The perils of being a veteran baseball card blogger

First off, there aren't a lot of perils.

But I'll list a few here, most of which I've already covered.

1. You're not the new kid on the block. Readers know your deal. There are no tricks. Whatever is the latest and greatest, you're not doing that.

2. You're established, and people like to take pot-shots at the establishment. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. I usually consider the source.

3. The gnawing, nagging feeling that you've covered the topic before. Sometimes it's not a "feeling," it's a "knowing." While in the act of writing something, I am thinking, "I've done all of this before." You've just got to hope someone's reading your blog for the first time.

4. You have a lot of cards. Therefore, you get a lot of dupes. And sometimes it's obscure dupes, too.

For instance, I received a healthy stack of cards from Mike at Not Another Baseball Card Blog. Since Mike resides in Canada, a number of the cards were O-Pee-Chees. Prior to starting this blog, I owned maybe 10 OPC cards. But I own many more than that now, and so -- in a staggering development for pre-Night Owl Cards night owl -- just under 10 OPC cards were dupes.

O-Pee-Chee dupes. I still can't wrap my brain around it.

Fortunately, there were plenty of needs among the OPC, too. Here they are:

C'est bon!

I especially like the '83 Fernando. That's a Canadian card of a Mexican pitching in the U.S. (San Francisco, I believe). This card does a lot for North American relations.

There were a few other non-OPCs, too.

This card was never on my radar because it's listed as an Oakland A's card. I like it a lot because it's the closest thing to a card telling you on the front that the Dodgers got rid of Maniac Milton and received Andre Ethier in return.

I will never understand these stitched patch things. I'm tempted to take one of them apart to see what's inside.

I also don't have use for any buybacks that are not 1975 Topps buybacks. What do I do with this as someone who has completed the '74 set?

Ah, I believe these last four cards came from Thorzul in one of his "Pull The Trigger" posts.

I will dedicate these to the upgrading quest for my '72 Topps set. That Foster in particular looks spiffy.

Thorzul, by the way, is one of those bloggers who was around when I first started, and is still doing his thing. Others who have me beat and are still regulars or semi-regulars include Autographed Cards, bdj610's Topps Baseball Card Blog, Capewood's Collections, Card Buzz, Cardboard Junkie, Cards On Cards, Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius (started 2 days before NOC!), I Am Joe Collector (started 11 days before NOC), Japanese Baseball Cards, Nachos Grande, Number 5 Type Collection, Orioles Card "O" the Day, Phungo, Sports Cards Uncensored, Texas Rangers Cards, The Baseball Card Blog, The Fleer Sticker Project, The Topps Archives (started the day before NOC!), The Writer's Journey, Tribe Cards and White Sox Cards.

They are proof that blogging never died and you can still stick with something you love for seven-plus years.

Also, I was just alerted to the revival of another blog that was around when I first started, Old School Breaks. John has himself a box-breaking partner now, so check it out, especially if you like '90s cards.

Check out the other ones I mentioned, too. There are some in there that inspired Night Owl Cards. There's something to be said for being a blogging veteran. Even if it means more dupes than you've ever seen in your life.