Night Owl Cards

  Man, it got busy again. So there was an extra day to vote on the Cardboard Appreciation Hall of Fame poll for the second straight week.   The poll pulled in the best turnout in weeks and in the end the 1970 Topps Seattle Pilots card was the runaway winner. The tally after 49 votes: 1970 Topps Seattle Pilots team card: 31 votes 1992 Pinnacle Jackie Gleason/David Cone Idols subset: 18 votes So, the only Pilots team card from a major-release set takes its place in the Cardboard Appreciation Hall of Fame. As a refresher, here are the others already enshrined:     The Pilots card may not measure up to the previous four in the eyes of some, but I welcome a little bit of variety in the C.A. Hall of Fame. Cards are notable for many reasons, and plays at the plate and stadium scenes and smiling faces are just three of many, many attributes that make up a Hall of Fame card. Team cards get a bad wrap. I really like them and I've grown to like them more as I've gotten older. A...

I've been out of town, so I gave you an extra day to vote in the second semifinal for the Cardboard Appreciation Hall of Fame vote (not that anyone took advantage of it). The winner of the second semifinal began to take shape a couple of days after the poll went up. Again, I would never have expected the Pilots team card to do so well, but then I didn't think the Rusty Staub Hostess card would do so poorly. Here are the vote totals for the second semifinal after 43 votes: 1. 1970 Topps Seattle Pilots team card - 18 votes 2. 1976 Topps J.R. Richard - 11 votes 3. 1989 Bill Pucko Cards U.L. Washington - 9 votes 4. 1975 Hostess Rusty Staub - 5 votes   So the lone team card of the Seattle Pilots has advanced all the way to the final.     It will take on the power trio of Jackie Gleason and David Cone for entrance into the Cardboard Appreciation Hall of Fame.   Two guys against an entire team, plus a trainer and a guy in a suit? Is that a fair fight?   I don't know, s...

Uh, wow. We have our first major upset in the Cardboard Appreciation, the Review 5 tournament. Somehow, the 1992 Pinnacle card of David Cone (but mostly Jackie Gleason) has advanced all the way to the final. The Idols subset card survived a three-card race, taking over the lead a couple days in and holding on despite a decent chase by the Garry Templeton Highlights card. Here are the results after 41 votes: 1. 1992 Pinnacle David Cone/Jackie Gleason Idols subset - 14 votes 2. 1980 Topps Garry Templeton, 1979 Highlights - 11 votes 2. 1958 Topps Rival Fence Busters, Willie Mays and Duke Snider - 11 votes 4. 1959 Fleer Ted Williams, Ted Relaxes - 5 votes So, not only has a card dedicated at least 50 percent to comedy (more like 80 percent in terms of surface area) knocked out two significant vintage cards but it's pretty much ensured that no serious vintage will make the Cardboard Appreciation Hall Of Fame this time around. Two of the cards in the next semifinal could be considered vi...

  Woo, I guess no one was in the mood for a 2009-style blog post yesterday! Well, it's too late now. I love the Head Count series and will be posting it, for apparently my own amusement, a few more times because that's the kind of blog content I live for! It still intrigues me that a throw-away post like this can spawn so much engagement (I'm really not all that fired up over the '08 Heritage High Numbers guys), while one I spend so much time planning gets as many views as my old awesome night card posts. That's the life of a blogger.   OK, moving on to something else that doesn't get a lot of views, but at least people are (sort of) voting!   The final vote-off the first round produced a fairly close race, but J.R. Richard and his satin jacket proved too formidable. The '76 Topps Richard is the final of eight cards to advance to the semifinals of Cardboard Appreciation, The Review 5 as I seek a fifth entrant into the C.A. Hall of Fame.   Here are the vote ...

 (A recent post of mine was highlighted today by the Uni Watch media site, thanks to a head's-up to that site from NOC reader Brett Alan. It's the third item down and I had noted today a rise in views for that post. Thanks, Brett!) You readers are the best. Imagine some prospects-loving site holding a vote-off for the best cards and a team-photo checklist winning. Never ever would it happen. A card like this would be derided or dismissed or both. But not here at Night Owl Cards. A team checklist WINS, dammit. Not only does it win but it smokes the competition. The one-of-a-kind Seattle Pilots team card won the most recent Cardboard Appreciation, the review 5 vote-off easily, jumping to an early lead and never looking back. It becomes the seventh entrant into the next round in the quest to enter the Cardboard Appreciation Hall of Fame. We begin voting on the eighth-and-final entrant into the quarterfinals in a moment, but first the vote totals for part 7. We had a respectable...