Night Owl Cards

  It's time to give away some more cards that no longer fit in my collection. I haven't done one of these since July. But it's almost been a year since I started these giveaways, so there's at least one more before I see if I want to continue this.   My purpose in giving these cards away is to free up some space on the two shelves that house most of my binders.   That's shelf one. There are five binders that are lying flat (not counting the top shelf) that I'd like to move into a vertical position with the rest of them. But it's proving to be a tougher task than I thought. I think I just have too many cards that I'd like to keep in binders -- forever.   I could put some binders on the top shelf but I don't want to stress out that top shelf any more, it's an old unit and there's some bowing. If I leave it the way it is, it should be OK.     This is the other, sturdier shelf. There is one binder lying flat -- the 2024 Heritage binder -- that I...

  Hey, it's another downsizing post. I didn't get to one of these in June and there are still cards that need to go out the door.   I've been pretty lax in adding cards to my collection, too. I blame some of this on the post office. There's been two times in the last month where I've ordered a single card ... and then waited a month for it to arrive. The second one hasn't appeared yet, and it damn well better because it finishes a team set and it wasn't cheap (i.e. another Heritage short-print).   That's put a damper on ordering through the mail, just a little. But a few cards have indeed arrived.     I've recently returned to the team O-Pee-Chee quest. After finishing off the '80s sets and some of the late '70s I moved on to other things. But it's time to get back. I'm starting with 1990 because it's the easiest. That Orel Hershiser was a former Nebulous Nine need.     BlueSky followers know that this 1965 Topps Leon Wagner card ...

  Did I show this 1941 Play Ball Whit Wyatt I got about a month ago? I don't think I did, I used to be more on top of stuff like that but that's the way it's been in the hobby for me lately.   The first half of the year I've been in a hobby lull. The combination of weather, lack of decent transportation and the general cost of everything, particularly cards, has really cut into what I usually do in the hobby. That isn't just acquiring, but trading and organizing, too.   Don't worry, the desire is still there. I grab a card here and there when I can. I finally landed the 2025 Chrome Shoehei Ohtani for something under $5 -- it had been going for anywhere from 10-20 bucks for months.   My latest '75 buyback arrived several weeks ago. It was the 544th buyback in my chase and a key one. I've been aware of the Ron Santo buyback for years but it was always selling for more than 30 dollars. I finally landed one for two-thirds less.   It's been mostly small v...

  Well, actually it does. There are a lot of cards I will never downsize.   But what I am referring to is card brands. More on that in a minute.   My series of downsizing posts have paid off for my overall goal of clearing space on my card shelves, but it's a very slow process.   First of all, any movement on this project is restricted to the weekend. I don't have the time or energy for this during the week. Secondly, I probably should be giving away cards in much larger chunks for quicker progress. But I can't afford that. So piece meal it is.   The process, like I've said, is removing cards from binders and putting them into boxes. I clear space in boxes through these giveaways. Some examples of progress since the first downsize back in November:   Complete Allen & Ginter sets post-2011 are now in boxes. The double-row long box here houses 2012, 2013 and 2014 complete sets. There is another box elsewhere that contains all of my A&G cards from 2015...

   I skipped the monthly card show today because we did get about five inches of snow last night and then the temperature promptly dropped below zero. So to get to the show I'd have to bundle up, clear off the car, shovel out the driveway, all in sub-zero conditions. It just didn't seem worth it.   The monthly show has made me soft. I used to risk driving an hour through lake-effect to get to a show when there was just 2 or 3 a year!   So, sorry, I will have no show wares to show off this time. But maybe someone will like what I have instead:   FREE CARDS!   Yes, I'm still downsizing. This is the third edition of attempting to rid cards from my house in hopes that someone else can use them. To recap, I'm trying to clear some room for cards that I want and shelving space to house those cards. That means scrapping cards that have long sat in boxes and a lot of it stuff that doesn't fit my style.   There are around 500 cards this time around.   Like ...

  I should probably post some thanks here for Nachos Grande running the end of the year awards again this year and allowing me to win Blog o' the Year for a fifth time.   I appreciate it after so many years of doing this because like I've said before, blogging about cards is far from the hot, young thing it once was. Folks still voting for NOC all these years later means I'm still doing what I set out to do -- writing about my love for cards and trying to do it in an interesting way. Glad to still be of service.   OK, now on to getting rid of some cards.   The last downsizing session a month ago was an immediate success, much to my surprise. So I'm going to try again with some slightly -- very slightly -- more interesting cards. As a refresher, I need to get cards out of my house. The card room is sizeable but can no longer hold everything. In order to make room for more cards I have to get rid of cards that aren't useful, i.e., have been stashed in boxes for year...

(Greetings on National App day. I can recall the carefree days when I didn't know what an app was. Now I am wondering if there is a National Delete Your App day. I would like to celebrate that. Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 360th in a series):   It came. My one card to recognize and remember the Dodgers' World Series title in 2025.   Sure, there will likely be a Heritage card or two to remember it next year (1977 Topps had three World Series cards). But this is it for something immediate. Topps isn't producing any blaster with a commemorative set anymore, and I refuse to throw cash at any of the other Topps Now cards.   I was prepared for this after last year. I looked and looked for a nice World Series set to remember the 2024 Series victory but just ended up being horrified by the price of the online-only set of 15 ugly cards.   I decided one card would do and I got something appropriate.   I think I like this way of approaching it. It saves me ...

   I just finished another yearly sort of my Dodgers dupes boxes. It took a long time, as usual.   Thanks to giving away some Dodgers cards recently, I freed up some room. But there are still plenty of extras that will probably be with me for the rest of my days.   I don't want that to be the case with many of my other cards.    I alluded to this during my anniversary post a couple of months ago. I need to downsize. You've seen my card room. It's fairly big. There are two large shelving units that are packed. There are boxes stored on another shelf and in a couple of drawers, and in a closet. I am officially out of room.   I don't want to stop collecting, but to keep going, I need to clear out some space. My plan is to remove some/many of the cards in boxes and then I can take some of the cards that are now in binders and shift them to boxes, freeing up some space on the shelves.   So what happens to the cards I'm taking out of boxes??   Ah y...