Night Owl Cards

I just don't understand the overall consensus on this year's crop of Topps inserts. As far as I can tell, the Classic Walk-Offs set isn't very well-liked. Meanwhile, I've read praise for some of the "Golden" inserts, which I detest as the most "mail-it-in" group of inserts I've seen since the days when Topps was counting Mickey Mantle home runs. I'm also not all that fascinated by the '87-style minis. To me, the only redeeming insert in 2012 Topps is the Classic Walk-Offs set. I agree that the design of the insert stinks and a card should never be designed for the sake of an autograph or relic unless it is actually going to include an autograph or relic. But aside from that, there is so much more that could have been done with an insert set like this ... besides repeating the same image, I mean. Because the concept is awesome. Famous walk-off home runs throughout history? Baseball? History? Dramatic home runs? You're spe

Today, I'm feeling pretty good about the way things are going. That's not to say everything's cool. Let's just say that I like today and leave it that. I hate being cryptic. But there are just some things not meant for the blog. That's hard for me to accept as I've never been one of those "all-business" card blogs. The emotions of the day seep into everything that I do, and that includes collecting. This blog isn't any more immune to what's going on in life than anything else that's important to me. If things turn out fine, then I'm sure I'll babble about it on here. But in the meantime, I just want to say thanks for all the well-wishes. It means a lot. I wish I could do more for you than this trade post, but that's about all I have time to do. Besides, what kind of post is more thankful than a trade post? Thanksgiving should be a day of trade posts. People giving thanks for cards instead of Aunt Evelyn's green be

My updating on this blog could be intermittent, and my updating on my other blogs non-existent, while I deal with some life issues this week. I don't know how long I'll be dealing with them, but here's hoping it's quick. Meanwhile I could use something lighthearted as a diversion. There's not many sets more lighthearted than 1992 Donruss Triple Play. I paid this set no mind in '92. Not to say I didn't buy any of it. I bought any card that dared show its wrapper in '92. My philosophy about cards then was "purchase it all, complete none of it." Well, the second part wasn't supposed to be part of the motto, but when you try to buy as many sets as they put out in '92 with the money that I made, you're not completing anything. When I bought the cards, I don't think I really looked at them. Nothing from '92 stands out as memorable to me. Maybe Pinnacle. That's it. If I was really looking at cards, I'd notice t

I like to have a story to go with my kid-handled cards. But as the brain cells disappear, I'm finding that not every mutilated card I owned as a child can yield a story. Either I'm too old to remember, or there was just too much going on in that 11-year-old, mile-a-minute life to pin down exactly when Randy Jones grew a crease directly through his clavicle. My best guess is I sat on it. Accidentally, of course. I was probably horrified as I turned and removed it from my posterior. Randy was a back-to-back 20-game winner in 1977, you know. What a terrible fate. This card has haunted me for a long time. Thoroughly creased all-star. No story to go with it. Except that worst-case-Randy-meet-my-ass speculation. Because of The Crease, I haven't even been able to admire his free-flowing Afro or the Padres' mustard-and-chocolate uniform. It's really an iconic card. And then there are those who have asked "WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT CARD?" "I have no

OK, I guess I'll talk about it a little. ... No, not Ryan Braun. Phungo brought up the topic of hero numbers -- you know, 100, 200, 300, etc. Back when I collected as a child, it was common knowledge that Topps would give the stars of the day a card number with a double zero at the end. It was kind of an unwritten rule. We didn't know if every set every year featured a star player at every hero number. We didn't even pay attention to whether that was the case in whatever year's set we were chasing. We just knew that Reggie Jackson and George Brett sure popped up on a lot of cards that said "200" or "600" or "700" on the back. Later, when I was older, I noticed that this wasn't always the case. Sometimes Topps put League Leaders cards at the hero numbers. Sometimes, way back in the '50s, they put league presidents at the hero numbers. And during the '90s, they put players you've never heard of at the hero numbers. York

I was going to do one of those Team MVPs posts tonight, but the next set on the docket is 1993 Upper Deck, and it's going to take at least a weekend to figure out the best card for every team in that set. So, pressed for time -- as usual -- I decided on a spin-off series. Yes, another series that I may or may not complete. This is one that I've had in mind for some time, and something other collectors have done in one form or another over the years. What is the best set of the year? Usually, this is reserved for end-of-the-year posts. But I'm going back in time here. I'm going to figure out which set was the best going back 30 years and then tracking forward. I'm going to do one year at a time -- whenever I feel like it -- so these posts will pop up randomly like every other series that I do. Or if I get bored with it, you'll eventually never see it again. I'm starting with 1981 because that's the first year when there were more than two ma