Night Owl Cards

  I've gone on quite a bit about 2023 Heritage on here. There are lots of reasons why it excites me and has been, so far, the product of the year for me. One side benefit is that upon watching a couple of box breaks of Heritage, I've seen the stamped buybacks pulled and that's reminded me that there will be some of those in 2024 Heritage and an opportunity to add to my 1975 Topps buyback collection! I've recently pinned down a few '75 buybacks that I need to add. The problem is that a couple are a bit pricey and I am debating whether I want to pay that. But there will come a time when I have to get spendy to get certain cards, so maybe that time is here. But before that, the time has arrived for another segment of the 1975 Topps worst to best countdown! We're still running through some pretty standard (i.e. not exciting cards) and will be doing so for a few more sessions. So don't get too sleepy on me. It still takes time to rank these, scan them and count t

  After an initial rush of trades on TCDB, what were my first dozen-or-so deals on the site, the offers dried up for several weeks. I could have jumped-started some trades myself by making some offers finally, but I find that part very time-consuming and I've got limited time already. That's why I'll never whine about no TCDB trades because I know it's a two-way street. But I don't have to deal with that particular issue right now because it's like someone flipped a switch, all of a sudden the offers are pouring in again. This time several of the offers were from people I've dealt with a long time through the blogs, either they have their own blog or they've been a frequent commenter. As often is the case with my blog buddies, these trades are much less formal, even on TCDB, and we side-stepped some of the rules that are in place for when I transact with people on that site that I only know as a collection of letters and numbers. But before I get to thos

  I feel like I need just one more 1985 Fleer-related post before moving on to other hobby matters. Between this and the '85 Fleer Traded set, it's the only major set-completing I've done this year. It deserves at least two posts. The 1985 Fleer set -- I think -- marks the end of a three-year Fleer experiment with cojoined cards. The very well-known and appreciated Super Star Specials that filled out the back of most '80s Fleer sets included cards that continued onto the next card in 1983, 1984 and 1985. (Maybe there are other later examples but my Fleer knowledge starts to fade after the '80s). 1985 contains the final two examples of these cards, starting with card numbers 635 and 636. These are a whole lot of fun. But you need both cards in order to put them together like a puzzle and appreciate what you have in your collection. One card isn't going to do it. By itself, it looks like an off-center card -- drastically off-center with no left border.    I would