Things I missed the first time

I don't how many of you go back through your old blog posts. I end up doing it a lot myself, mostly for researching.

Often I wince over what is written. It's not that I don't like the writing. It's mostly related to how ignorant I sound about cards. When I start reading those old posts, it becomes obvious that what this blog is really good at is explaining how little I know about cards.

"I have no idea what this is," "can someone out there clue me in on what this is?", "clueless Night Owl here, don't know what this set is called."

In a world of blogs and tweets in which people talk about how much they know and deride others about how little they know, I'm constantly pointing the finger at myself. I've got to stop that.

But the fact is, there's a lot I don't know about cards, and sometimes I gain knowledge at a later date, and don't go back to the original post and comment or update with the new information. I need to start doing that.

For example, the card above that I received just a few weeks ago, I brushed off as "a recent tribute set by Topps." I knew nothing more than that. But then along came this post at APTBNL to inform me. This card apparently is from some set called Flashback Fridays, issued by Topps in 2007.

That was the year before I started this blog, and all kinds of sets slipped through the cracks then. But finally I know why the card numbers on the back of these cards have "FF" in front of them.

Cross another mystery set off the list, clueless Night Owl.

Here's another one:

This card, from 2003 Topps Heritage, features a very cool black background on a 1954 Topps design. I mentioned how cool it was in the post I wrote.

But somewhere along the line, it dawned on me that I already had a 2003 Topps Heritage Kaz Ishii card. And it looks like this:

I never knew that there were short-printed black background cards for select cards in the 2003 Heritage set. That seems exceedingly cruel of Topps to do. And now I've got to worry about what other '03 Heritage Dodgers might have black backgrounds.

Night Owl is a little less clueless, but a lot crankier.

OK, here's another one that I'm not sure I have figured out.

I received this card recently and immediately said "Ho HO, I know this card. It's from the 1983 Authentic Sports Autographs series." ASA issued 12 cards each of 11 Hall of Famers. There was also an autographed version for each player as the title card was autographed.

I also knew that the cards came in red or green borders.

What I didn't know was that each card comes in red AND green borders. At least according to the two different versions of this particular No. 8 Snider card I now have.

Those are the backs for each. Very Christmasy. But you're telling me the 12-card set just jumped to a 24-card set?

I still don't know if I have a handle on this one, but I don't like the way this is going.

I'm sure someone now is saying, "That's the joy of collecting. Making these little discoveries and chasing them down."

Yeah, right.

My folks know a guy who enjoys tinkering with computers. He practically leaps in elation when a computer malfunctions, because trying to solve the problem is "the fun of computers."

Obviously, my parents don't think like that.

Neither do I.

But obviously that's the world I've gotten myself into here.

A collector's job is never done. Unless you want to stay clueless.