Night Owl Cards

Nick from Dime Boxes sent me some cards a few days ago. He always seems to have one of those Topps Scratch-Offs to throw into the pile. I like these oddballs, particularly since I'm starting to collect the 1970 Topps set (EDIT: This is a '71 Scratch-Off). And when you open one up and find this ... ... it's a bonus. Yes, I'm one of those finicky collectors who likes my cards unscratched. You take what you can get when it comes to scratch-offs, because the urge is STRONG and also because many scratch-offs appeared back in the vintage days (think the 1964 Topps cartoons) when absolutely no one on the planet could resist scratching. So I like that my 1970 1971 Tony Perez scratch-off is unscratched. I also like this: These are 48 scratch-offs from the 1981 Topps Scratch-Off set (or multiplied by three it is 144 scratch-offs). Nick came into a surplus of these and I happily volunteered to take them. I've never seen so many of the '81 Scratch-Off...

A few days ago, I read at Dodgers Blue Heaven that Panini was releasing its Cooperstown series again this year, and that each base card had three different versions. One card number, three photo variations. I shook my head at Panini, which I still have difficulty considering a legitimate baseball card company, pulling something that many take Topps to the woodshed over year after year. But I realized I was reading this at the same time I was unearthing card variations from sets that are decades old, which arrived long before what we consider as the era of variations/parallels. For instance, the above card from the 1983 Authentic Sports Autographs series. The series featured 12-card sets of 11 different Hall of Fame players. Each set also had a separate version in which the first card was autographed. Oh, and you can also find the cards with red or green borders. Which explains this: Each of these are card No. 10: Then, not long after I came across that, I came a...

A number of times, bloggers or traders have confused me for a left coaster. They know I'm a Dodger fan and automatically assume I live in Southern California. Of course, I don't. I live far, far away from sun and warmth (but it's 81 degrees as I write this). I'm actually on the east coast and have been all my life. I don't necessarily subscribe to the belief that just because you live close to a team, that it must be your favorite. In some cases that makes sense, in other cases, it's just not thinking for yourself. But it's true, there are A LOT of Dodger fans 3,000 miles away from me. And unless I want to keep suffering, listening to Michael Kay and pretending to like it, I better connect with them. And I have. Thanks to them, I actually have some Dodger items that can only be found or obtained in the greater Los Angeles area. And there is nothing more fantastic than that. Recently, steelehere bestowed upon me a package full of Dodger memorabili...