Night Owl Cards

  I think I'm on record on my opinion of Panini as a baseball product. I've never had use for it, think its weak points are glaring and its strong points -- if there are any -- help convince only some collectors that it's worth buying. Panini's license with the MLB Players Association ran out at the end of 2022 and we all know it already doesn't have an MLB license. So Panini is out of the baseball card game and, well, let me take a moment to figure out how I still type while I'm standing and applauding. Panini's baseball cards were ugly, uninteresting, inept and inefficient. The only thing it did well, the 2013 Hometown Heroes product, disappeared after a year. The only other thing it did "well," Chronicles, is a mix of boring (see card above) and a whole lot of WTF. It's good WTF, for the most part, but it actively defies you to complete it, which is the opposite of what I'm trying to do here. Panini's baseball inserts got a lot of pr...

  On the schoolyard in the spring of 1977, there was no card I wanted more than the one of George Foster. I was a Dodgers fan and on the lookout for Dodgers cards, but even a player on the Dodgers' chief rival at the time could not prevent me from coveting his card.   Foster was hitting home runs at a pace that I had never experienced before, on his way to 52 in one season. His card was the titan of the '77 set, bigger than airbrushed Reggie, bigger than prospects Dawson and Murphy (who?), bigger than Fidrych, bigger than Nolan Ryan. Foster's card was a base card. Yet, it had major appeal. That concept and sentiment is lost in today's hobby and vanished a long time ago. Foster's cool was replaced by inserts, first known as "chase cards," and then "hits" and then parallels and then short-prints. All detracted from the base cards, the cards that actually made up the set. I was reminded of how much the hobby and collectors have changed again this mo...

  OK, you saw me open some 2023 Topps, almost right on time. You'll see me open some 2023 Heritage almost right on time, too. That's where the timeliness will end. I stopped monitoring the release calendar a long time ago, even before release times went haywire due to production issues. I used to be a slave to the calendar, for many years. Back when I was a kid, I waited every year for the new cards to be released. Year after year. But it was just one card set then. Then there were three card sets. But they were all released at the same time, and then that's what you chased the rest of the year. It wasn't until I stopped collecting in the '90s that card companies started forcing collectors to run a gauntlet. One release date followed another. This set released in April, but this one released in May, three release in June, five in July, the other half of that set that was released in May is releasing in August and then there are a few update sets in September. Mush, ...

  So, I haven't bothered to order a 2023 Series 1 team set for the Dodgers yet, which has been my habit in recent years when I know I won't be building the set. That's where I am with flagship now, I'll get to it. Someday. Sure, I bought some cards a little over a week after release, but I could've very well waited a month without a care. It looks how it looks, but there's actually no urgency. The curiosity is still there though, as it is every year. I'm glad I bought two hanger boxes instead of one because the first was devoid of Dodgers content but the second had plenty. That's my advertisement. Buy MOAR. So these are the contents of hanger box 2. I know, I know, people are sick of 2023 Topps already. But here is hanger 2 for those unjaded few:    #71 - Merrill Kelly, Diamondbacks #23 - Fernando Tatis Jr., Padres #209 - Darick Hall, Phillies (RC) #283 - Matt Strahm, Red Sox I'll try to go a little quicker this time out. I'm surprising myself by...

  First, I want to apologize for shunning your 2023 Topps Series 1 posts. I wanted to look at them, I really did, but I was trying to avoid First Cards Of The Year Overkill. That's difficult to do when you're on social media, especially bleeping Twitter. I made a concerted effort to cut down on viewing 2023 images but a few flashers jumped in front of me -- HERE, TAKE A LOOK AT THIS . YOU KNOW YOU WANT IT!   It was tough to avert my eyes. It was a little easier on the blogs. As soon as I got a hint that the subject was 2023 Topps I jumped out of the chat. I did succumb to a couple (Card Junk and Padrographs, I think) and left a comment. Of course, now that I've found some 2023 myself, I have to go back and comment on all those posts.  So, yup, this is it. It's the 2023 Topps Series 1 post on Night Owl Cards. This Is It!   I'm purposely late -- not as late as last year but still way past time according to some bananas collectors. I'm out of that rat race and I w...