Night Owl Cards

  I don't know about you but among the many voices in my head are the ones that say "have you finished this set yet?" "Don't forget to complete that team set!" "Wow, it's a long time since you did anything with that set!" So many voices and out-and-out badgering about card tasks. So the first Sportlots order of the year was about quieting a bunch of those voices -- or at least cutting down on the volume -- by completing as many sets as I could as cheaply as I could. You already read about me finishing the 1986 Traded set . I posted that back on May 27, and there's still one card straggler from that Sportlots order that hasn't arrived. It's always interesting how some cards show up within days and others seem to have a long conversation with themselves over whether they really want to live in my house. When that card arrives, it will complete a team set, too. But let's see the stuff that's actually here. Look it, you guys, 19

I was in Target a couple of days ago, as I often am at this time of year, not to hunt out baseball cards but because this is The Birthday Month in the house. I did step over to the card section, of course, and grab a few 2024 Topps packs. I was actually hoping to pull a particular card, but I didn't. The card is the one above of the Royals' Michael Massey. I thought it would be a nice card on the occasion of my daughter's birthday. Michael Massey turns 26 today. So does my daughter. Massey is the only player to share the exact same birth date as my daughter. I have just one card of Massey but at least it's his rookie card, right? Even though my daughter is not much of a sports fan, she has a connection to baseball that I don't have. There is no MLB player who was born the exact day that I was (only in other sports). And I like that I know this Massey factoid because it keeps me young, even though my daughter being more than halfway through her 20s makes me feel old.

  There is a full cart over at sportlots that is just waiting for me to have time and money. Veteran readers know that this is not a great period for spending cash on cards for me, but the wallet loosens by mid-March.   One of the first things I will do when that time comes is click that ship button. The majority of my sportlots order is set needs and in a couple cases will finish off sets I've been chasing the last few years. Happy, happy, joy, joy!   I've mentioned before that set collecting makes the most sense to me, even in this age of Topps playing head games with the few set collectors who remain. While other kinds of collecting feels a little disjointed or scattered, collecting a set comes with a goal: finish the set. There is a defined end. And I've gotta have goals.   This brings me the most peace in collecting and even if that sportlots order feels like it's stagnating, I'm still working on those sets. Not too long ago I finished a TCDB trade with Mokola

(Greetings. I have no special opening this time, I just got up from a nap. A thing old people do. Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 329th in a series): My latest sportlots order is working its way to my house. It's down to the final few cards. I don't plan to show much of it on the blog, it's mostly upgrades, a few Dodgers needs and a set filler here and there. If I get desperate maybe I'll show something, but that's what this post is for! One of the cards I got was this 1986 Topps Bob Rodgers. I completed the 1986 set long ago, one of the first that I finished with help from bloggers. But it turns out I never actually finished it. It's been laughing at me -- in a binder -- for 14 years. The 1986 set is the first set in my collecting time that I didn't have memorized ... well, same goes for 1984 and 1985 Topps, but I bought those in their entirety, there was no room for slip-ups. But in '86, I ignored everything cards. And so, I picked up the

  Just a quick post tonight, because work is playing its evil tricks. I received an email a few weeks ago from a reader who sometimes comments on this blog as "Pennsylvania Tiger". He said he had some cards for me as a thank you for writing. The cards he mentioned are actually stickers -- the 1981 Fleer Star Stickers set. But they might as well be cards because I will never stick those ever. This set is huge -- it took me a long time to figure that out -- but thanks to some recent work on it, and this particular mailing, I'm down to under 30 needed. Still seems like a lot, but hey, I have some new arrivals to distract me! That's some good fun right there. Not only are all those guys players I grew up following but as I've probably said before, lots of the photos I've never seen -- they're not necessarily the same as the ones in the 1981 Fleer set and I probably should do a comparison post one of these days, maybe when I finish the whole thing. Some of the

    I've received a few small envelopes over the last week or so that have included vintage cards. Couple that with the vintage that caused my jaw to drop a couple of weeks ago, I'm in a vintage frame of mind, more so than usual. So I think I'm going to call this "Vintage Week" and show some vintage throughout the week, ending with what will be one hell of a vintage post on Friday (fingers crossed). Not every card will be vintage in these posts, let's face it, not every card I want is vintage. But each post will include at least one vintage card. First, let's set the parameters of what is considered vintage. This is a question that comes up repeatedly. I instinctively think of vintage as any cards that arrived before I knew what a card was. I can do that because I'm old. There will be none of this "my first cards were 1987 so vintage for me is 1986." That idea, to me, is horrifying. The most recent year for which I didn't know what a base

  Exactly 40 years ago, I lived for a weekly ritual. To this date, it is one of my all-time favorite rituals and one I remember most clearly. I've told the tale before, but I'll add a little more context this time. I moved to a new neighborhood in the summer of 1978. I was fully into baseball card collecting at the time as were my brothers. But we didn't know where cards were sold in our new place. I had to rely on some friends to tell me where I could find them and it took until the following year to perform the ritual. Starting with 1979 Topps and continuing through 1981 Topps, Donruss and Fleer. I would walk the 10 blocks to the generic-named drug store on Washington Avenue, which was the main commercial street in town. I remember when this Subway opened up on the corner. It was a big deal at the time. Subway was brand-new and shiny and so was the store. It's still there, but the shine is long gone. The shine's gone on the town, too. But, anyway, we would turn th