Trading Card Database announced its site's end of the year awards yesterday and Night Owl Cards is your favorite card blog once again!
Thanks for continuing to read my nonsense after so many years. Sometimes I feel like that rock band that has overstayed its welcome. But stuff like this helps me know I should continue.
You'll note a couple of familiar blogs also on that list and the two tied for No. 3 are well-known TCDB users and promoters, at least that I've seen.
I am not. I don't have anything against the site at all, in fact I think it's great. I simply am late to the party and haven't had the chance to get involved in everything TCDB has to offer, so it feels weird to be honored without taking part like those other blog operators.
I'm late to the party in everything having to do with the hobby and it seems more so the case the last few years. As I pull away from modern cards, I am starting to lose track of what sets there are. I've long since stopped paying attention to release dates, and I'm always playing catch-up with my team set want lists.
It feels like I'm losing touch and things like this ain't helping:
Well, now, what the heck is this?
That's what I said to myself when I pulled these cards out of an envelope from Cards On Cards that arrived last week.
Cards On Cards is always so on top of this team set stuff, he's involved in a lot more team group breaks than I am. So he probably knew what this was already, but I had to look it up for this post. It's called Panini Mosaic, and just as I suspected, it was once one of the zillion "sets" in Panini Chronicles and now has spun off into its own set because we need more silvery sets to buy, I guess.
Outside of the usual infinite parallels, I don't see much different between this set and Panini's Prizm metallic thing. You've seen one generic ballplayer in front of a generic silver background, you've seen them all. I know that competition is good but my hope is Fanatics ignores Panini so I don't have to accumulate cards like this anymore (I suppose I could just stop paying attention to them, but that switch is so difficult to turn off).
This is colorful, but odd. I'm imagining the late, great Duke Snider being handed this card and what his thoughts might be. This was a guy who used to complain about the money bonus babies were making back when he was a veteran player.
This is a nice card that distracts me from Kershaw's empty cap. I'm glad I have it. I will not be able to tell you what kind of parallel it is, as Panini is naming things "red fusion" and "nebula" and "peacock." It's like using the liquid soap in the bathroom that is labeled "sweater weather" and wondering what kind of smell that is.
2021 Topps Archives Snapshots was released, too. Did you know that? I had no idea.
At least I know what this one is. I've never known why it exists (yeah, I know, the autographs), and I'm always behind in getting the Dodgers. Still working on those cards from 2019, or maybe it's 2018.
Victor Gonzalez seems to be in everything now, but the Todd Hundley retro card is certainly different. It makes me nervous that Topps is done recognizing '60s, '70s and '80s players and jumping all the way into the 21st century when there are clearly many deserving players from 40 years ago who get ignored.
This is what I was referring to in the post the other day. This is a 2021 Update card of Mike Piazza on the 1992 Topps design. So it's one of those "Topps Redux" inserts in which the '92 design is used, right?
Nope. It's a "Card That Never Was" insert using the '92 design.
Come on Topps, I get only two days off a week.
I was super happy to see these cards in the envelope. I Know What These Are!
That's because they're from 2020. And I already have the Turner card.
The addition of the Max Muncy card is the 506th 2020 Dodger card that I have accumulated.
You might remember -- but you probably don't -- that I wondered whether I'd get to the usual levels of Dodgers accumulated in a single year with the lack of product on shelves in 2020. My total at the time of that post was just 332 cards.
But there was plenty of 2020 accumulation in 2021! The 506 total is more in line with other recent years:
2020 - 506
2019 - 463
2018 - 626
2017 - 504
2016 - 479
2015 - 508
2014 - 566
2013 - 618
2012 - 440
2011 - 539
2010 - 469
2009 - 617
2008 - 737
I haven't updated any of the other totals besides 2020. I'll maybe devote another post to that.
My 2021 total currently is at just 345 but I fully expect that to balloon as the 2022 calendar rolls on. I may feel like I'm losing touch in the current hobby, shut out by the flippers and bros and just plain not caring about anything that isn't called "flagship" or "Heritage," but that's really only a feeling. I'm as active as ever.
I guess collectors from TCDB think so.
Comments
I share much of the same sentiments as you about many card products. But I don't feel like I'm late to the party. We're all in the party house but and most of us are in the party room that appeals most to us.
I did pick up a parallel from that Archives Snapshots set online. It's a nice enough card, but that set has always been about the photography, and this design is way too busy for that. Disappointing.
Make sure to check back on the winner thread because you've already got offers to get Dodgers sent to you. Mark's a good guy, he just lost his dad this week but is still thinking of other people. That's the kind of community that's there. The Pay it Forward thread has over 2500 posts, all of which are thank yous to fellow collectors.
Congrats on the award. I laughed out loud of the concept of "Sweater Weather" as smell for hand soap.
I agree, way too many issues and parallels to keep track of, with wondering if Topps had made it or never made it.
Keep up the fine work that you do with the blog.