Night Owl Cards

  Although I track milestones on this blog because it's a great way to see where I've been and where I am in the hobby, I don't think about my accomplishments in life very often. As a writer, though, I naturally look inward, so it's not difficult to come up with some on the spot. Some of my biggest are: establishing a career goal in college and making it work for me for 30-plus years, creating a family and raising a smart, well-adjusted go-getter kid, being a home-owner for close to 30 years, winning awards for my writing in my job and reaching a goal I had as a teenager -- writing in a national magazine. And here's another one: completing multiple sports card sets. Ha, ha, you say, that doesn't seem to fit with the ones above. But I say it does, very well. I am almost as proud -- really and truly -- of many of my finished sets as I am of the things above. This set-building ain't easy. I've heard more than one collector say that set-builders are a differ

  It's tradition around here at this time to select the best Dodgers card from the year's Topps flagship. I've done this post every year on the blog since 2017, although I skipped it in 2018 for an unknown reason. (Probably the prep work was too long). And it's rooted in me selecting my favorite Dodger card way back in the late 1970s and then continuing it each year. It's now time for the 2024 selection, and like last year -- and probably the last few years -- the candidates aren't too exciting, because Topps has to crop out everything exciting. I don't know the exact reasons, but I'm betting they're modern-and-stupid. So once again we have a lot of batters batting and pitchers pitching mixed in with a few yellers yelling but virtually nothing on the periphery or in the background. Here is my selection of finalists: Can you feel the excitement?! This year's design is so good that the lack of interesting photos doesn't bother me too much.  Un

  There was an interesting post on Diamond Jesters a week or so ago in which an all-star squad was assembled from junk-wax era players using junk-wax era cards. This all-star team was unique in one distinct way: none of the players ever played in an All-Star Game.   I was intrigued yet repelled at the same time. I don't need to see those junk wax cards ever again! Social media has been celebrating the junk wax era for as long as I have been blogging and, well, I didn't grow up during that time either.   I wanted to do this sort of team from my childhood collecting era, which is approximately 1975-85. This era does not have a catchy like "junk wax era." I guess I should be grateful for that, but I'm not sure what to call this team -- "Post-Vintage No Stars"? "Some-Vintage-And-Some-Not No Stars"?   I'll just call it "my era" because it's my blog. I'll know what I'm talking about anyway.   'My Era' No Stars Team