Night Owl Cards

This week we are seeing build-up like no other week of the year. Topps and its fan boys are hyping the arrival of the 2013 set like it's not going to be marked down in six months. The NFL is hyping the Super Bowl like it's not simply an ode to consumerism disguised as a football game. This football game, as usual, will take multiple breaks for multiple commercials that people stare at like their television just invented fire. I've never been one to get giddy over Super Bowl commercials. I just can't get past the whole "they're trying to get you to buy something" thing. This is my view the other 364 days out of the year, too. Whenever a commercial goes on, I instantly leave the room, take on a task, read a book or a newspaper, stare at my card collection, talk to somebody, anything to avoid staring at the commercial. I've got this down to such a science that it doesn't matter how often a commercial is repeated -- and we all know how much th...

("Don't bother me. It's Thursday." I think I'll make that my outgoing message on my voice mail. So. Much. Crap. But I figured out a way to squeeze in a Cardboard Appreciation! This is the 166th in a series): I have heard some collectors complain about Topps' Cyberstats series from 1995. One even said it was "awful." That threw me because I always thought they were cool. Sure, all the stats are fake. Not real at all. And I'm someone that likes reality. But mathematically projecting someone's stats is good, clean fun. We all like to see what "might have happened." I think it was particularly important during this time. A lot of people were mad at baseball in 1995. The strike had just wiped out the last third of the season and the World Series. Frank Thomas, Matt Williams and the Montreal Expos got screwed. (Often forgotten is that the Dodgers could've made the playoffs for the first time in six seasons that year). Ever...