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The perils of being a veteran baseball card blogger


First off, there aren't a lot of perils.

But I'll list a few here, most of which I've already covered.

1. You're not the new kid on the block. Readers know your deal. There are no tricks. Whatever is the latest and greatest, you're not doing that.

2. You're established, and people like to take pot-shots at the establishment. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. I usually consider the source.

3. The gnawing, nagging feeling that you've covered the topic before. Sometimes it's not a "feeling," it's a "knowing." While in the act of writing something, I am thinking, "I've done all of this before." You've just got to hope someone's reading your blog for the first time.

4. You have a lot of cards. Therefore, you get a lot of dupes. And sometimes it's obscure dupes, too.

For instance, I received a healthy stack of cards from Mike at Not Another Baseball Card Blog. Since Mike resides in Canada, a number of the cards were O-Pee-Chees. Prior to starting this blog, I owned maybe 10 OPC cards. But I own many more than that now, and so -- in a staggering development for pre-Night Owl Cards night owl -- just under 10 OPC cards were dupes.

O-Pee-Chee dupes. I still can't wrap my brain around it.

Fortunately, there were plenty of needs among the OPC, too. Here they are:









C'est bon!

I especially like the '83 Fernando. That's a Canadian card of a Mexican pitching in the U.S. (San Francisco, I believe). This card does a lot for North American relations.

There were a few other non-OPCs, too.


This card was never on my radar because it's listed as an Oakland A's card. I like it a lot because it's the closest thing to a card telling you on the front that the Dodgers got rid of Maniac Milton and received Andre Ethier in return.


I will never understand these stitched patch things. I'm tempted to take one of them apart to see what's inside.


I also don't have use for any buybacks that are not 1975 Topps buybacks. What do I do with this as someone who has completed the '74 set?


Ah, I believe these last four cards came from Thorzul in one of his "Pull The Trigger" posts.

I will dedicate these to the upgrading quest for my '72 Topps set. That Foster in particular looks spiffy.

Thorzul, by the way, is one of those bloggers who was around when I first started, and is still doing his thing. Others who have me beat and are still regulars or semi-regulars include Autographed Cards, bdj610's Topps Baseball Card Blog, Capewood's Collections, Card Buzz, Cardboard Junkie, Cards On Cards, Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius (started 2 days before NOC!), I Am Joe Collector (started 11 days before NOC), Japanese Baseball Cards, Nachos Grande, Number 5 Type Collection, Orioles Card "O" the Day, Phungo, Sports Cards Uncensored, Texas Rangers Cards, The Baseball Card Blog, The Fleer Sticker Project, The Topps Archives (started the day before NOC!), The Writer's Journey, Tribe Cards and White Sox Cards.

They are proof that blogging never died and you can still stick with something you love for seven-plus years.

Also, I was just alerted to the revival of another blog that was around when I first started, Old School Breaks. John has himself a box-breaking partner now, so check it out, especially if you like '90s cards.

Check out the other ones I mentioned, too. There are some in there that inspired Night Owl Cards. There's something to be said for being a blogging veteran. Even if it means more dupes than you've ever seen in your life.

Comments

Mike Matson said…
I'm glad there weren't many duplicates in there.. Oddly enough, I have two of the Mariano Duncan lol
Stack22 said…
Taking pot shots at The Night Owl doesn't seem like a good way to go about making friends.
AdamE said…
You forgot to mention people sending you random questions because you been around long enough to know.

Thanks by the way.
Tony Burbs said…
I wish we got an Andre Ethier when we traded Manic Milton. We had to settle for Carlos Silva. That guy... What a tool.
Nick said…
I think about #3 a lot. I'm always worried about repeating myself when I write a post, and, although I guess it's bound to happen when you've had a blog for a while, I want to think I'm being original at least some of the time.
Josh D. said…
>>I will never understand these stitched patch things. I'm tempted to take one of them apart to see what's inside.

Spoiler Alert: It's thread.
Fuji said…
Exactly what Nick said.
bamlinden said…
This might sound bad.....but in its biggest circle, I don't really care about what people think about my blog topics. I blog for me. I blog for the enjoyment of writing up a post and firing it out there.

That's not to say that I don't appreciate people taking a moment to check out what I've got to share....but I'm not too worried about the "you already wrote about that" or "who really cares about this" type of reaction.

I post what I choose to post because....well... I want to post about it. It's what I'm thinking about sharing in the moment.

Sue me if that's not good enough for you. Ha.

Thanks to all the veteran bloggers who still go about it with a positive attitude and fun in mind. After all...that's what the essence of this hobby should carry.

Cheers!
night owl said…
My concern about repeating myself is more about me than the readers. I want my writing to be unique and interesting, and repeating myself makes it uninteresting TO ME. I get annoyed at myself if I discover I've already written about something. I place demands on my writing, and those demands are not really for the readers, they're for me. Readers happen to benefit from varied topics and writing but I view that as the bonus that comes from placing that demand on myself, not the end goal.
bamlinden said…
Gotta love that!!!

I certainly appreciate a person who puts a bar up there and then strives to meet it and exceed it.
shoeboxlegends said…
As someone who started in January 2008 myself I'm so glad that so many of these great blogs are here to stay. Hopefully you'll be able to repeat a post like this ten years down the line!
Tony L. said…
I've only been around 2-1/2 years, and I find myself doing searches on my blog to see if I've done something before.
BobWalkthePlank said…
Randy Hundley looks to be in a lot of pain. Poor guy.
Mike Matson said…
He realized he played for the Cubs?