2024 Year in Review
This past year has been a great year for collecting, so I thought I’d add some of my stats for fellow data and spreadsheet enthusiasts here for the new year, as well as reminisce before we continue head-first into 2025.
I started out 2024 with 368 cards in the binder, adding a total of 338 cards this year alone! As of January 1st, 2025, I have 706 cards in total, not including signatures and misprints. Many of these cards were bulk commons and the like in various non-English and non-Japanese languages, and I couldn’t have done it without the help of many wonderful members here, especially @joponnes for kindly middlemanning for me.
In February, I upgraded my binder from a 3x3 9-pocket to a 4x4 16 pocket. This thing is an absolute monster, and I love it so. It’s a little ridiculous, but it gets the job done with my entire species collection available in one place.
In May of this past year, I completed my mini goal of obtaining every English set card within the bounds of my collection thanks to @Dyl, who so very kindly gifted me the last card I was on the lookout for. I still love taking it out and just staring at how the foil catches the light- thank you again!
Before the new Simplified Chinese cards released, I completed 100% of my first language (only for them to release new cards like a week later, haha). I have all but 1 ordered for the time being, so hopefully I’m able to mark that back up to 100% soon!
As for rare releases, I was able to source a total of 3 Russian cards, 3 Polish cards, and 2 XY8 unlimited prints! I also added my first two(!!!) Tropical Wind 2007 copies to the collection- Portuguese and Spanish. Spring Battle Road Roseanne’s Research was also a wonderful find at a fraction of market this year.
Finally, I’ve made a minor change to my Spreadsheet to help me better focus on goals for the new year. Previously, I had all prints, whether or not they’d be obtainable for me, lumped in together, but I’ve decided to separate the most unobtainable ones from the rest of the tracker. Cards over $500 USD market are now in their own category with a separate tracker, and if/when I acquire them, they’ll be moved to the main counts. Right now, that makes 26 cards no longer part of the tally for 100%ing languages, which I think will be good for how I continue to approach this collection. I’ll still be staring at them from afar, of course, but now in a more contained way.
Typing all of this out has made me appreciate how far I’ve come with this silly little penguin collection, and how much I love being a part of the community that is e4. Thank you all for a wonderful 2024, and here’s to an even more wonderful 2025. Happy collecting, everyone!
