Night Owl Cards

Like most folks in this country, I am not made of money. While going for my daily walks or driving around town, I look at the shiny gargantuans passing for cars on the local road and wonder who can afford that. There are so many of them now, maybe there actually are people made of money?   But little guys like me -- who drive a modest CRV -- must pick our moments for spending cash. Budgets and all that. And, while I've never been a bargain-hunter in everyday life, I sometimes am as a card collector.  Freebies are still a thing in the collecting social media world, though not as often as they once were. I need to do my part in that area -- it's not due to a lack of cards, just a lack of time. But at least I'm participating in the claiming!   Here are some very recent acquisitions, all in response to "free" or "free with a catch" come-ons.     Jim of cards as I see them revived his "Almost Free Fridays" giveaway recently. I was only able to find...

    You may have heard that there is a new documentary out on artist Dick Perez, who is well-known for drawing the Diamond King cards for Donruss through the 1980s and 1990s.   I've seen the trailer for the movie and I might watch the whole documentary, but it's not appointment-viewing for me. "Diamond Kings" are a big part of childhood for collectors of a certain age and SABR has been hyping the project, but I've never been interested in the Diamond Kings.   I wrote about this once before, 13 years ago now , and my thoughts are still the same mostly. As a short recap, I first viewed Diamond Kings in 1982 as a 16-year-old when I bought packs of Donruss. I was instantly puzzled by seeing drawings on baseball cards, which had always been photos since I started collecting. I didn't like it, I didn't like the cards. They didn't seem like a full card to me.   I've come around a little since then, mostly by appreciating the first two editions of Diamond...

    As expected, I received some more 2025 Heritage in the mail at the end of last week. First, Rod of Padrographs sent me a bunch of his extras and then later the same day, the Fanatics "megabox" that I ordered back in March finally showed up.   After going through all of that, I am just short of halfway through on the set at 45 percent. As always with Heritage, this is deceptive since there are an ungodly 100 short-prints and I have like eight of them.   But I'm still enjoying the cards, despite all the drawbacks of modern sets, and I can see myself perhaps acquiring a hobby box at some point (maybe after prices go down) to continue building the set.   I've still got some observations and thoughts on this year's set, so I'll break all of this up into Rod's sends and then my box from Fanatics.     ROD'S CARDS   I received three stuffed nine-pocket pages of cards from Rod, not all 2025 Heritage but most of it was. It really helped make a dent and...