Night Owl Cards

It started out with a simple chrome card. "Heh, Jon Link," I said. "I can't believe they made a card of this guy." But not being one to look a gift rookie Dodger reliever with 8 2/3 innings of major league experience in the mouth, I happily filed away my Topps Chrome Link card and assured myself it might be the last Link card I ever obtained (I do have a couple minor league Link cards). But then the Link Chrome refractor arrived. I didn't even ask for it or anything. But there it was, paralleled and proud. And that meant Link was unparalleled in his chromeness. I had both his regular chrome and refractored chrome before any other Dodger. Yet, Link wouldn't stop there. Xrefractor Link arrived just as mysteriously as refractor Link. Sure, I collect Dodgers and all, but not once have I expressed interest in obtaining as many versions of Virginia Commonwealth's former star pitcher as I could. But apparently some thought having as many Li...

A few times now I've joked about becoming a super-collector of a particular player. There was the time when I said I was the world's No. 1 collector of Jon Link cards. Because how in the world would anyone else have accumulated more than 7 different Jon Link cards at the time (or currently, even)? Even more recently I've joked about collecting Tom Murphy cards, because the Rockies catcher grew up not far from me and I weirdly seem to keep pulling his cards. In fact, here's a new Murphy card now: This was sent to me by Zippy Zappy at Torren' Up Cards . He always seems to have some Bowman cards just sitting around. ZZ sent me another card that has me stumbling into another accidental super-collection. It's an autographed card of Dodgers reliever Yimi Garcia, who all but disappeared this past season with various injuries. The Dodgers could have used him this year, instead of continuing to trot Pedro Baez out there. Garcia isn't all that wel...

I am in the midst of questioning my modern card-purchasing habits, as you may have gathered by some of my recent posts. What I would like to do is adopt a hit-and-run policy for next year's product. That is, buy a few packs of base, Heritage, A&G, etc., to get an idea of what is involved and to satisfy the occasional pack-opening urge. But that's it. I'm reasonably sure that is what I'm going to do. What I would also like to do is prevent myself from wasting gas in order to buy cards. As you may know, current cards are basically available now only at large department stores, unless you're the lucky sort surrounded by card shops. While there are two Wal-Marts and a Target within 7 miles of me, they're not conveniently placed. The closest Wal-Mart and Target each sit at the end of a long strip of road filled with fast food places, grocery stores and chain outlets. They are at the end of this road. Not the beginning. That means if I want cards (and I w...

I have become rather proud of my ability to be late. I admit it's "acting out" on my part. I have a job that revolves around being obsessively "on time" and "on top of things." I also was raised by a mother who I am convinced would forgive every last wrong as long as I was punctual. "You say you ran five cars off the road and crippled the mailman? That's OK, honey. You made it here on time." So when I want to ride on the wild side, I whip the alarm clock out the window, dash outside and do a party dance on its shattered remnants. For a little bit in college, I lived 25 minutes away from campus. I would wake up 30 minutes before my first class began and walk into class five minutes after the professor began his lesson. I probably didn't smell very fresh, but I was fashionably late. That was the important thing. But, lately, I think someone has me beat in the "notably late" department. About two weeks ago, I received ...

Some time ago I made an effort to keep my trade posts down to a one package/one post format. No more epic trade posts. For the most part, that has worked pretty well. It takes a lot of thinking and creativity to do that -- especially if I'm not going to put a post title up that says "Cards from 'fill in the blank.'" But part of me WANTS to put up a post title that says "Cards from 'fill in the blank.'" What a relief that must be! No topics. No tie-ins. No rants. No clever references. Just cards -- from "fill in the blank.'" Well, here's my opportunity. Because cards have been piling up on my desk so fast that I've got to get them scanned and posted or they're going to start spilling on to the floor and then the dog is going to eat them when I'm not looking and you don't want that. No one wants that. So here are some cards, from ... well ... from everywhere. Literally. I'll start in the deep south...