Night Owl Cards

  I mentioned when I completed the 1988 Donruss set that it marked the first time I had completed four major sets from a given year.   I don't see that happening for me ever again. After the '80s, it's difficult for me to find multiple sets I was interested in enough to try to complete them. For example, I've completed 1993 Upper Deck, I wouldn't bother throwing money at any other '93 set outside of a token Topps complete-set buy. (I'd take a gift of a complete '93 Stadium Club or Pinnacle set but I'm not buying them).   So '88 is a milestone, a one-of-a-kind collecting feat. I like that it's '88. That's the year the Dodgers won the World Series; it's the year I graduated from college; it's the first full year of my wife and I going out. It's basically the last great year before adulthood stomped everything to hell.   To mark the feat, I thought I'd take 10 notable players from this time and compare their cards from th

  A guy I work with is a Tigers fan. Every once in awhile, the Tigers' recent history of ineptness or fairly recent Detroit World Series failures will come up and he will end it with a sigh and add "well, we'll always have 1984." I knew the feeling. For me, and all Dodgers fans, it was "well, we'll always have 1988" for quite awhile. During this past World Series, I read more than a couple of L.A. fans' wishes, that if only everyone could stop bringing up 1988 all the time, that if the Dodgers could win the Series, it would end, or at least lessen, the references to '88. And so, it happened. The Dodgers won the 2020 title, and, now, this is me putting 1988 aside with this post. It's time for a new episode of Joy of a Team Set, featuring those 1988 Dodgers. I'm going to do it a little differently this time. I've always wondered how the various card sets that were around at the time covered the '88 Dodgers. I've known that 1988

Stop tapping your foot. I have my reasons. I was out of town during my daughter's college orientation. My dog has arthritis in his back and neck and lets out the most ear-piercing, heart-wrench squeals of pain. I'm juggling about five different tasks at work that each, by themselves, is known for being time-consuming. Baseball cards are still on my mind. But that's as far as those thoughts travel these days. It's 10:45 at night and I'm really too tired to type out words, but it's important to show the cards that people have sent me. Some period of time ago, I received an email from Kyle of Nolan's Dugout reconnecting and letting me know he had some cards off my want list. Back then I had time to reply to emails, and that's why I have some cards now to show. Ah, yes, clearly I am out of practice and need to go back to blogging school if I'm starting out with a 1988 Fleer card. But actually it's the final card I needed to complet

Ever since I decided to try to complete most of the 1980s Fleer baseball sets, I have been swimming in 1980s Fleer. The 1984 Fleer set is complete. The 1981 Fleer set is about a dozen or so cards short. Meanwhile I am still attempting to dig out of huge boxes of cards sent to me by both ARPSmith's Sportscard Obsession and Johnny's Trading Spot that each contain copious amounts of Fleer, mostly '83, '85 and '86 with a little '82 sprinkled in there. That brings me to '88 Fleer. Recently, a reader answered my plea for the last few 1988 Fleer cards that I need by sending me two of them. Thank you very much James. I never like it when players who competed for the Giants -- as both of these guys did -- end up as the final card. However, sadly, I'm still lacking that final card. What might be that final card, you ask? Nolan Ryan? Bo Jackson? Rookies Mark Grace or John Smoltz? No. It's none of those. It's some dude named Jay Aldr

On the previous card show post , I accidentally inserted one of those page breaks into the story. If you didn't click on the "read more" link, you may have missed all the vintage that I showed from the card show. It's fixed now, so check that out if you're interested. Now onto tonight's post. We are a long way from how I collected cards of my team when I was young. As a kid, I'd wait to pull the team card with the checklist on the back, note the 24 or 25 individuals listed for the Dodgers, curse out the one Dodger included on a four-player rookie card, and then get to work. When I was finished -- if I even did finish -- there were 24 or 25 dudes in Dodger uniforms, plus the team photo card, in my complete team collection. But that was a long time ago. With the advent of inserts, team collecting includes a lot more than it once did. No longer restricted to Dodger players or a manager, now sitting in my team binders are cards of stadiums, play