Night Owl Cards

Hi there!* This is just a quick post to let you know that I've finally completed the Dodgers team sets for all three years of Topps Big. Topps Big was the knock-off on Topps' mid-1950s sets, both in look and size, that was all the rage when it was first issued in 1988. The next two years, 1989 and 1990, were issued to less enthusiastic response before fizzling out. But I've mentioned this set a couple of times before. Let me just show you the complete Dodgers team sets: Here is 1988, the paint-splatter set. These guys are pretty special since most of them led the Dodgers to their most recent World Series title. Here is 1989, the alphabet flashcards set. The Dodgers team set grew in size seeing as they were the defending World Champions. And here is 1990, what I call the Ocean Pacific set, because it seems to have a surfer art vibe. This team set is filled with new big-name acquisitions that didn't pan out. Two of those disappointm...

I received a nice stack of oddball packs from Fuji that arrived the day after Christmas. Even though most of the packs came out during the late '80s/early '90s, it was all stuff I have never opened. Oddball packs were not on my radar during that time. Fuji also sent me a note with a thought on when I might open these: Happy Holidays to you, too, Fuji. I'm not sure whether he meant "snow day" as in those days that school kids and teachers enjoy while the rest of us clear off a foot of snow and trudge to work, or just days in which there is heavy snow. But either way, there is no way I can save unopened packs for a day of bad weather, no matter how frequently it happens around here. Unopened packs must be opened. Period. ASAP. And I have opened them. All of them. If it makes you feel any better, it actually is snowing right now. I'm going to reveal the contents of these packs in order, ranking them from the packs I was least interested in (thi...

I've been fairly dismissive about Topps Big in the past. To me, it was a half-baked imitation of truly the greatest Topps set of all-time, the 1956 set. But some of my disinterest in the Big sets comes from simply being unaware of those Big cards for years. I didn't notice them when they came out, and for years they weren't a thought. So, when I saw them for the first time, say 8 or 9 years ago, they seemed cheap, fitting in perfectly with the other junk wax of the time. When creating my Dodger team want lists, the Topps Big lists were ragged and incomplete. And I didn't care. Because it was a weird tribute set that was too Big to fit into regular pages. It took nearly 10 years for me to realize that I didn't even have the 1990 Topps Big set on my want list. And it also took me nearly 10 years (from first realizing what the heck this set was) to complete one of the team sets. Thanks to Bryan of Golden Rainbow Cards , I've finally finished off the 1988...

I am coming up on two blog milestones. I would really like to recognize each milestone in some fashion, either through a giveaway or a desperate attempt to be clever. But I'll be honest. I've got nothing. A couple days remain before the milestones hit, but let me tell you, I've been thinking about this for weeks and nothing is coming to mind. The evil month that is March has sapped all of my creativity. So while I'm thinking about whether I should do something or just ignore the whole thing together -- after all it's just a collection of numbers -- take a look at this Mike Schmidt Topps Big night card. I have a simple question for you: Was Topps Big the start of the retro craze? I've heard this mentioned before, including within the last few days, but I can't place the blog. (There are so many). I'm guessing that the statement holds some truth. Topps decided to create horizontal cards that matched the size and resembled the design of its mid-1...