At this point on the calendar, it's customary to do a review of the past year either in terms of the products that came out, or the sets/collections/projects that were started/progressed/finished that year.
Thanks to Cardboard Catastrophes for the inspiration for this series of posts.
For a few consecutive years, I posted annual Collective Awards, but since my collecting has narrowed from (or never been) what's popular, they would look something like this now:
Favorite new product: Ginter. Heritage was fun, but didn't have retired players except for some of the inserts. Didn't like Stadium Club. Don't buy anything else.
Favorite thing about '24 Topps flagship: N/A - I stopped doing flagship in 2020. Though I did like the design.
Favorite prospect set: Don't like prospects. Don't even really like current players that much, except for my local NFL team.
Favorite shiny set: Don't like shiny either, especially in things like Ginter and Heritage. Got a hot box of the silver A&Gs though, and found a source for more, so I decided to go for it.
Favorite on-demand set: Bleah. I will go back and find my player collection guys when they appear, but won't pay more than a couple bucks for one.
Favorite high-end product: Don't do those either. There have been a few years of Dynasty that look nice, but I don't collect anyone that appears in it.
Maybe, if I was into current/rookies
Favorite innovation from Fanatics or exclusive contracts: Haven't seen any. Have you? Zebra-striped short print inserts are not an innovation.
Favorite grading company: If I had to pick, it would be SGC, but only because I like the dark backgrounds in their slabs. I own less than 20 graded cards total - most of those are T205 Giants - and a few more "formerly" graded cards. Grading is also not a major factor in my hobby.
Favorite source for advice on what to collect: I watch a few YouTubers, but they're mostly concerned with pre-war and/or HOF'er graded cards, which is fine, but not what I do. I would think there are channels for set builders and "raw" bulk collectors like me, but I haven't found them yet. The platforms like the "influencers" (read: investors) and company sites that hype up what to collect based on value are completely irrelevant. I don't collect for the resale/flip value, I like what I like and collect it for nostalgia or connection reasons.
Apologies if a lot of that is the same old thing that I put in every other post or comment. My tastes and criticisms haven't changed much over the years.
In general, I'd say 2024 was an OK year for my hobby. I made a lot of progress on a couple vintage sets (Thanks Marv!), built several more through TCDB trades, and got a lot of player collection cards that way and by swapping from COMC sales. Those sales and trades were the bulk of my activity on a daily and weekly basis. Some of it was from the Storage Hoard that I mentioned in a March post. I've recently added another vastly different batch that I've started to move through eBay too. More on all that in the next couple posts.