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Eighteen years ago this very day I started Night Owl Cards. This blog is officially an adult.
This anniversary comes at an uncertain time for this blogger in particular, and maybe a few others. Google seems to be giving up on its Blogger responsibilities. Last weekend, nobody could comment on any blog and this past week, the function for updating blogs -- both on the reader list and in the sidebar blog rolls -- has stopped working.
In order to keep up to date with the newest blog posts, I've had to go to each card blog individually, and, even with only 50-60 blogs to check these days, who has time for that? Not many, judging by the lack of comments I've seen on other people's blogs. (But did you know there's a new blog bat-around happening??)
For those who want readers to come to their blogs, I'll mention the Feedburner site again. It's worked for me around 90 percent of the time.
The web address is feedburner.google.com. I go there when I have a new blog post, click on the three dots next to "configure proxy," the drop down menu appears, I click on "refresh feed" and usually my new post pops up instantly on the blog reader list.
For those readers who use other feeds (I don't really know what's out there), you're not having trouble seeing new posts, but I know others are, so hopefully that's a tip for bloggers who want the readers to catch their updates. Thanks again to the Diamond King for alerting me.
But having to go through that is not a reassuring sign as far as the site that keeps our blogs afloat. And it has given me another reason to pull away from blogging, as I've been doing the last few months.
After 18 years I've finally reached the point where simply writing about cards here is not its own reward. I still enjoy it, but not on an everyday basis anymore. If Blogger's not going to care, and fewer and fewer readers are going to care, then naturally, over time, I'm not going to care as much as I once did.
Hey, the blog's an adult now. It's not just going to go along with what's being handed out.
I mentioned most of my blog state of mine when I hit 6,000 posts a couple weeks ago, I'm trying not to repeat myself. I'm not going away, but the pattern of fewer posts will continue. Mostly I'll blog now when I've got something to say, the days of "reliable, set-your-clock-by-it night owl" have ended.
But today there's an anniversary and also there was a monthly card show yesterday. I've never shown card show purchases on my blog anniversary before, so let's do that!
I'll start with the biggest win of the show. This was at the top of the list in terms of cards to get that I knew I'd have a good chance of finding at the show. I found it at the first table I stopped at and within the first minute of scanning what was available. It's a nice copy, too, with only a dinged upper corner that's only visible from the back.
The other card at the top of the "to get" list was the 1967 Mickey Mantle. I didn't see it and I wouldn't be able to get it after landing the Aaron anyway. Everything after this card came from the discount bins.
Here is the first error of the show. This 1970 Scratch Off card does not have the other half of the card. That's why it was so cheap. I didn't bother to turn it over, preferring to think I had a steal on my hands. Bad, bad card shopper. Oh well, a benefit of double-bagging pages is I don't have to see what's missing on the reverse!
Another 1970 insert with this Bob Gibson booklet. This one is all intact. I don't look for these often so there's much more work to do.
A dealer I hadn't seen before featured several dollar boxes. I thought I'd struck gold when I saw a whole bunch of 1999-2003 era cards. But then I discovered the majority of it were barely-made-it guys that dominated brands during this period. Fortunately I found this Gold Medallion Kaz Ishii card to make stopping there worth it.
This card did, too. I didn't know what it was with the gold stamp on Ryan's familiar 1975 design. It turns out Topps had a full Nolan Ryan retrospective insert set in 1999. All news to me until Saturday.
I was playing with fire by grabbing these two cards. I was pretty certain I needed the 1986 Donruss Reggie because my brain told me I had never seen it before. That's because I've shut my mind off of anything '86 Donruss, but any Reggie has got to be in my collection. The Roger Clemens was more of a risk. With 1987 Fleer about 80 cards from completion, I still don't have a handle of what I need. Fortunately Clemens was one of them.
But these were flat-out errors. I have both of them already. Even worse, I saw the Tom Seaver card from this set and put it back because White Sox Seavers don't interest me. Turns out that's the only one I needed to complete this set!! Arrrrrrgh!
Finally I found a true discount box of cards from the last 2 or 3 years, which is always good for Dodgers that I need as well as finding some cards for others. Money was tight by now but I got a handful.
A couple of 2026 parallel Dodgers that I know look like regular base Dodgers. The Rushing is the holo foil parallel and the Hernandez is rainbow foil. I long for the days when you could spot a parallel from the other side of the room.
An insert need from the disappointing-and-delayed 2025 Chrome Platinum Anniversary set.
And an always welcome Yamamoto insert with the typically meaningless Stadium Club theme.
That was about it, except for a 1991 Upper Deck Hank Aaron hologram thing that I absolutely couldn't figure out how to photograph. Anything else I didn't show is heading to other people at future dates.
So on this anniversary post, no reflecting back or any promises about posts in the future. All I know is I have plans for posts ... whenever.
Once again, thanks for reading.
You'll see me when you see me. I guess that's my new blog motto.
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