533.72)
• Least spent in one month:  December ($0!  I can't remember the last time I went this long without buying anything!)
• Largest individual purchase:  $300 for the "IPP" lot of Michigan Wolverines on March 30
• Source purchased from the most:  COMC, $1,463.55
• Source purchased from the least:  Group breaks, $24
• Average spending per source:  $396.72

COMC clearly ruled the roost here, accounting for nearly half my 2012 spending, and for good reason:  I love buying me some singles, and so far there hasn't been any other place that's been such a reasonable source for collecting my favorites.  Look for that to continue this year.

eBay was the next most useful, and I really did pick up some exciting stuff for my PCs this year, mainly in terms of the Michigan collections, but not entirely.  Similarly, my spending at card shows included zero dollars spent on boxes, with all of it going towards my baseball and Michigan PCs, trade bait, and autographed memorabilia.

While I don't have numbers for my 2011 spending, I can tell you for sure that I spent a LOT less on Blowout this year as those boards have kind of devolved in my opinion over the last few months.  No loss, though--there's always other places to spend my money!

That $300 in-person purchase, while costly, was most certainly a boon to my Michigan PC, especially because of the fact that I picked up both a good number of high-end stuff and a bunch of new players for the football collection.

The $200+ I spent on retail was my biggest regret of the year, but looking at that number gives me plenty of motivation to avoid the same mistake this year.  Meanwhile, I certainly don't regret joining Dimwit's group break, but as I explained yesterday, I don't see myself participating in any breaks this year.  I may, however, spend a bit more on a site like SportLots as I seek to complete a few more baseball and football sets.

Overall, I spent a good chunk of change, but I added so much useful stuff (and relatively little junk) to my PC that I can say without a doubt that it was worth it.

Next up, a look at how I did with some sales:

NOTE:  the eBay total above is $55.

And some stats:

• Total sales:  $769.75
• Average sales per month:  $64.15
• Most sold in one month:  July ($222.75)
• Least sold in one month:  as you can see, there's a bunch of zeros up there...
• Largest individual sale:  $200 for multiple lots on the Blowout forums.  Technically, I sold more in one day on COMC, but that included many individual sales along with one large port sale.  So for the purpose of this post, the Blowout lot wins it
• Smallest individual sale:  $0.50 for a 2001 Topps Chrome Adrian Gonzalez on COMC
• Source sold to the most:  COMC, $430.75
• Source sold to the least:  eBay, $55
• Average selling per source:  $256.58

I hadn't really planned to dabble too much in selling this year, but in the process of trying to get rid of unwanted stuff earlier in the year, I put up a bunch of lots over the course of a few days on Blowout and did fairly well.  Later, I finally jumped into COMC head-first and had a blast dumping some unwanted trade bait for some store credit, all of which I promptly spent (and plenty more!).  Finally, during my 2012 Topps Football frenzy I managed to sell a Drew Brees manupatch and Chris Houston 1/1 for a bit more cash.  The fact that I totaled more than $750 absolutely amazed me, and while I can't possibly hope to replicate those results this year (thanks to a dearth of cards to sell, really), that gave me a bit more spending room for the year, which you can tell I think I put to good use.

And lastly, but most importantly, a look at my net spending:

• Total spending - total sales = $3,173.76 - $769.75 = $2,404.01
• Net spending per month:  $200.33

See?  My $2,400 yearly budget I decided upon yesterday wasn't entirely pulled out of my ass!  Besides being an easily calculable $200 times 12 months, that's almost exactly what my net spending was last year, and I see no reason to change that considering the results I had.  The only difference between then and now, as I said, is that I probably won't get involved with selling much, if at all, this year, so look for the total spending number to decrease accordingly.  That's not a problem as far as I'm concerned:  I'm happy to work on getting better at scoring nice deals, plus that'll get me that much more motivated to attain my goal of 100 trades, which might have a bigger stake in terms of being a source of incoming cards for 2013.

Well, I hope this admittedly numerical analysis-heavy look at my 2012 spending was as interesting and informative for you as it was for me.  I'm thrilled to be able to find ways to improve so easily this year, and I'm already aware of how little effort it really takes to track my card spending, so you can be sure I'll be repeating that this year!  Here's to a more frugal but fruitful 2013!

2012-->2013, part 1: resolutions

Happy 2013, everybody!

I've been planning to write this post for a few days and now I finally have time to do so, so I'm no longer feeling left out as most of you have already done so!

First, I'd like to take a look back at the year of collecting that was 2012.  Let's see how I did with my resolutions:

1.  MOAR TRADING:  Between the two blogs I had 48 trade package posts.  Even taking some overlap into account, I'm quite happy with that.  Better yet, I know I can improve upon that this year!  Success

2.  Post more trade bait:  I definitely achieved this, at least for a little while.  I don't think it resulted in me making all that many trades, but the page was there when I needed it.  Ultimately I dumped most of my useful stuff to COMC, which ended up paying off big-time.  Success

3.  Comment more on blogs I read:  I know there's always room for improvement, but nary a day went by where I didn't comment on at least one post.  I realize how important it is to get that feeling people are reading your work, plus these can often lead to trades, so this is something that remains high on my list for this year as well.  Success

4.  Respond to comments I receive:  I can honestly say that I responded to nearly every comment I received, both in the Comments section and via email when possible (I still definitely prefer when people leave comments while signed in to an account linked to their email so the latter is possible).  I appreciate every single one I get, even if it's just someone making a funny remark about what I posted.  Success

5.  Manage two blogs:  This got a little tricky at times because twice the work can often lead to burnout, and there were definitely some weeks where I slacked on posting on one or both of the blogs.  Still, I managed to get up 120 posts on this one and more than 150 over on TMM, which meant I increased my total posting from 2011 by around 50.  More importantly, I think, I managed to separate out my Michigan-centric stuff from the rest of my collecting so the two blogs would be more enjoyable to their target audiences.  That's something I'm going to continue as long as it makes sense.  Success

6.  Post quality content:  Sure, anybody can throw up some trade package features and show off their other purchases and PC items, but that's only part of what a collecting blog should entail.  What I should try to focus on more is why I collect what I do, my likes and dislikes, and other such original content.  One feature I do like to do from time to time, though, which seems to be somewhat successful, is showing off and discussing my completed sets.  I don't do so often because they get scan-intensive, and that can take a lot of time and effort.  Still, it's something I'll try to do more of this year, along with hopefully some other interesting, original stuff.  That and I'll have to see if I can come up with some sort of feature unique to this blog so I can stand apart like some of you do.  Failure

7.  Group breaks:  For one thing, I had hoped to run at least one more group break myself, but in my opinion there literally hasn't been anything worthwhile that would have made sense for such a project.  The products from my three previous breaks--2010 EEE and 2008 Razor Letterman--have shot up in price and out of the realm of what would make sense value-wise.
I had also intended on participating in more group breaks run by others last year, but after joining one run by the Dimwit, I just realized that there wasn't much value or fun in it for me, because I'm not nearly the team collector most of you are, and I rarely end up with anything good out of them anyway.  I'm just very picky about what I want out of such a venture and understand now that for the most part, group breaks aren't for me, so this is one resolution that definitely won't be on this year's list.  Failure

8.  Spend less on useless crap:  This here is one goal that will now be a permanent part of my collecting strategy.  My two biggest sources of waste in the past were hobby and retail boxes and packs.  Well for starters, I'm pretty sure I didn't pick up any hobby boxes this year at the few shows I attended, and definitely not online.  Retail was a slightly different story, but I still made major strides.  I did pick up a bunch of 2010 Press Pass PE blisters (on sale!) for about $80, and I soon regretted that decision considering how I did.  Later in the year I went a bit overboard with 2012 Topps Football retail racks and blasters, totaling around $150, which is definitely more than I needed to spend there.  That's more than $200 I could have used elsewhere, but that's still a huge improvement over my past junk spending habits.  Success

9.  Complete some more sets:  My baseball and football set wantlists have shrunk so much I barely even recognize them anymore.  I combined purchases from COMC, SportLots, Blowout and eBay to knock out a large chunk of my wants in 2012.  But better yet, I got an amazing amount of help from many bloggers and readers last year, and I can't stress enough how much of a difference this made.  That'll be a bit more difficult this year due to the fact I won't need as many cards, plus I've drastically cut down on my set-collecting, but it's wonderful to know I have such a great source for getting help with one of the most enjoyable and pure pursuits of the hobby.  Thanks again, everyone!  Success

10.  Get more organized and get rid of unwanted stuff:  I've gone on quite a bit already so I'll make this brief.  First, I got a lot more stuff scanned, and in some cases with player PCs, checklisted.  I also made major headway in getting things into storage in a way that makes sense.  Finally, besides the usual purging I've done with unwanted stuff in trades, I recovered a ton of space thanks to the success of my fall cleaning lots, a project I plan to continue as space becomes necessary.  Who doesn't like free stuff?  Success

11.  400/100/50 and beyond:  In short, I wanted to surpass 400 unique Michigan sports hits (I was just under at that point), 100 baseball hits, and to reach the 50-hit mark for at least one player.  Those of you who follow TMM probably already know, but I recently went over 800 total Michigan sports PC hits, including 600 in football.  Baseball stands at 152, so that definitely happened.  And Jake Long (57, with more left to post) and Rich Hill (61, ditto) gave me double the fun of the 50+ club, with more pending my COMC haul posts!  Success

Nine out of 11 seems like a pretty successful year to me, and this gives me a great start on exactly what I should be doing in 2013, namely:

1.  Post quality content, dammit!:  Like I discussed above, I have major room for improvement here.  I'll work on that starting this week and see what I can come up with to make this blog more interesting, so it's not just purchase/trade/PC show and tell.  If you have any requests, please throw them in the comments as I'd love to have them!

2.  Set a budget this time:  Thus far, I've never given myself an exact budget, but I hadn't kept track of my spending until last year.  The proved extremely useful, and I'll get to that later.  For now, I'll just say that my plan is not to exceed an average of $200/month, or $2400 for the year, and no single month should go higher than $300.  I don't anticipate bringing in nearly the same amount of money thanks to selling as I did last year, so being a bit more restrained should be a goal of mine.

3.  350 posts between the two blogs:  It's about time I tried to increase my output, though I want it to still meet my standards from #1 in terms of quality.  This doesn't exactly have to be an even split, but I want to see both quantity and quality this year!

4.  Keep on keeping on with the set wantlists:  I have nine baseball sets (three others are complete sets) on my baseball list and 11 on the football list.  My goal this year will be to complete more than half of those.

5.  Don't forget your non-Michigan PCs!:  While I might not go as far as I did with my Michigan baseball player collections last year, I'd like to scan albums for several other players I like to collect, starting with Tigers Justin Verlander, Curtis Granderson (again, Tigers only), and Kirk Gibson, and then maybe moving on to Ripken, Griffey, Gwynn and Maddux, and even other Tigers as well, depending on how things go.  Because I'm not supercollecting them, I don't plan on creating Google Drive spreadsheets listing everything I have, but scanned albums will make it easier to get an idea of what I have while also showing them off.

6.  MOAR TRADING:  I'm going to set an arbitrary goal of 100 trades between the two blogs because that's something I'll seek to do more as I try to spend less.  That would be more than double what I did last year, but I think I'm up to it.  Any improvement over last year's activity would be a plus.

7.  Michigan sports PCs goals:  I'd like to surpass the following totals:

• Baseball:  200
• Football:  750
• Unique football PC subjects:  100
• Hockey:  75
• Overall:  1100

Since I had a good amount of success improving things last year, this year I'm gonna attempt fewer goals, but put more effort into doing so.

Tune in tomorrow when I look back on my spending and consider changes I want to make to my buying habits in 2013!

Check out my Cool News

GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE

Nearly four months after the first pickup of this latest haul (June 4), I'm finally getting my COMC shipped.  The main holdup was trying to determine what would happen to the shipping costs once the new site went live today.  Unfortunately I learned a couple weeks ago that prices would be going UP, not down, but in the end it didn't make that much of a difference, and I spent the time wisely with a few more pickups, to the point that after shipping I have exactly $0.16 in credit left over.

This most recent endeavor started around the time I started pulling in a bit of play money thanks to selling quite a few unwanted cards on the site, including, ultimately, my whole port!  I decided to take advantage of that and pick up stuff on my singles/players wantlists.  Besides that (though mostly that!) I found a few cheap cards to fill a few baseball and football sets, then I even had some success finding some stuff I know a few of you lucky traders will enjoy!  To top it all off, I then went whole hog into shoring up the PCs of players you can find over at TMM.

So, starting with the five cards I picked up on June 4, up until the last two I snagged Sept. 28, how many did I end up with in total?  Well, it would appear that this latest package outpaced every other COMC shipment (six of them) I've ordered COMBINED.  The damage?  356 cards for a total of almost $61 in shipping costs.  Do you think that's insane?  I initially balked at it before realizing that the site does an excellent job of cataloging, pulling, packing and shipping these cards and that costs money.  Plus, if I had ordered even a fraction of these elsewhere--say eBay or SportLots--I'd probably looking at 2-4x the cost, at least.  Other than that, I don't feel I ever need to justify what I spend--besides, I've had a solid year of selling stuff and I know what I can and can't budget towards cards.  Also, I'm planning on this being the last large purchase of the year, and since it'll presumably take a while to get everything posted, I won't really feel the need to go nuts again like this for the rest of 2012.

So while it'll probably take a week or two for everything to show up, keep an eye out over here and on TMM for some really exciting stuff, and maybe be even more watchful of your mailbox because I have some sweet stuff that might just get sent your way!

For now, if you haven't done it recently (or at all), take another gander at COMC, and while you're at it, see what you think of the new site design.