Here's to making discoveries among the old and familiar

My favorite thing to do right now is discover music that is new to me.

Last night, I came across the Steely Dan song "Showbiz Kids" for the first time in my life.

This is a bit embarrassing to admit because I grew up listening to Steely Dan on the radio. I know all of their hits. I know some of their less-familiar songs. I have the track list of "Aja" memorized.

But I'm not a Steely Dan super-fan, which means I don't own many of their albums and also that allows me to make cool discoveries like "Showbiz Kids" nearly 50 years after it came out. Discoveries among the old and familiar are the best.

That goes for cards, too.

Sometimes.

I have known that there are "variations" for 1991 Donruss cards for quite awhile, probably even before I started reading card blogs and getting involved in the online hobby community.

I was always able to ignore these "differences." It seemed a bit ridiculous to be chasing different border patterns, especially on a set like '91 Donruss, which I didn't like anyway.

"Variations that aren't really variations" haven't meant much to me. I don't think I'll ever collect "glow backs" in 1991 Topps -- or at least I hope I don't get to that point, and there are other similar examples, most having to do with ticky-tack typos on the back and such.

But something happened when I received a card package from Marc a couple of months ago. I didn't show it at the time, but he sent me an entire team set of 1991 Donruss Dodgers. He called it a "1991 Donruss Hobby Factory Set" and said in a note that I may "scoff" at such a thing.

I think I might have actually scoffed. Or maybe it was a sneer or snigger. But his note triggered something else in me. Suddenly I wondered whether I had the variation border for each of the Dodgers in that set. Suddenly I wanted to make that discovery.

I started comparing the '91 Donruss Dodgers that Marc gave me to the ones in my binder.

Sure enough, I found border differences with most of the cards. And with each card I'd set aside the variation and move on to the next card.

Border differences on the Hershiser card.

Border differences on the Scioscia card.

Border differences on the Strawberry card.

These variations had become important to me after all these years. I was noticing them. I was noticing them for the first time even though I had known about them for years and I had known about 1991 Donruss for decades.

I had never wanted to know about these variations before -- what? I have to chase more cards? -- but now I couldn't help it. I have Marc and the blog community to blame for that, I guess.

But it was nice trying to track down "new cards" among my old cards. I even went into my giant box of Dodger dupes, which is full of 1991 Donruss and found variations for every card in the team set except for the two highlights cards (Eddie Murray and Fernando Valenzuela). Since those two cards are actually inserts I don't know if there are border differences.

It was nice to find a "purpose" for those dupes.

This, in part, is why I don't get as stuck on new cards as many collectors do.

Sure new cards are cool and they're different and they're stuff you've never seen before. Opening new packs will always be a thrill for me.

But I own cards from every year, starting this year and going back to the 1940s. And I've got cards from years earlier than that.

And you know what?

I keep discovering stuff about them that I never knew before.

So when you see one of those Showbiz Kids, making movies of themselves, opening 2020 Bowman on youtube and drooling over the latest prospect that I've probably never heard of before, just know that there are discoveries in old stuff, too.

And that's a great thing. Because, damn, 2020 Bowman looks like garbage. Talk about "lost wages".