Night Owl Cards

When I first started collecting, there was one set to collect each year and that was it. When I first returned to collecting, there was one set to collect and that was it, too, because that's what I knew. I returned to the hobby by attempting to complete the first card set of my youth, the 1975 Topps set. I had no interest in any other cards (nor really the knowledge of what was out there). I was focused. Slowly, that focus faded and I collected more and varied cards. Then I started a blog, and that blew the doors down. I tried to remain steadfast to a few key missions: whatever '70s or '80s set I was trying to complete and Dodgers. But as the years passed, more and more interesting cards arrived. The collection expanded. Let's face it: I've been doing this a long time, and knowledge can be a dangerous thing when it comes to wanting cards. So it is that we come to my latest COMC order. It's the annual order I place before the Christmas season hits, befo

This is the post that I teased to last week when I wrote those back-to-back posts on Fan Favorites. Out of the three Topps All-Time Fan Favorites sets issued between 2003-05, which set was the best? For me, "best" means that the cards themselves properly reflected the player, the team and the design. That's because it's very apparent that Fan Favorites' attempt was to show each player with a team for which they were popular, a "favorite". It also tried to pick a year, meaning the Topps design it chose, in which the player did particularly well or was noted in some other way (it was their rookie year, for example). It's the reason why I love the set so much ... that, and all of the new photos that were used. I don't know how you determine accurately which set is the best by looking at every single card in each set. That sounds exhausting. So, what I did instead, is figured out which individuals received a card in 2003, 2004 and 2005. And th