Night Owl Cards

  We're getting our first snow of the season today. The good news is November is almost over before we saw snow, which is pretty unusual. The bad news is it's lake-effect snow, on the holiday, and why couldn't it have snowed on Nov. 15th when no one was visiting anything? But we'll get over it, we always do. It's nice to be inside with no responsibilities and cards to pass the time. Today I've been sorting the bunches of cards I received from Johnny's Trading Spot a couple of weeks ago. That always demands some open time in my schedule so I can squint at the copyrights on the back for the cards I don't know. He's always unearthing something I've never heard of. The box arrival was actually signaled a few days earlier with a thank you note and three cards for playing one of Johnny's guessing games recently. I was mystified by the envelope because I didn't remember participating, but it turns out I had, just poorly and wanted to forget abo...

  I come from a generation that made a big deal about thank you letters. I get why they did, but I didn't like writing them. Every year after Christmas, my mom got on me and my brother to write thank you's to grandmothers or aunts or whoever for sending whatever. I think sometimes I pulled out some paper and pen and scrawled a few lines, but I don't remember doing it that often so it's possible I just plain skipped it most of the time. Ever since then I've been a bit hesitant with thank you's. I'm all right saying it in person -- you have to do it a lot and I think it's a little easier to say it than to write it, at least for me. That seems odd, since I am a writer. I have a lot to be thankful for, of course, and in the hobby, especially. I don't have a high-paying job or grew up in a well-to-do family and never actively pursued a lucrative career. So it's amazing to me that I have the collection that I do. I owe a lot of it to you. So here's...

  So I am told there is an ongoing postal strike in Canada. That doesn't affect me here in the States (at least I don't think) except maybe when it comes to cards? That was put to the test recently when Sportscards From The Dollar Store sent me some cards. I got a package maybe a couple weeks ago, which I'm guessing was before the strike happened. Then I received another package from Douglas just a couple days ago, which squeezed through the picket lines I guess? I don't fully know how the mail is working up there, I just know Doug was concerned -- so here's a post letting him know all is well. It's here! Both of them!   I'll split the card showing into Package 1 and Package 2. You can decide which is better, I already did that in the quiet of my own home   PACKAGE 1     Let's start with the complete Bills set from this year's Score football! This is nice to get in the middle of the NFL season, though it's also a reminder of why I don't coll...

 (Greetings. It's that time of year when pumpkins share the same space with Christmas decorations, at least in my neighborhood. At least the 12-foot tall motion-sensor talking Halloween decorations are gone. It's time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 344th in a series): I have not bought a single pack of Topps Update this year. It's not doing it for me. I've seen too many sloppy photoshop jobs in the set and I don't want that sullying what has been one of the best flagship designs in decades for Topps. I know there are shopped photos in Series 1 and 2 but somehow they seem worse in Update. So nothing for me thanks. (And the same goes for Stadium Club, but that's a rant for another post). I did get this interesting Josh Gibson card from Johnny's Trading Spot recently. I'll show off the main goods another day but this card was randomly included and I appreciate it. I've seen it displayed on social media a few times. It definitely stands out as ...

  First off, thanks to those who showed me the way on TCDB for the 1977-79 Sportscaster cards. I received responses via the comments, email and on social media. I agree, it's quite the morass -- way too many variations -- but it's a little more decipherable (at least more readable) than those Donruss back variations.   I tend to excuse variations and such when they are cards connected to my childhood. I increasingly lose patience as the years get closer to the present time.   For example, I just had my first close-up experience with 2022 Topps Chrome Sonic. This set is a bigger quagmire than I thought.   Not that I paid much attention. I've been pretty dismissive of sets from the last four years. Thanks to unavailability and lack of appeal for sets since 2020 or so, I focus solely on a few main sets and the others hover around in the ether. So it took a TCDB trade offer from reader kcjays for me to take note. 2002 Chrome Sonic is really dumb -- I mean, I kind of vagu...