Here we are two weeks into the new year, so I’m a bit behind in releasing my hobby goals for 2021. Before we get started on this year’s goals I want to preface this post by explaining how I set my goals. I discuss S.M.A.R.T. goals in my 2019 goals blog post.
Last year was such a blur with COVID-19 that all goals were put on the back burner. But…due to the pandemic my goals were achieved…and then some in 2020. Here are the S.M.A.R.T. goals for the hobby in 2020.
Recapping 2020 Hobby Goals
The Purge was the title for 2020 hobby goals. Talk about creepy with what was about to come. How did I do? Bulk trades were going to be a focus on 2020, and up until the 11th hour in late March it seemed to be going as planned. I was set to make a couple big trades at the Chicago Sports Spectacular. However, with the pandemic beginning to rear its ugly head I decided not to attend one day before the start of the show. It would be cancelled later that day as vendors had already descended upon the city. Going forward there wasn’t much bulk deals to be done with quarantines, etc. Still, I was able to make 323 trades in 2020 that brought in 130,814 Cubs baseball cards.
Second was boosting my eBay Store inventory. Wow! Did I accomplish that or what. I was happy with 153 transactions in December 2019. With all the extra time 2020 afforded, I certainly accomplished building out my eBay Store and had almost 1,500 eBay transactions in December 2020. All told, my yearly transactions on eBay was 10,006.
Organization. Pass. I know this wasn’t accomplished. At the start of the quarantine, I did begin sorting my Cubs baseball card collection and made boxes for stars such as: Javier Baez, Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, Ernie Banks, Ryne Sandberg, etc. I even loaded up much of my Javy collection on Trading Card Database. When eBay offered up 50,000 free listings per month I jumped at the opportunity to fill my store and take advantage and that’s when organization took a back seat.
With an increase in trades during the year, I was able to meet and exceed my goal for Cubs baseball cards in 2020. That number was 500,000 and it was reached at the end of September. By the end of 2020 my collection numbered 525,912 Cubs baseball cards.
Goals 2021: Ebay Sales
Since I reached the 500,000 goal in late September, I set a goal for the fourth quarter of 2020. That goal was a dollar amount in eBay sales. My focus turned from trading for Cubs cards to selling on eBay in the final three months of the year.
I more than doubled my daily sales goal for the fourth quarter and with the pandemic still raging as the calendar turns to a new year I am staying sales focused for the first quarter of 2021. I am pushing that sales dollar figure even higher and two weeks into the new year I am right near my target goal. I will continue to add inventory to my store and by the end of January baseball card sales should heat up with spring training in the near future.
Goals 2021: Taking a Trip for a Bulk Trade
Steve in Cleveland, Ohio has been a source for some high volume trades and still holds the record for most Cubs cards acquired via trade (30,000). We had a conversation around New Years and he invited me out to Cleveland to check out the new space for Greenie’s Sports Cards. It’s not a card shop, rather their space for their online sales inventory. My plan is to take a trip out there this summer.
Another bulk trader, David, has a large amount of Cubs cards and we hope to meet up sometime in February for a trade. I also have a vendor from the St. Louis area that will be trading Cubs for Cardinals whenever a Chicago Sports Spectacular gets back on the calendar. There are also two shops I want to visit. Mike Sommer from Wax Pack Hero has some space in Bloomington, Illinois and Tom from Real Breaks will be opening a shop this year in Wisconsin.
Goals 2021: 700,000 Cubs Baseball Cards
It’s an optimistic number: 700,000. That means I will need to crush my annual average of around 130,000 Cubs cards acquired per year by getting 175,000 in 2021. With the above mentioned bulk trades in the works I believe this can be accomplished. Even by focusing on eBay sales during the first few months of the year I feel optimistic about hitting 70% of my goal in the One Million Cubs Project by the end of this year.
I didn’t realize Mike was in Bloomington. I have a customer there who before Covid would visit a few times a year. I will definitely check out his store next time.