Night Owl Cards

  Like I mentioned a couple of week ago, the 1975 Topps buyback game has reached a new level since 2024 Heritage came out. What has been mostly a down-low pursuit, in which I have been grabbing buybacks here and there for the last seven years sometimes at a rate of a handful per year, is now like chasing buybacks on speed. New '75 buybacks, buybacks that I need -- not the same damn Bobby Heise buyback over and over -- are up for sale all over ebay. And I've been on that stupid site at a rate the last few weeks that I haven't been on since before the blog had begun. I don't like being on ebay that much, especially when it comes to bidding. I already have a low impression of humanity without having to go through that. But for chasing down more buybacks from my favorite set of all-time? Sure, I'll wallow. Before Heritage came out, I owned 481 of the 660 cards in the set in buyback form. I knew that with what I saw available, I could get to 500 pretty quickly. So join

  Last week I bought a blaster of 2024 Topps with the cash that I didn't spend at the card show that I went to at the start of the month.  That doesn't sound like the smartest of moves -- save that cash for something vintage you want! -- but I've been living my card-purchasing life online for the last month-plus and it's getting tired. I needed to buy in person.   I had planned to add some Heritage but it wasn't there. I could have missed it because there were two guys dominating the space talking about their next Magic thingy and I had to squeeze past them. But I was happy with the '24 Topps.     Some of the highlights, there were others that I needed, too. There were also many, many dupes, so I won't be getting any more retail. It's all about Heritage now anyway. (If I was MLB commish, I would reinstate real extra innings first and ban public displays of unnecessary ballplayer yelling next). I did pull my first autograph of the year. This was appropria

  I've already mentioned a couple times how April has been a pretty poor month for me buying cards in person. From missing three easily attended card shows to not coordinating my trips with the random hours of the card shop in town, April's been filled with blown opportunities. I'd say thank goodness the month is coming to an end, but I've been dreading Responsibilities May ever since the year started so I don't expect a lot of card goodness happening next month either.   Fortunately, other card collectors don't seem to be having the same problem. And, I'm rather humbled (and a bit sheepish) that they are remembering me in the process of finding cards that I should be finding.   The latest example is from Cardboard Catastrophes . Everything he sent in an envelope is exactly what I am hunting for when I'm actually getting myself to a show or shop. In other words: 1970s ODDBALLS!!!!   Crikey. This is what I need to be getting off my butt for -- Hostess car

  A couple of weeks ago I added the first 2024 card to my night card binder. It's this Reds card, which I slipped into the No. 133 slot. It reminded me that I've planned to show off my night card binder on this blog for a couple of years now. I'm not sure how exciting that is to readers, but it has a two-fold purpose; it helps catalog what I need to fill holes in the binder -- there are a lot of holes. It also might spark me to add cards more often as the binder's been stagnating lately. I don't expect anyone out there to spot a night card and then turn it over to the back to look at the number to see if night owl needs it. But I've seen stranger things on this blog, so why not.   I'm going to show the first 12 pages in the binder. I'll pick up the rest of the pages here and there as part of a random continuing series for you to ignore at your leisure.   Page 1 starts now:   This is as rock-solid of a page that I could produce. It contains all kinds of f