Night Owl Cards

 (Happy President's Day. No, I don't have this day off or the week off. I do have an extra day off thanks to the post office not delivering today. But that'll be Wednesday, not today. Wish me luck as I will have ventured out into 13-degree weather with the wind howling at 30 mph tonight. Time for Cardboard Appreciation! This is the 348th in a series):   I received this 1979 Hostess panel from Max of Starting Nine . Every time I land a Hostess panel the debate begins -- cut or leave intact!   Each item is a special case. I am collecting both panels and individual cards for all the '70s Hostess sets and sometimes the decisions are tough. So let's go through what we know:   1. You can see that the panel is scuffed and creased. This means almost nothing to me when it comes to Hostess cards. They practically came out of the package beat up (or more accurately "stained up"). This was long before every card had to be pristine and imprisoned. But it sometimes affe...

  It's my all-time favorite player Ron Cey's birthday today. He's 77. Yikes.   The last couple of years I've been able to show a card that "matches" with his birthday. You know, 1975 Topps with 75 years old, 1976 Topps with age 76, etc.   So this is his 1977 Topps card here. This was a big year for Cey and for me collecting him. Let's start with me.   The '77 season was really my first year of being super invested in major league baseball. I already knew I liked the Dodgers and that Cey was my favorite player, but what did that really mean? In 1977 I had the full concept down. This is why I was so glad that I pulled Cey's card that year very early on in the card season. I think it might've been from a rack pack but I don't know for sure.   As for Cey, he enjoyed a standout, powerful season in '77, beginning with the very first month. In April that year, he batted .425, hit nine home runs and drove in 29. He still holds the Dodger record...

  We card bloggers aren't the mushy type. If we're going to blog a Valentine's Day-themed post, it better be about Bobby or Ellis or Fred. Or at least show some red or pink parallels.   I've done it all before and don't have anything else clever to write about this fake holiday. So I thought I'd lean in all the way and show most of the cards from Bobby Valentine's career.   I collected Ellis Valentine's cards as a kid, I was always a fan. Fred Valentine was before my time. But Bobby Valentine has been there for the duration. His Topps card career (excluding the Mets managing days) nearly syncs up with my run of Topps complete sets, from 1970-92. He's only missing from 1970 and 1981-84.     He also reappeared in Panini Donruss last year with this weird thing in which it appears his uniform number slid down his jersey.   Finally, I have a connection to Valentine, as tenuous as it may be. I interviewed him just over five years ago , in a banquet hall, ...

  I'm finally getting around to the latest big box from Johnny's Trading Spot , which arrived two weeks ago.   Boxes that size are a lot to deal with amid a busy life. I had to approach it in shifts. The first thing to deal with is why Johnny sent a big box, which contained a few smaller empty boxes, plus the boxes with cards. I'm sure there was a reason but I was baffled.   The other moment of reflection is something that always happens now with a send like this -- do I really want to collect all this stuff? For example, Johnny sent a bunch of minor league Dodgers sets -- low-level minors with many unfamiliar names. He checked with me first and I said, go ahead, because I knew there would be 3 or 4 names in each I recognized and wanted in my collection. But what do I do with the rest? Another example: the sapphire version of the 2024 Chrome Tennis set --but just the dudes? Why would I want those?   But that's the world of Johnny's shipments. There is a little of th...