Night Owl Cards

  When I completed the 1969 Topps set eight months ago , I was certain that I was finished with trying to build vintage sets. I had been through my share and I wasn't getting any younger and it wasn't getting any easier.   That's still where I'm at -- not going to take on any other set big projects, nope, not doing it, not never, not never again.   Still ...   If I was to build a vintage set again, there is one that makes the most sense -- 1968 Topps is right there.   Now, before you get all "but the Nolan Ryan rookie" on me, here is why this set makes sense to build:   -- It's the next set in the line of complete Topps sets in my collection. You can go in either direction for that. The next set on the front end is 1993 Topps, which is far easier but also holds zero interest for me. 1994 is more interesting but not enough to leap over another year. So, the back end is 1968 and finishing that would wrap up 25 complete sets in a row for me.   -- It woul...

  There are a lot of baseball card poses that were common on cards when I was collecting as a youngster that have mostly disappeared from cardboard.   One of them is the pitcher's "hands-over-head" wind-up pose. This pose used to appear on dozens of cards every year but it's been a long time since I've seen it in a current set. Maybe a one-off here and there.   Pitchers mostly have scrapped the long, drawn-out wind-up and did so beginning with the 1970s, or so I'm told. But I just reviewed a small sampling of game footage from the 1970s and here are the pitchers that were using that wind-up in the videos I watched:   Bruce Kison, Jerry Garvin, Steve Baker, Vida Blue, Jerry Koosman, Rudy May, Andy Hassler, Bob Knepper, Don Sutton, Dickie Noles, Jim Bibby, Eddie Solomon, Jim Rooker, Mike Cuellar, Don Robinson.   Here are the ones who weren't:   J.R. Richard, Jim Merritt, Steve Rogers.   So it was still prevalent in the 1970s.   Today it's still used...

   Does it seem like finding the baseball cards you want is like finding a mate these days?   It does for me. Oh sure, I can find cards that I like and add them fairly easily. But the ones I really, really want seem more and more elusive. Is it because everyone else wants them, too? Is it like when everyone wanted to go out with that one girl?   It feels like that.   I've all but given up on the 1975 Kellogg's girl (or the earlier '70s Kellogg's sets for that matter). They're playing way too hard to get. Higher prices and you can't even be sure that the card is going to come without flaws.     I'm still in hot pursuit of 1975 Hostess though. It's gotten more and more challenging. I just landed this Roger Metzger short-print and purchased another SP just today. But there are 10 cards to go after that and most are SPs. Did you know there's some guy selling the Bill Buckner card for $200??? You're not worth that, honey.   I'm trying to guess whi...

  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...

    Growing up is all about figuring out who you are and what you want to be, but also what your interests are, what you enjoy and what speaks to you.   The first 20 years of your life you're constantly changing your interests -- I don't think about it much but I know it happened to me and when my daughter was young and a teenager, I saw it happen to her.   When I was 18 and starting college, I decided I wasn't interested in baseball cards anymore. I was pretty certain of that. I did buy complete sets of 1984 and 1985 Topps (when I was 18 and 19), just because having new baseball cards come to the house was always a thing, even if my interest in going out and buying packs had waned.   That idea of no longer being a card collector continued through almost the entire rest of the '80s, until when I came back to the hobby like gangbusters in 1989.   Because in 1989 I realized that I thought I knew better -- but I really didn't. And it cost me.   In 1984 al...

   Here's part 2 of my ranking of the Topps flagship sets. In this post I am including the sets issued in the last 10 years' time, 11 sets in all.   The more recent sets don't fare very well as you could probably guess. But one gets close to the top 20, and if you know me, you could guess that one, too.   When I ranked the sets the last time there were 64 to rank. Now there are 75. I'm not going through all the rankings again with all the commentary this time. Instead I'll show the recent sets and list where they placed.   Here we go:   75. 2021   There's a new bottom. 1996 is no longer bringing up the rear. 2021 Topps is awful. I know this is the pandemic set and Topps was doing what it could to work with photos with no fans and weird camera angles, but it wasn't the right call. The razor slashes infringe on the photo, like they're poking the player. Worst of all, the names are impossible to read, maybe the smallest in history -- I'd have to compare...