Brown nosing.
We've recently gone through a change of ownership here at work, accompanied by an influx of new management. It seems every day I hear some simpleton outside my office chatting up one of the new directors. Not your normal "Hello," "How ya doin'?" stuff, but more like a steady stream of compliments to the CEO or VPs like "I haven't seen you around lately. Have you been on vacation? You look so tan and well-rested!" or "I hear you bought a new place in Tahoe. It's quite lovely. Do you like to ski? You look like a skier!" Mind you, these brown nosers are not this chatty with anyone else...and some are downright rude to talk with. Yeah, it doesn't really affect me directly, but hearing it right outside my office door is just sickening sometimes. Maybe if the new management wasn't slowly and secretly letting people go, I'd be able to take it better, but for now it's all I can do not to lose my friskies.  

Ever since the baby's arrival, I've had little opportunity to listen to any of my CDs, but was able to pop in Elliot Smith's excellent XO this past Saturday while driving to my Dad's house in Modesto. Smith is was such a wonderful musician.

Maybe it's my age catching up with me, but I now have zero, zip, nada, nil tolerance for any commercials of any type. I don't watch a lot of tv, but when I do, I mute it and read something or do something whenever any commercial comes on. Every now and then a rented dvd will have a commercial on it and because it sometimes won't allow me to skip past it, I ignore it profusely by also muting and doing something else. My dislike for all commercials has also become so bad that while watching PBS during the seemingly "weekly" pledge drives, I refuse to watch those segments that have the "star" of the current PBS show hocking their items to get pledges. It's just a glorified commercial and it's now on PBS of all places! No, Rick Steves, I don't want to pay $150 to receive a VHS tape of you trouncing through Italy wearing corduroy OP shorts and a fanny pack, speaking poor Italian to every deer-caught-in-the-headlights European you meet.  

Sounds like some lofty, yet fun goals, Matt! Vintage MOC is so much fun.

Putting on my non-Stormtrooper-centric thinking cap, I'd say that you shouldn't have much trouble finding the first 21. However, finding them in unpunched, unstickered condition will run you a little higher monetarily. If you're looking for specific cardbacks only, that's where you might run into trouble. Some of the 21 backs (both SW and ESB) are mighty rare (especially that dang Stormtrooper! ).

I wouldn't be concerned about what other people think of your collection. As long as you like it, that's all that matters. In fact I don't recall ever hearing or reading someone criticizing someone else's collection for being mixed punched/unpunched, stickered, mixed conditions, only C-3s, etc. (unless, of course, they were just trying to be a jerk). I mix and match condition, punched/unpunched, price stickers, and offers (of course). I mainly just concentrate on the condition of the figure and bubble and the overall presentation of the card. I have some pretty crappy cards, too, but they were the only examples of that particular cardback that I had come across, so it wasn't a big deal.

As for the ugly punches, I know what you're talking about. However, I don't know of any general rule as to what time period the ugly punches were found. I have them throughout my collection. But if you're going for unpunched, this is kind of a moot point, now.

If you're a little impatient about getting all 21, you might want to do what I hear other collectors sometimes doing. They buy the figures/card that they want regardless of condition. They then continuously search for better condition examples to upgrade and sell off the lower grades. This way, they always have a complete collection, but are still engaged in "the search." This might be easier on the wallet, but when has collecting ever been "easy on the wallet?"  

If you haven't done so, I would also suggest getting a copy of John Kellerman's book. It lists just about every single cardback/figure from the vintage line and a bunch of other stuff. Definitely a must for a collector of vintage MOC.

Again, sounds like some fun ahead for you!  

Yeah, great to see Calgary doing well. Not that I like to think this way, but I'm not so sure SJ will make it past the Avs. They've looked a little timid the last two games. Yes, they have two more chances to do it, but Colorado can smell blood. Plus, as much as I've always rooted for the Sharks, I'm scared to think of how this town would react if SJ actually managed to win the Cup. We live about a block and a half from SJ home ice, and I really don't want some drunken hockey fans (or any fans, for that matter) hooting and hollerin' outside our house at midnight....or worse. The neighborhood's crappy enough as it is.

I guess this is more fantasy than reality (since it'll never happen), but I wish I knew more about how women think. Sometimes, I have absolutely no clue as to what my wife is thinking or why she did certain things or is strangely happy/sad/angry/whatever about the smallest things. Sure might make life a bit easier to at least have a hint.

Just to make it easier for anyone that had the misfortune of getting my name in the JD Secret Santa thingie-ma-doodle, I'm cheap poor not much of a collector anymore, so I haven't picked up much of anything for a while. If you want to narrow it down, I really like Stormtroopers and Clone troopers. Here's just a small list of the stuff that I can think of, though basically anything's good in my book:

Kubricks:
Series 2:
Indiana Jones (gotta try!)
Sandtrooper with white pauldron (gotta try!)
Series 3:
AT-AT Driver
C-3PO
Han Solo Hibernation Sickness (gotta try!)
Jawa (vinyl cape) (gotta try!)
Lando
Logray (gotta try!)
Series 4:
Han Hoth
Palpatine
Vader Dagobah
Vader
Stormtrooper
Nien Nunb
Luke Stormie
Luke Bespin
Han Stormie
Series 5:
Yoda
Snaggletooth (both red and blue) (gotta try!)
Slave Leia
Ponda Baba (gotta try!)
Han Endor
Admiral Ackbar
Series 6:
Wedge
TIE Pilot
Rebel Fleet Trooper
RA-7
R4-M9
Luke X-Wing
Grand Moff
Veers
Death Star Trooper
Series 7:
Senate Guard
Yakface
Leia Boushh
Lando Skiff
Gamorrean Guard
Anakin
Any Box Sets or carded, too!

Loose or card/packaging unimportant:
McQuarrie Snowtrooper
McQuarrie Boba Fett
Legends Dark Trooper
The EE Astromech multipacks
The EE Mandalorian multipacks
Stormtrooper Evolutions
Deathstar Briefing multipack
Republic Commando multipack
Stormtrooper from the Imperial 4-pack that had Vader, black R2...
Any of the Jedi Starfighters...the Black Darth Vader version would be sweet!
The newer TIE Fighter or X-Wing
Any Galactic Heroes

MOMC:
Tri-Logo CommTech Stormtrooper
Tri-Logo Green Card with hologram Stormtrooper
OTC Stormtrooper-Canadian packaging
POTC Stormtrooper
Silver Boba Fett
Silver Sandtrooper
Silver Darth Vader (the newer one, not the ToyFair DV)
POTJ Chewbacca Mechanic (yeah, I know that's a bit random)

In addition, when I did get out of the collecting circle, I stupidly sold all my loose POTF2, POTJ, EP. I, etc. figures (see website). Now, I kind of wish I had them back. So, any extra loose or carded figures from this era would be most welcome, especially POTJ and Episode I.

As for any other stuff, well, it's all about my two little girls (ages 4 and 2) right now, so a gift for them is a gift for me. Really. They like Galactic Heroes, so that's an idea. They also love Hotwheels, Matchbox, and the cars from...erm...Cars (the movie, which they haven't seen even)...really!

Hope that gives the (un)lucky shopper a good enough idea. Basically, anything is fine, it's the thought that counts, 'tis the season, it's better to give than receive, may the force be with you, ya gotta tip your cap to 'em, go out and give 110%, and any other cliche I can think of.