Night Owl Cards

  Woo, baby! It's starting to feel like 2009 around here with the amount views I'm racking up, except without the tight blogging community atmosphere of 2009! The blogging enthusiasm seems to be at an all-time low in the card world, the card boom that caused my readership numbers to soar has subsided, and this is the time when people take off for vacations and such. The crickets are loud . BUT I'M STILL HERE! Because the cards never go away, you guys. So, for whoever's left, we have another weekly vote to tackle. I'm happy to report that the wonderfully weird Rusty Staub Hostess card claimed the latest win and is the sixth card to advance to the next round in the quest to add another card to the Cardboard Appreciation Hall of Fame. Thirty-six votes got the Expos/Met into the next round. The tally: 1. 1975 Hostess Rusty Staub - 12 votes 2. 1975 Topps Jim Wynn - 10 votes 3. 1990 Score Joan Jett custom - 6 votes 4. 1982 Fleer Cal Ripken Jr. - 6 votes 5. 1980 Topps Ed ...

  A couple days ago, Collecting Cutch informed me that it was National Sunglasses Day. I was out of town, so I didn't get the memo. I also didn't get the chance to post about sunglasses on baseball cards that day. So this is me being not-so-timely with a Blog Bat-Around type of post. I wanted to see how prevalent sunglass-wearers were on baseball cards today, by looking at the last 10 years of Dodgers cards in my collection. It turns out they aren't all that common. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because card companies want to make sure faces are shown? I just know that sunglasses show up a lot in baseball games I watch, especially in the outfield. I know that I use sunglasses just about every day during the summer (sometimes in the winter, too) and it's got to be standard equipment for people working outside, looking up into the sky. So, anyway, here are the five most recent Dodger cards I found with sunglasses worn. Justin Turner, 2021 Topps Mookie Betts, box-t...

  I've ragged on Panini baseball products for at least a decade on this blog. It's getting to be repetitious -- heck, it already is -- so it's good that Panini will be stepping aside from making baseball cards when the Fanatics-Topps deal kicks in next year. You won't have to hear it from me no more. It's for the best. But how about just one more time, since I received several Panini cards, mostly from the recent Diamond Kings set, from Johnny's Trading Spot . I've been willing to give Diamond Kings a pass among Panini products in recent years because: 1. It's the set that reminds me most of the one-and-done 2013 Hometown Heroes set that is the only thing Panini has done that I loved. 2. It's got old-timey players in it. 3. I like the card stock. 4. Often, during the pandemic period, it was the only card thing available to buy. However, not even that is going to cut it anymore. I've seen this year's Diamond Kings and I am alarmed by how much ...

  I said goodbye to an antique shop that sold cards yesterday, I said goodbye to a lot of things. My daughter is moving out of her apartment, out of the town where she went to college, and moving to a new city with a new job. She's been in the work force for almost a couple of years, but this is the first time the job will utilize that degree that she toiled over for four years. She's already happier. So this weekend is probably the last time I spent in her apartment, the last time eating at the restaurants in town, the last time driving past that college and in those familiar hotels. And it's the last time finding cards in that antique shop. You've read about my vintage card discoveries in "the card bowl," a couple of times . This was my last opportunity. We walked there, which is what we always do (parking in town is complex). But it was really hot and I'm at an age where walking is exercise and otherwise, how about we drive there? Fortunately, the anti...

  I tell myself I do not have the space, nor the time or money, for non-card collectibles. I shun bobbleheads and Funkos, keychains and other trinkets, bats, balls, jerseys and other assorted placemats and pillow cases that Koufax or Drysdale might have dined off or slept upon. It's a good act I put on, and in a way, it's helped cut down on the clutter ... a little. Because, truthfully, I think some of that stuff -- that non-card stuff -- is pretty cool. I dug the above "baseball boy" out of a box in the attic just now. No, I don't exactly think it's cool. It's kind of adorable and creepy at the same time. It was painted by my mother, back when she went to ceramic classes when I was 14. She made a Dodger-themed one for me (yes, Ron Cey's number!), a Red Sox-themed one for my brother and an Oriole-themed one for my other brother. We didn't really know what to do with them. So we put them on a shelf in our bedrooms and ignored them for years while th...