Night Owl Cards

(I feel like I'm repeating myself but I'm not actively trying to blog less, I just don't seem to have the time to dedicate to NOC like I once did. I'm still hoping that will change soon, but if the sporadic posting continues or worsens, it's not because I don't care. Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 368th in a series):   Once I finished the 1969 Topps set six months ago, in the weeks that followed I noticed something about me as a collector.   I said that '69 would probably be the last large vintage set I would seriously chase and I still feel that way. I am still pursuing sets, but they're easier mid-1980s varieties or smaller 1970s oddballs.   But because of rising card costs on even some of those smaller pursuits, I've spent a lot of time gathering more modern Dodgers. I won't say it's not fun. I still like gathering cards of the guys I watch on my screen and some of those cards are very cool, but it's not the same as the v...

  Yes, more charting. I'm going to say this is the April thing to do and be fine with it.   As much as I gripe about how you can't even get a Shohei Ohtani base card without shelling out a buck fifty, I'm still adding cards of my new favorite player at a decent clip. Topps produces so many cards of him that I can't help it. And every time I check which players rank the highest in my collection in terms of number of cards, Ohtani is climbing the charts probably faster than anyone.   About a week or so ago I received a package from Jeremy of Topps Cards That Never Were , which made it very clear that he's not afraid to ship out Ohtani cards to someone who could really use them.   Uh, I guess there's not a base card in there, huh? But that foursome is pretty snazzy. The 2026 flagship card with the leaf pattern arrived in a separate envelope as Jeremy said he forgot to include it. He also added that I hope I like it. I do I do.   The green parallel Heritage card is ...

  Most of the time when I show new Dodger card arrivals it's related to cards a fellow collector/trader sent or it's a larger order from sportlots or COMC or another online site.   Rarely do I show single card purchases unless I can turn it into a post. I guess I'm doing that now, but this 2026 Sports Illustrated For Kids Yoshinobu Yamamoto card could be any Dodger card to get this quick post started. (Yes, another quick post, I swear someone made the days only 22 hours now).   This is the first 2026 Dodger in my collection that was not made by Topps. I received it in a unique TCDB trade in which I traded a couple 9-pocket mini pages for it (I hope JR3 has received the pages, I always get nervous when I see no update in the transactions for a few days -- especially since the USPS ate a few random Dodgers I ordered a month ago).   Obviously I don't have a lot of 2026 Dodgers yet but it's a good time to go through another update of how many Dodger cards I have for eac...

  Going back to Donruss' baseball beginnings, I always ranked them near the bottom as far as card brands. Though I like specific sets (1984) and others give off nostalgia vibes (1981, 1982, 1985), Donruss had the knack for creating some of my least favorites ever (1986, 1991, 1992).   But Donruss did one thing better than any other baseball card company and it did it for 14 years straight. Can you tell what it is from the picture?   Here is another hint:   That thing is not on this card.   This is where it ended, with 1995 Donruss, though it could have easily continued the tradition even if it had to foil it up.   Donruss would not do what it did best for the next couple of years and then disappeared.     The back of the 1995 Donruss card also shows what collectors had to deal with from that point forward, especially in the late '90s -- trying to figure out when the set was issued (oops, I just gave you the answer). In this case, the stats are nic...

  My first sportlots order of the year has been sitting on my rolltop desk waiting for me to brag about it.   It's not bragging material, really. There were a lot of upgrades that I don't need to show, but I sure did enjoy getting that 1977 Topps Joel Youngblood to replace the creased one in the set binder that I didn't even know was creased until a rare day of sunshine came through the card room (who knows how many creased cards are hiding in the Northeastern darkness of my home).   Some stuff has been put away already and others have been sitting in a stack waiting until the one last pokey sportlots seller finally snapped out his stupor and shipped the last card (this always happens).    I've determined what my 10 favorite arrivals are -- but there are more than 10 cards. Per usual, these are interesting mostly to me and could very well bore you to tears.      10. Gavin Lux, 2020 Topps Chrome   The last card needed for the team set. Can you...