Night Owl Cards

  It's time. Not even the Hall of Famers are immune to the standards of the 1975 Topps countdown. You wear an airbushed hat and/or uniform, you've received a grace period due to your on-field ability. But a bad card is a bad card. We're not star worshiping here, there's enough of that in the hobby. This countdown is looking for cardboard excellence, or at least cardboard notoriety and amusement. So, get ready, there will be a couple of HOFers in this countdown -- yes, before we've even gotten to most of the team checklists. That's because Topps could have done so much better with those stars. More airbrushing to cover here and lots and lots of head shots as we plunge into the 500s.   600. Giants team (card 216) Here's a team checklist. We're starting to get to the team checklists where there's nothing drastically wrong with them, but do I like the team? OK, it's a little muddled when you see it in hand. But I believe that's Garry Maddox stand...

  The card blogging scene has ebbed and flowed during the 15 years that I have been doing this. It's gone from sensation to "so-uncool" to consistently and always there. Blogging about cards isn't going away, no matter how much it gets dismissed or ignored.   Aside from writing about cards, which has always been the why, one of the very few constants in all that blogging time is giveaways.   From Tribe Cards to Johnny's Trading Spot, the generosity is off the chart for blogs. I don't care what Twitter says with its RAKs and "hobby fams" (lordy, that phrase is annoying), nothing has the history that blogs do for sending off cards just because.   Sometimes months go by without some sort of giveaway and then all of a sudden they're back, two, three, four at a time. The prize hounds know this, too. Often the only time I see a comment from certain someones is when there's something in it for them.   But I do try to win cards, too -- I just make su...

  I've said many times that I try to keep my collecting to cards. There's not enough room for extras like memorabilia and bobbleheads and various knickknacks. Besides, a lot of that stuff doesn't appeal to me. But if you know the code, i.e. what makes me tick, then you might be able to find an "in" into my collection without throwing cardboard pictures at me. I've got two examples. Recently, I received an email from a blog reader, Stephen, who said a few nice words about my blog and offered up something that he thought would fit nicely into my collection. That is a custom-made 1975 Topps-themed box. Am I tempted to pull my entire '75 Topps complete set out of its binder and throw it into this box? Yes, yes I am. This box is 1975 through-and-through with all but the bottom panel containing a color combo from that year. Side panels. End panels.   Open the box and another '75 Topps color theme greets you. I used a card sample at the top of the post to ref...