Night Owl Cards

  I made it to the monthly show across town today. It was the first time I was able to get there since January, having missed the last two because of poorly-timed weather.   This is good because the big Syracuse show is in a week and I'm probably not going to be there due to the lack of a vehicle.     The monthly show is definitely not the Syracuse show. I was reminded again by the ever-pervasive fantasy card tables that you can ignore at the Syracuse show because there is so much regular card show goodness. Today's show featured two tables that got my money. There were probably four tables total that offered the cards that interest me -- i.e. sports cards not encased in plastic.   But all things considered in the hobby (*waves hands at everything*), I'll take it.   This show will not be long for my world if one particular dealer decides it's not worth it (two of his seller buddies who used to accompany him at the monthly show have ditched it for Syrac...

  What might that be? The Dodgers' second straight World Series title? The Bills' win over the infernal Patriots last weekend? Finally killing off the yellowjacket infestation underneath the siding in August?   Nah.   My biggest win of the year was landing the prize in the vintage giveaway over at The Diamond King a couple of weeks ago. In keeping with the season, DK has been giving away a bunch of cards from his collection. I waited out the numbered and prospect lots and I was rewarded. Vintage! Sweet, sweet vintage.   As a veteran vintage collector, I saw cards in the lot that I already owned, but that didn't stop me from entering because there were several cards I didn't own, including cards on freshly made want lists! Plus, I could always do a giveaway myself with the extras.   There was so much variety in this group that it took me awhile to figure out how to present it here. I'm still not sure that this won't turn out to be rambling without any direction...

  About three weeks ago, Johnny's Trading Spot held a giveaway for his readers, randomizing off 350-plus cards from one of his many, many, many finds.   Most of the cards were of the magazine variety from Baseball Cards Magazine and the like from the late 1980s and early 1990s. I'm very familiar with those, having come across them back in the day and also through adding the Dodgers to my collection.   They are pretty cool though nothing I look to collect (except the ones modeled on the 1975 Topps design). When Johnny displayed what was up for the giveaway, my eyes instead gravitated toward a nine-pocket page that contained a certain oddball from the 1960s.   I didn't think more of it, the chances of getting that page wasn't great, there were 30 different pages offered up!    Well, lo and behold, I ended up landing page #18, the majority of which were 1968 Game cards.     I don't know how but I gamed the system!   Outside of the one Dodger in...