Night Owl Cards

   Car problems again, guys. Same car, too. This is the third time I've had my vehicle in the shop this year and the timing, while never good, sucks for the hobby side of things.   This weekend I was facing the exhausting-but-fun prospect of card shows on back-to-back days. But now the Sunday show is out because I don't have a vehicle to drive that distance. That leaves the local show, which I appreciate -- especially in times like this -- but it's not as good, not nearly.   To illustrate, I have some cards that I received from Jeff of Cardboard Catastrophes . I can safely say that I will find none of these cards at the show a couple miles away this weekend. In fact, all of these are from my want lists -- my blog want lists, which may or may not be accurate as we will soon see.         First, three 1970 Kellogg's cards. All three of these were needs, well, still are needs. The cracks mean they stay on the want list. I was going to compare this Bil...

   Among the large cities in Upstate New York, Syracuse is the one that I drive through the most. But it's not a destination city like Buffalo or Albany. It's a place where I brave the traffic on the way to somewhere else.   The only two exceptions are to watch minor league baseball or go to a card show. It's the closest large city to me so it does have its perks. But I don't know it very well. So when I realized there was a show coming up and that it was corresponding with a major highway renovation project in central Syracuse, I was concerned.   The normal route to the show at the fairgrounds would take me directly into detours, one-lane traffic and potential gridlock and confusion. I had to find an alternate route, in a city I don't know. Through years of self-navigation, in cities much larger than this, I've never relied on GPS. I thought this might be the time I'd need it. I activated it but never turned it on. In fact, I think I might have found a new ...

  I went to the big card show at the state fairgrounds for the first time in almost a year yesterday.   Since I had completed 1970 Topps about a month ago, I didn't have a specific major quest for this show. But I knew there would be a lot available so I made some vague goals:   1. Finish the 2024 Topps flagship set 2. Focus on the Fleer Laughlin World Series cards 3. Upgrade a handful of 1970 Topps cards 4. Find some 9-pocket pages and maybe a binder 5. Find some more oddballs   Here is the progress report after going to the show:   1. Finish the 2024 Topps flagship set ✓ 2. Focus on the Fleer Laughlin World Series cards 3. Upgrade a handful of 1970 Topps cards 4. Find some 9-pocket pages and maybe a binder ✓ 5. Find some more oddballs   Pretty happy with that, although that's just 40 percent success. The only reason I put down pages/binder as a goal is because I knew I didn't have any real expensive goals and maybe I could fit that in. But of course I l...

  For about 90 percent of the life of this blog, I've known around 2-3 card shows a year. Each of those shows were at least an hour away, so I've equated card shows for the past 15 years with excursions. Better make it a day, because it's going to be awhile! Because of this the "monthly card show in town" sounded so nice. I wondered what that was like. I'd be envious of bloggers who "just got back from the monthly card show." -- the monthly card show, because it had been there for awhile, maybe it's always been there. Must be nice.   I remember what I'd think reading those posts about monthly shows. "If I had a monthly show, I'd be there every month, what a wonderful world."   So in the last year or so, my town has set up its own monthly card show. I've written about it. But 2008-22 night owl would be very disappointed. I haven't kept up with the schedule very well. And I actually skipped a show last month, something th...

  A couple weeks ago I received an unexpected package from Bob of the best bubble . He sent several packages around to a select few and, even after all these years of doing this and getting just-because packages, I felt honored. You know what Sally Field said. ... Well, maybe you don't, because her Oscar acceptance speech is misquoted all the time. What she said was "I can't deny the fact that you like me. Right now, you like me." I saw that speech live back in 1984 when I did things like watch the Oscars, and it struck me as goofy and needy as hell. But I just watched it back now and mostly I was impressed with how well-spoken she was. Not even a stutter, or missed word. It's pretty amazing.   Bob sent the above picture of Field. I'm guessing it's from her Gidget days (Before my time, I didn't discover Field until "Smokey and the Bandit"). I'm not sure why I received it, other than she's a cutie pie. But it did cause me to remember t...