Isn't that odd

I didn't expect May to be a month of austerity. My traditional austerity months are March, August and December. Yet, here we are, in a month in which I've barely been able to pay for vending machine chips, let alone a box of whatever Topps is inflating the price on today.

This has really cut into my plans to devote this year to acquiring specific needs of mine: Dodgers, set wants and some nice items for fellow bloggers. I had also hoped to go on a spending binge specifically geared toward all of the Dodger cards I still need from 1987-93, excluding annoying parallels like tiffany sets and the like.

The plans are still in place. Just delayed. Fortunately, I've gotten the word out sufficiently.

This note from Jeff appeared in the mailbox the other day:

This is the way to think, everyone. Please follow Jeff's example.

He pays attention and that is always to be commended.

Jeff is an Angels fan and frequent commenter on a couple of my blogs. He's sent me goodies before. And I've got some goodies in place to send back, once regular post office trips are allowed again.

The cards he sent were directly from the late '80s/early '90s with several needs in there, believe it or not.

My kind of Pacific cards. Before the gold fascination.

This Pafko has a dinged corner. But that's just foreshadowing for the condition that my 1952 Topps Pafko will arrive in when it shows up some day. Add a few more dings and creases and paper loss and you've got "Night Owl's Future '52 Pafko."

Mr. Branca, who didn't let the bitterness of being victimized by Giants cheaters affect his future outlook in life. We should all be so strong.

These are 1991 Score SuperStars. Are Score cards oddballs? I know people can get dismissive of Score, but I think they deserve to at least be up there with Donruss.

But my favorite card of the bunch is a definite oddball.

This set always brings a smile to my face:

These crack me up. Jumbo California Sunflower Seeds had a baseball card set!

This isn't even the first time I've written about these on my blog and I still can't get over it.

And look:

"Limited Edition" ... The same thing that made collectors in the '90s react in the same way housewives in the '50s reacted to a SALE sign in the local newspaper.

Thanks, Jeff, for finding me some oddballs during these austere times.

Looking forward to the boom months of June and July.