Night Owl Cards

  I realized only a couple of days ago that Topps had released its Archives brand.   I don't know how anybody keeps track. Archives' arrival has come a week, maybe two, after Allen & Ginter arrived. And that came shortly after Topps Holiday debuted, which seemed to be released practically on top of Topps Update.   All of this showed up after months of virtually no new releases at all -- or none that your average plebe collector (that's me!) would notice.   This does not seem very consumer-friendly. I can't focus on four new products bunched up near the holidays when my money is tied up in finding gifts for others. But I'm sure Topps/Fanatics doesn't care. This release schedule is probably the best way to "maximize profits," which seems to be the only objective in business these days.   So, no, I haven't had any time to buy any Archives. Nor any Allen & Ginter. I decided to pass on Holiday and I took care of Update with one purchase of the D...

(Greetings on National App day. I can recall the carefree days when I didn't know what an app was. Now I am wondering if there is a National Delete Your App day. I would like to celebrate that. Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 360th in a series):   It came. My one card to recognize and remember the Dodgers' World Series title in 2025.   Sure, there will likely be a Heritage card or two to remember it next year (1977 Topps had three World Series cards). But this is it for something immediate. Topps isn't producing any blaster with a commemorative set anymore, and I refuse to throw cash at any of the other Topps Now cards.   I was prepared for this after last year. I looked and looked for a nice World Series set to remember the 2024 Series victory but just ended up being horrified by the price of the online-only set of 15 ugly cards.   I decided one card would do and I got something appropriate.   I think I like this way of approaching it. It saves me ...

I claimed some cards from Baseball Cards Come To Life! awhile ago when he offered up most of the 1985 Topps Wendy's/Coca-Cola Tigers set.   I'm one Barbaro Garbey card away from the complete set, hopefully I can afford to add that this week. You know how demanding the Christmas shopping gets around this time.   This is a set I was only slightly aware of but it's got a lot of things going for it. First, it doesn't have just one sponsor but two and displays both sponsor logos on the cards! Second, it recognizes a specific team, the 1984 World Series champion Tigers. Third, it includes just about every player from that roster. It's a 22-card set. None of this present-day pretending that a team has 8 players and 2 of them retired 70 years ago.   For me, the set automatically slots into my top 10 food issues from the 1980s. As far as food sets go, the decade doesn't get a ton of thought from me because I was so obsessed as a kid with 1970s Kellogg's and Hostess....

  I've been going to the card shows at the New York State Fairgrounds since before I started this blog. My guess on the year I first went is possibly 2007, maybe 2006. I wasn't seriously back into the hobby until then.   For many of the years that I attended, the shows were in the Horticultural Building, which I think is the biggest building at the fairgrounds (I only go to the fairgrounds for card shows, have never been to the state fair).   That building can fill a whole bunch of tables and it feels like home to me. But for a number of years now -- I'd say a good decade, it's been in the smaller Science & Industry Building -- which is around the corner. I sound like I know what I'm talking about here, but I don't have a good handle on the names of these buildings, as Angus of Dawg Day Cards found out Saturday when we drove to the show.   We got an earlier start than we usually do. The show was closing an hour earlier, at 3 p.m., because the building was h...