Night Owl Cards

It looks like I won't have the ability to put together the usual Night Owl Cards end-of-the-year festivities this year. Too much making merry, I guess. That kind of sucks because I do love to tie a bow on the past year. So maybe you'll see it even when we're a few days into 2016. Meanwhile, I thought I'd quickly wrap up one project from 2015, and that's wallet card. Wallet card began at the start of the year over at Baseball Card Breakdown and everyone was enthusiastic about it, including me. But only a few people kept up that enthusiasm, especially after Junior Junkie ran away with the contest portion of wallet card about 15 days into the thing. My enthusiasm started strong then weakened quickly . My mission, unlike those who used wallet card as a travelogue, was to study the wear-and-tear on a card residing 365 days in one's wallet. I didn't even fully succeed there because I changed my wallet card in early March. Let's face it, my heart ...

I was shuffling through some 2015 dupes the other day when the sun glinting in from the window happened to catch the card I was holding in my hand just right. That's when I discovered that I had stuck a gold foil parallel of Mike Trout in the dupes stack. This is really nothing new. It's happened several times already this year. With Stadium Club alone. I don't like these kinds of parallels. They're too subtle to have an impact. If I don't notice them when I'm going through the pack, what's the point? The gold foil (or black -- yes, I've put the black foil in the dupes pile, too) that was printed on the card has lost its purpose. I didn't notice. This is why I prefer colored border parallels. Big, blue shiny bordered chrome parallels. Red and green and purple parallels. Those are my kind of parallels. Not only are they so, so, soooo pretty, but you notice them right away when you open the pack: "DAMN! That's a special card!" ...

Here's a fun little game to play: Figure out which major leaguer in history has a name that most resembles yours. (Those of you who share a name with a big leaguer are disqualified. Go gloat somewhere else). Gary Gray is my player. Neither his first name nor his last name is the same as my first or last name. But this is how close his name is to mine: In my lifetime, I have been mistakenly called "Gary" more than any other incorrect name ever. It's freakish how many people confuse "Greg" with "Gary." Also, there is no other wrong last name that has shown up more often on envelopes sent to my home than "Gray." So, in some ways, I might as well be "Gary Gray," because apparently there are a significant number of people I have come across over 40-plus years who think that's my name. The actual Gary Gray didn't have much of an impact in the majors or in the card world. He has just three Topps cards, three Flee...

As I mentioned recently, I live in a home dominated by women. The extended family is like that, too. So when it comes time to write a Christmas list, I do the dumbest thing possible. I include clothes on the list. Every woman in the family owns a masters in clothes shopping. And they gravitate right to those items on the list. The poor listings of various baseball cards, underlined and capitalized, are ignored. I received no cards for Christmas. Not a surprise. I did receive two Sabres caps. I only need one. I received three shirts, a couple pairs of pants, lots of socks, and some gloves. I asked for most of those items. But none of it is what I really wanted. So, next year, the list will not include clothes. It's going to be baseball cards and nothing else. Desperate times. Of course, it's not all gloom and doom hobby-wise. The extra Sabres cap will be converted into cards. The cash I received will be converted into cards. And I did receive a binder from my folk...

Christmas greetings, all. I grabbed this card just for you. Pretty early into the Christmas season, I knew this would be a fairly special one. No, people aren't reading the blogs that much lately, nor commenting on them, who has the time, I guess? But it's obvious they're doing something else: they are sending cards at a terrific rate and they are sending them while at least halfway drunk in the Christmas spirit. I already dedicated a post to fellow bloggers/readers' Christmas greetings. And since that time all I've been doing is posting more and more cards that people have sent and pulling more and more cards out of the mail, with lots of Christmas wishes attached. What follows is an incredible selection of items sent my way, all dressed in tinsel and flashing lights. So pour something festive -- no, not that disgusting egg nog -- and enjoy some awfully nice cards from some awfully nice people. OK, I don't know how nice Will -- excuse me, Sant...