Night Owl Cards

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The best thing about Donruss for the first 14 years

Going back to Donruss' baseball beginnings, I always ranked them near the bottom as far as card brands. Though I like specific sets (1984) and others give off nostalgia vibes (1981, 1982, 1985), Donruss had the knack for creating some of my least favorites ever (1986, 1991, 1992). But Donruss did one thing better than any other baseball card company and it did it for 14 years straight. Can you tell what it is from the picture? Here is another hint: That thing is not on this card. This is where it ended, with 1995 Donruss, though it could have easily continued the tradition even if it had to foil it up. Donruss would not do what it did best for the next couple of years and then disappeared. The back of the 1995 Donruss card also shows what collectors had to deal with from that point forward, especially in the late '90s -- trying to figure out when the set was issued (oops, I just gave you the answer). In this case, the stats are nic...

Putting my order in order

My first sportlots order of the year has been sitting on my rolltop desk waiting for me to brag about it. It's not bragging material, really. There were a lot of upgrades that I don't need to show, but I sure did enjoy getting that 1977 Topps Joel Youngblood to replace the creased one in the set binder that I didn't even know was creased until a rare day of sunshine came through the card room (who knows how many creased cards are hiding in the Northeastern darkness of my home). Some stuff has been put away already and others have been sitting in a stack waiting until the one last pokey sportlots seller finally snapped out his stupor and shipped the last card (this always happens). I've determined what my 10 favorite arrivals are -- but there are more than 10 cards. Per usual, these are interesting mostly to me and could very well bore you to tears. 10. Gavin Lux, 2020 Topps Chrome The last card needed for the team set. Can you...

I can still play the Match Game

With the way that Topps Heritage has dropped a lot of the traditions that made it so fun to collect, I kind of assumed/implied that every tribute used in the past was out the window. But that's not entirely the case. The subsets from the chosen year still exist, the All-Star logos do, too. The design is the same -- um, sort of. And, I realized that Heritage is still matching card numbers, linking players who play on the respective team now with one who played on it then. I don't know if it's happening as often as when I first did this comparison 12 or 13 years ago, probably not. But it's nice to know something is still right with this brand that's been the biggest disappointment of the 2026 card year for me so far. I went through the modest amount of 2026 Heritage I have and found a handful of matches. I'll start with the obvious ones. Each of the 2026 Heritage card shares its number with the 1977 Topps card. The italicizing of NL and removing the peri...

Some things that were 'a big deal' then and some things that are 'a big deal' now

Rod of Padrographs is sending out cards again and I received one of the envelopes last week. A nice surprise. The package contained a mix of then and now and I couldn't help but see the passage of time in the card contents, what/who was supposedly a big deal then and what/who is supposedly a big deal now. Take this pack of 1991 Stadium Club that was part of the send. This was the first Stadium Club set and something I totally missed out on in 1991 (Most of my focus was on Topps flagship, Score and here-and-there purchases of Fleer and Upper Deck). My introduction to Stadium Club took place the following year. But I certainly heard about the brand at the time. "Premium" sets were a big deal. The cards were "upscale" for the time. And Stadium Club hit it home on the wrapper by mentioning that Kodak was involved and displaying the Kodak label. For anyone who grew up in the mid-20th century, Kodak was synonymous with film and photography. My very first chea...