Year two is through

Today is the second anniversary of Night Owl Cards.

Why am I posting a temporary tattoo of a San Francisco Giant on the birthday of my blog? I don't know. To be goofy, I guess. And in hopes that this will serve to jinx the Giants in their bid to ruin my postseason viewing.

Garrelts was a key figure in one of the more notable moments on my blog in the last year. He became the symbol for my horrible luck initially on Topps' Million Card Giveaway site. Things have improved slightly since then, although I think I reject 147 trade offers for every one I complete. The last trade completed came Sunday. I was just throwing a bunch of unwanted cards out there in hopes one of the offers would stick, and one offer was claimed instantly, while I was still in the middle of making offers.

That's the card I got in the trade. I know it's not exciting. But it's a card I need and it's better than the junk wax that I sent off in exchange.

Anyway, if I had to pick the highlights of the past year on my blog, off the top of my head I'd say they were the MCG site, Jerry Reuss reading and commenting on my blog, and pulling the Strasburg purple refractor at the height of Strasburger mania. Oh, and someone making a card of me.

In short, Year 2 was just as interesting as Year 1.

Not much has changed for me on this blog. I still like what I'm doing. I'm still interested in the blog and in cards. I still like the collectors on the blogs, and I still consider this place an oasis in the midst of the frustration, tedium and general bad behavior of every day life.

Unlike a few other bloggers, I'm not suffering from any card blahs or blog blahs at all. This is the place I go to in order to get away from the blahs. So, for those in a malaise, I can't offer any advice other than what I already did. Hopefully, folks will return refreshed, because I'm telling you one thing that's different lately is the production from some of the blogs that have inspired me both when I started and over the last couple of years. That makes me sad. Perhaps it's just the transient nature of modern life -- no one can stay with the same thing for an extended period of time -- but I'm hoping it's just a stage and I'll see those blogs booming again.

Two years later, I still get a kick out of blogging and trading. Lately, trading has been better than ever. I can't keep up with them all lately and there are cards everywhere that need scanning, posting, filing. I find myself hoping for a lull, which leaves me very conflicted, believe me.

That's because I really enjoy trades, especially the nature of some of them.

For example, Matt F. of Heartbreaking Cards keeps sending stuff my way. Once it was for my birthday, another time it was a definite trade, and I'm not sure what the last one was for. But it produced this:

That's this year's Topps short-print of Roy Campanella. The short-prints of Campy have been very cool the last couple of years. They're a lot better than some of the recycled Campy shots that you see on some of the insert cards.

Matt also sent some of those U.K. mini packs from 1989. I thought I had all the Dodgers from that series, but I didn't.

Welcome to the collection, mini Fernando and mini Kirk.

And, like I said before, 2009 OPC seems to be a part of almost every card package I get recently.

That's a few more that I crossed off the want list.

Meanwhile, I recently completed a small-yet-awesome trade with Eric, who contacted me after seeing my most recent trade map post.

He hails from Nebraska and saw that I hadn't traded with anyone from that state yet.

I have now. Nebraska is the 36th state that features a resident with whom I've made a trade. The best part of it is I didn't have a lot to offer Eric, but he just wanted me to knock another state off the map. That is so cool.

Here are the cards he sent me:

The second-to-last 1988 Fleer Dodger need. The last one is a new member of the Nebulous 9.

A shiny Delwyn, one of about 100 ex-Dodgers on the Pirates.

And these super Swell cards from 1991, the last year of Swell cards, I believe. But that sounds awfully know-it-all from someone who didn't even know these cards existed until recently. Many thanks to Eric, who also has a blog that periodically features cards.

As for blogging, I still plan to continue the pace I've established into year 3. I'll still be featuring Awesome Night Cards and Cardboard Appreciations. I have lots of '56s for the '56 of the Month feature. Same for Sick Scoreboard Cards. There will be more Best of the '70s polls, and I'm Badass And You're Not Club members, and Define the Design segments.

Year 3 will include my last Brush With Greatness posts, and possibly my last Dollar Store posts (unless the store gets its act together). I also don't know if there will be a lot more Worst Card of the Year candidates, because I've cut back on my purchasing of current cards (also there aren't as many products to choose from anymore).

But I plan to add a couple of other features. One feature that I said won't come back actually will come back. Stay tuned. I'd also like to do a "Team Card Week" -- that's right an entire week featuring nothing but team cards (woo-hoo!). There might be another surprise or two in the works as well.

Oh, and I forgot, the card back countdown will keep going, probably to the end of the year.

I apologize for the meandering nature of this post. I just don't have a lot new to say about what's going on here. I'm just going to keep what I'm doing. If you're reading, I'll be writing. In fact, even if you aren't reading I'll probably be writing.

But thanks for reading.

It's still fun.