Night Owl Cards

The 10th anniversary giveaway has come to a close. But first I need to get rid of this 2010 Topps short-print of Cy Young. It's the last prize left and an interesting if I can say so myself. I mean look at those stats! And those teams ? The Spiders? The Perfectos? The AmeriCAINS?? (What the hell, Topps, it's supposed to be the Boston Americans ). This card is destined for Sport Card Collectors, if he wants it. He just has to let me know by 8 p.m. EST Monday. Otherwise it goes to Bru. Or Fuji after that. I will be sending out prize packages hopefully starting the end of this week. I can't send them all out at once. I don't have the time nor the money. Fortunately, Commish Bob of the Five-Tool Collector helped in the money department by donated nearly two-dozen stamps to the cause! Thank you very much! That is a big assist. Especially for someone who is paying for a kid in college. So I'll start sending out prize envelopes, starting with the first p...

(The 10th anniversary giveaway is essentially at its end. We're down to the 2010 Topps short-print Cy Young card and the 2017 Topps short-print Jackie Robinson card as prizes. The next selection goes to mr haverkamp. The card he doesn't choose will go to Sport Card Collectors. If either or both declines to pick, the choice then goes to Bru and after that, Fuji. I probably won't string it along forever though, so somebody claim those cards! It's time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 276th in series): Those of you who started collecting as kids probably remember the year you started and the first set you ever pulled out of packs. Those sets are near-and-dear to your hearts. I know they are to mine. You can't convince me that the 1975 Topps set wasn't the greatest set ever created. But for those same kids there were other cards, older cards, that floated in and out of your collection. Maybe they were cards of an older brother or sister. Maybe the ki...

I'm hoping that this is the last post in the 10th Anniversary Giveaway, although I'm probably going to need at least one more. I've enjoyed throwing the giveaway, but it hijacks the blog and limits what you can do. For example, I am soooooo far behind in acknowledging recent packages I've received. I can't be one of those bloggers who just ignores cards arriving freely at the homestead, so this giveaway is making me a bit jumpy. One package of cards that I absolutely must jam into this giveaway is the big box of cards from Johnny's Trading Spot that I've mentioned in several posts. I'm still not done with that because I haven't shown all the Dodgers that I needed from that package. And I haven't shown this night card from the package either. Remember when the Rockies played in Miller High Stadium? Yeah, I forgot about that, too. I didn't even know that the stadium was demolished a full 16 years ago. But the Rockies are easy to forge...

I freaked out a bit prematurely last week. My local Target did not do away with cards as I had feared when I saw that the aisle on the far end of the registers had been transformed into gift card heaven (by the way, the previous gift card station near the greeting cards is still there, which leads me to believe this is a temporary set-up). No, I followed my online friends' advice and traveled to the back of the store near the electronics section. To the right of electronics sits books and CDs and other obsolete ways of consuming media. Directly behind those shelves are Funkos and Disney stuff and what appears to be a now-smaller section of cards. It reminds me a bit of my local Walmart set-up. The picture above includes most of what was displayed in the card section. There are a couple more boxes off camera to the left. One thing I noticed right away is many of the loosies are up very high, definitely out of reach of pint-sized collectors. I can't help but think there...

It's 2:40 in the afternoon, it feels like 7 in the morning and the job says I have a lot of work to do tonight. These are the days I wish I drank coffee. Or anything caffeinated. I watched all of Game 3 last night. As a Dodger fan and a night owl with a reputation, it was my duty. But I'd do it all over again because it was phenomenal. Last year's postseason seemed gut-wrenching and also left a bit of a nasty taste in my mouth. This year's postseason is still gut-wrenching, but I'm enjoying it more. Last night's 18-inning game (I saw all but the first inning) was storybook baseball at its best. Perhaps it wasn't the greatest-played game, but it featured all the elements you need: home runs; game-winning home runs; players thrown out at the plate; TOOTBLANs, an exquisite pitching performance by a youngster who was taken out one inning too soon; bizarre, tumbling plays; Little League squibs; an ex-Dodger throwing 100 pitches in relief for the Red Sox ...

I have more than 30 different Walker Buehler cards. That's a lot for someone who hadn't pitched a game in the major leagues before 2017 and had appeared in just eight games before 2018. In fact, 30 cards is more than what I have for some notable players of the 1970s, cherished and well-known stars with established careers. But that's just the way it is in modern card collecting. I was informed earlier today that Buehler has been in each edition of Topps' Throwback Thursday online issues for the last five weeks!! Rookies get all the love, all the overkill, whether some of us collectors are interested or not. Here is how stupid it gets for rookies (and modern cards in general): These two pink parallels of Buehler were sent to me by madding at Cards on Cards , along with the regular Panini Optic Buehler card. The two pink parallels are not only parallels, but they are variations of each other. How do I know that when each card appears to be exactly the same...