Night Owl Cards

  I've done a fairly good job of avoiding the blaster purchase over the last four or five years.   Once a standard pick-up, I gradually pulled away due to  blaster-exclusive "manufactured relics," then general unavailability during the pandemic, then a hike in price and the repeated frustration of pulling Marlins and Diamondbacks.   There are really only 3 times out of the year that I respond to the blaster siren call: When the new Topps flagship comes out, when new Heritage comes out, and when I get a gift card for Christmas. (Keep in mind I was regularly buying multiple blasters a week a dozen years ago).   The Target Christmas gift card arrives when I'm at my weakest. Typically at the holiday I haven't received any separate cards as gifts and I've also avoided buying cards during the holiday season so I can purchase gifts for others. The gift card gives me permission because I haven't opened packs in soooooooo long.   So that lengthy intro was intended ...

  It's growing more and more difficult for set collectors in this hobby. Let's review:   1. Flagship. You must contend with inserts and parallels filling spots that were once the domain of "base cards," i.e., the cards that complete the set.   2. Heritage (and other spin-off brands). You'll come across inserts and parallels here, too, but also short-printed base cards.   3. Vintage. The demand grew once more people entered the hobby six years ago and the increased cost is fueled by the gem-mint crowd.   When it comes to sets I desire, it seems like no set is immune to the changes of the last 20, 30 years.   No set, that is, except for sets from one particular era: 1986-93. The overproduction era. Junk wax. Nothing about modern day collecting has affected these sets (stuff like collecting copyright and asterisk variations on the back has grown over time but that's easily ignored if you're not into it).   I was reminded of this again when I wrote about m...

  Ever since the local monthly show (and many other shows throughout the country) has become overrun with TCG cards I've debated skipping or at least not automatically attending every month. It's become less and less productive over the past 9 months to a year.   But like they say in the majors, "that's why you play the game." I was pretty surprised when I walked into the usual hall Saturday.   First, it was packed. I normally attend closer to 1 p.m. when typically the crowd has thinned out. But I could tell driving into the parking lot that there were still many people there. Second, the show was overwhelmingly sports cards. Any Pokemon, Magic, etc. seemed limited to a handful of tables. I don't know what caused the sudden shift back to sports cards but I was glad I got up off my recliner.   The change affected my mood more than my shopping. The tables were still overrun with graded football and basketball and I'm sure I heard "PSA" uttered 25-5...

 (*sigh* Looked like a catch to me. Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 362nd in a series:)    I picked up this card at the monthly show yesterday (more on that tomorrow). It's the first time I've come across this insert, though it's possible someone showed it off on a blog post 12 years ago or something.   It's a pretty cool medium-thick card. The boxscore is recessed into the card and it's a glorious moment-in-time item, which are some of the best kinds of cards. This one commemorates Carlos Delgado's four-home run game.   Surprisingly, this card is from the 2004 Upper Deck Play Ball set, which I've long disdained for the "melted faces" paintings of the base cards. That's all I've previously seen from the set -- the only cards in my collection are base Dodgers. It goes to show you how sets are always stashing the good cards in the inserts and collectors consequently hoard those cards.   This card was a dollar purchase and I quick...

  I'm not doing a very good job banging out these Team MVP posts like I wanted to. After discovering back in March that it had been a year-and-a-half since the last one, I resolved to quicken the pace on these.   But this is the first one since March. Oh well.   My overall goal in this series is to find the "best" card for each team for every set I've completed. I began by going in reverse order from the year of the set. I reached back all the way to 1981. Then I backtracked for sets I've completed since.   Now I'm all over the place, basically tackling sets however I feel, arbitrary rules be damned!   So, right now it's 1986 Fleer. Fleer is the best brand for when you want to write a quick post, because the set's ordered by team, as if it had this very series in mind! Thanks, Fleer!   On the other side -- woof, this is a hurting set. I've mentioned many times that I've overlooked '86 Fleer for decades before finally completing it -- forgot...

True set collectors, whose mission is completing the set and only that, have no use for inserts and parallels.   I am a set collector, but I like too many other things so I will not turn down a pretty parallel. Still, I admit they can be a nuisance.   For example, I am trying to finish the 2025 Heritage set. I'm down to the final five cards. It's more difficult to finish than it has to be because, of course, there are 100 damn short-prints. But also because there are a chrome parallels and sometimes when you are shopping for that last short-print, you are not careful and the listing isn't as clear as it should be, and you buy a card you don't need, and the want list remains unchanged.   This is what happened today when the chrome version of card #461 showed up instead of the regular version. It's my fault really, the word "chrome" was in the item description though it was not in the listing. I'll add it to my stack of 2025 Chrome cards, which aren'...