Night Owl Cards

  A week or two ago I received another selection of Dodgers from reader Bill.   You might remember -- although you probably don't, after all I am the one who received the cards -- that he sent a bunch to me in the summer of 2020, which I wrote about here .  Like the last time, there was an oh, so, sweet, modest selection of cards that I needed:   And a whole lot more that I did not need:   If I'm putting numbers on this, I needed 78 of the cards, which is pretty close to the total when Bill sent the last pile. But that left more than 700 that I did not need.   I will take that percentage any day, I am so happy to greet almost 80 Dodgers cards into my collection that I did not have prior.   But I desperately, desperately need people to take my extras off my hands.   This doesn't have to do with running out of room or some sort of downsizing mission or anything like that. Sure, I probably should downsize and I have those thoughts, but mostly the overriding thought is: there h

  On Thanksgiving break, in 1986, I came home from college with four albums that I had just purchased. I was buying cassettes at the time -- they were easier to store and transport as a college student -- and only one of the tapes was a new release, "Get Close," by The Pretenders. In an example of how long new music lasted in people's consciousness compared with what is released today, the other three cassettes had been released nearly a year prior, more than a year prior and three years prior.   Those other three were "The Hurting," by Tears For Fears, "Promise," by Sadé and "Hounds Of Love" by Kate Bush.   The Pretenders, I knew, having purchased LPs of theirs while still living at home. I also bought Sade's "Diamond Life" and Tears For Fears' "Songs From The Big Chair" while at home, too, the year before, the year each were released, both big sellers, propelled by videos on MTV.   Kate Bush, I didn't know. A

(Greetings on "Red Planet Day," which commemorates the day when Mariner 4 was launched in 1964 to become the first spacecraft to fly past Mars. This seems like the perfect day for me to order my very first "Mars Attacks" card -- although I see they aren't cheap. My nonsports collection is quite paltry when it comes to the '60s. For more on '60s cards, read on for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 309th in a series): As someone who has collected for decades now, I find myself re-evaluating my opinion of specific sets. I am a set-collector first, so the look of a set, rather than who is in the checklist, is most important to me. And because of that, I have my favorites and my non-favorites and you've seen all of my opinions on that through ranking series and all kinds of other posts. I gots my opinions, don't I? For sets that came out during my first years of collecting and all the way through my early 20s, there is no chance I will change my opi

I'm a pretty advanced collector, I would say, but I just can't get out from underneath the junk wax era. It's been 30 years since then and I'm still coming across junk wax cards that I need. This is from the 18-card Upper Deck Silver Sluggers set issued in 1991. TCDB says this set was issued one card per jumbo pack. I assume that means you could find them only in hobby shops? As a mere retail collector in '91, I had no idea what a jumbo pack was. But now, thanks to reader Mike, who sent along a nice selection of needs, I have completed the Dodgers portion of the Silver Sluggers set, a two whole cards, 30 years after it was issued during a period known for how abundant cards were ... and still are. But some were sneakily elusive. I looked quickly through my wants from this time period to see what else I need from years of easily attainable cards. This is a brief rundown of brands that are not complete in my collection as far as Dodgers: Classic, Dodgers Police Set (&