Night Owl Cards

  I wrapped up my first completed set of 2025 on Saturday.   The final two cards for the 1970 Fleer World Series set, illustrated by Robert "Bob" Laughlin, arrived to finish off the 66-card set, which dedicates a card for every World Series from 1903-1969.   I have been collecting the 1970 and 1971 World Series sets equally over the years, but I really ramped up on the 1970 version the past year for a few reasons:   1. I was closer to finishing it than I am for 1971. 2. The 1970 version seems a little quirkier without the "official MLB logo" that appears on the '71 set. 3. Many of the '71 drawings appeared in the 1980 Fleer stickers World Series set, so 1970 drawings were less familiar to me and therefore more desirable.   These two WS series are easy to mix up for those not well-versed with them, which is why they are often called "blue backs" (1970) and "black backs" (1971) after the colors used on the back.   But I've written about...

  My Black Friday COMC order came in yesterday. I'm pleased to say that it showed up more than two weeks earlier than was originally forecast. This order was not as grand as I wanted it to be. When it got time to request shipment, money was a little tighter than I expected, I had to let some cards go. But I didn't let go of the oddball cards, which actually was a good portion of the order. I gravitate toward oddballs -- I think readers know this about me -- and since I've completed so many of the main sets from the '70s and '80s, oddballs are almost all that's left. That's fine with me, because the more I think of it, I like hanging out with the oddballs. When I think of what's the opposite of those kinds of cards, high-end grade specimens of superstars and hot rookies, I know that those cards can bring out my least favorite kind of behavior in collectors, just about the rudest people I've seen in the hobby. But I rarely see that among collectors who...

  I've been sitting on a COMC order for two weeks now. With the card show and the postseason and regular life stuff, just haven't been able to do my usual speedy posting. I ordered some cards off COMC on Sept. 14 and they showed up at my house on Sept. 30. Sixteen days! Then, I realized that I still had some cash left over on the COMC, so let's finish that out. I ordered on Sept. 21 and they appeared Oct. 1. Ten days! With that kind of return, if I had a little less self-control, I'd be ordering off there every week! Quite the turnaround from COMC's delivery habits three or four years ago. But I mentioned that in my first COMC order this year. Unlike the first order, this one was not all Dodgers and OPC. It is a little more varied, though you'll see both of those in this one, too. Also, I'll break it up nicely into little categories, for people with no reading patience (that's like everyone).   RANDOM DODGERS   A staple of every night owl order. No expl...

  Apologies for the negative self-talk in the blog title here. This isn't about you, it's all me, and I need to work on that. But I thought if I wrote things out I'd finally get myself into gear. I've needed a few binders and the pages that go with them for several months now. The completed -- or about to be completed -- sets are piling up. I don't like stashing complete sets in boxes, that's a terrible fate for something so carefully crafted. So they are stacked and waiting all around the card room, and, yes, a couple are in boxes as a last resort. In stacks are my complete 2024 Heritage set and my soon-to-be-complete 2024 Topps flagship set. Another stack contains what I have for 1987 Fleer. It's a long way from completion, but it's there, quietly telling me that a binder is needed for that, too. Two sets that should be in binders are now in boxes -- the almost complete 2024 Heritage minis set and the getting-there 1985 Donruss set. These guys need to ...

  I went to the big card show at the state fairgrounds for the first time in almost a year yesterday.   Since I had completed 1970 Topps about a month ago, I didn't have a specific major quest for this show. But I knew there would be a lot available so I made some vague goals:   1. Finish the 2024 Topps flagship set 2. Focus on the Fleer Laughlin World Series cards 3. Upgrade a handful of 1970 Topps cards 4. Find some 9-pocket pages and maybe a binder 5. Find some more oddballs   Here is the progress report after going to the show:   1. Finish the 2024 Topps flagship set ✓ 2. Focus on the Fleer Laughlin World Series cards 3. Upgrade a handful of 1970 Topps cards 4. Find some 9-pocket pages and maybe a binder ✓ 5. Find some more oddballs   Pretty happy with that, although that's just 40 percent success. The only reason I put down pages/binder as a goal is because I knew I didn't have any real expensive goals and maybe I could fit that in. But of course I l...