2026 Collecting Goals

I'm getting this in just before the end of the month, so I think it still counts as the "New Year" season, and falls in the acceptable window for these sort of post.

The card above is a picture of a 1953 Topps #244.  It depicts Willie Mays of the New York Giants.  I'm keeping things simple this year in 2026.  Obtaining that card is my goal.  It's topped my list of "Ten Most Wanted Cards" every year since 2019, and every year I've failed to make an effort to pick one up, instead going scatter shot for other various cards from 1954-59 Topps sets.  I believe I could snatch a well traveled copy of this card for under $900, which is probably more than double of what I spent all of last year on various vintage singles, but not grounds for a divorce if it's the only card I buy in 2026.  It's still a hefty price tag.  It would be almost triple the most I've ever paid for a card (a '53 Mantle well before covid exploded prices) and nearly four times what I paid for a '52 Mays about 10 years ago.  I don't care, I want this card, and it's the last one I need to complete the 1953 set, which I would regard as the single biggest personal collecting accomplishment of my life.

Will it happen?  Based on last years stated goals and what I actually did, probably not.  I earned a solid "F" grade for my 2025 collecting.  Here's a quick recap of my stated goals and how I did:

1. Acquire More Wallach cards: D

I added a 741 Wallach cards in 2025.  That's a 1,000 fewer than 2024, 800 fewer than 2023, 3,500 fewer than in 2022, and so on.  741 is objectively a lot of cards of one player to add to a collection a single year, it's just not up to the standards I've set for myself since starting this blog.

2. Post on Variants: F

I didn't post on the variants.  Maybe I will one day, I'd like to, but I didn't get around to in 2025 or any of the other years I've posted it as a goal.

3. Swag: F

I didn't make any blog related swag to send out to readers.  Still something I'd like to do, who knows when.

4. Continue to build Topps Sets: D

I bought the 2025 Topps factory set, so I didn't lose any ground in 2025.  I also made some decent strides with 1950's Topps sets, albeit, ones I don't consider myself to be actively building and with card budget funds that would have been better saved and directed towards a '53 Mays.

So for 2025, of course I want to add more Wallach, but this is the year I add the '53 Mays (unless it isn't).  As such my "Goals List for 2026" is brief:

2026 Collecting Goals

1. Finish the 1953 Topps set by adding the Willie Mays

...and if I happen to do that, then these would be my next priorities.

2. Add more Tim Wallach cards

This of course isn't something I'll ignore, I'm just not going to be going out of my way to scour Sportlots looking for lots of various cards to drop $50 or so on a few times a year.

3. Complete the 2026 Topps Base set.

Probably going to go the factory set route again this year.  I just can't justify the costs of doing this by buying packs, in the off chance I can even find packs.

More out of tradition than an actual goal, here my "most wanted" non-Wallach cards.

Ten Most Wanted Single Cards

1. 1953 Topps Willie Mays (last year's rank, #1)

Maybe this is the year.

2. 1962 Topps Bob Uecker (7)

Should I finish the '53 set, I'm not sure what I'll do next.  I don't think '62 would be my focus, but it'd get some consideration.  Regardless, I've long wanted a copy of this card.  But these "Rookie Parade" cards are just really tough to find at a price that I can live with.

3. 1963 Topps Pete Rose (2)

This card drops a spot from last year, I just have less tolerance for assholes at the moment, of which Pete Rose certainly was.  Dirtbag or not, I still want this card in much the same way I still want the G.I. Joe Aircraft Carrier.  The difference is I don't really have anywhere in my house to put the USS Flag.  This card remains seared into my brain as the ultimate card to own from my early days of collecting back in the mid 1980's.

4. 1981 Topps Traded Tim Raines (not ranked)

This is one of those cards I often forget I don't own.  I probably have 30 copies of his actual rookie card in the 1981 set, but I don't own this one.  At some point a few years back, I made an effort to add every one of the little boxed Traded sets, I think I just assumed I'd add it that way, but that effort sort of wained out and I'm still short '81 and '82.  Raines is probably my second all-time favorite player and not owning this card is an enormous hole in my collection.  That said, it drives me crazy that it gets called a "rookie card."  It's his 2nd Topps card, not a rookie.  Ditto for the '82 Traded Ripken.

5. 1985 O-Pee-Chee Mario Liemiuex (5)

This card remains #5 on my list, but by way of attrition, has become my most wanted hockey card.  I've lost my desire for the 1979 O-Pee-Chee Gretzky and dropped it from the lofty perch it's held on this list for years.

6. 1961 Fleer Dolph Schayes Shoots (6)

Dolph is the father of Syracuse Orangemen great Danny Shayes, who was one of the first stars coached by the Legendary Jim Boeheim.  Dolph also also played a little basketball himself, winning an NBA Title for the Syracuse Nationals before they were tragically relocated to Philadelphia.  

7. 1962 Topps Mickey Mantle

Another high dollar card from a set I am allegedly not building.  My father's baseball card collection survived and wasn't thrown out by my grandmother.  Albeit, my much older cousins looted all the Cardinals long before I was born (not sure why kids in New York were Cardinals fans, but that's their problem).  While most of it survived long enough for me to see it, a large chunk of it was sold off around 1988 to finance a summer trip to Disney Land.  I remember my father taking my brother and I to our first card show, and watching in pain as he sold off card after card.  This Mantle, while not the "best" card he sold off, is the one that stung the most at the time.  I'd like to go ahead and finally get it back.

8. 2002-03 Upper Deck Henrik Zetterberg

My favorite NHL player of the last 30 years appears as though he is going to be a snub from the Hall of Fame.  Collector's didn't get the message as his RC still demands obscene prices, that's if you can even find one for sale.  It's literally the most expensive card on this list.

9. 1962 Topps Willie Mays

A third card from a set that I don't think I'm building.  I've just always liked this card.

10. 1956 Topps Roberto Clemente

This is one of those cards that would be on my short list for best looking Topps card ever printed.  Sooner or later I'll add it to my collection.

Thanks for reading.  Hope you have a great year.