Night Owl Cards

Every year I act like everyone's curious whether I received any cards for Christmas or not. And every year it seems like the success of Christmas hinges on whether I receive any cards. But that's exactly what it is: just an act. When your kid goes away to college and your folks pass on, Christmas gets real. Prioritizing gifts -- although I still do it instinctively in my head -- is way down the list of the best parts of the holiday. I'm just happy I have people to celebrate it with this year. So, yeah, that means nobody left me any cards under the tree. That doesn't mean I won't get any for the holiday. There are still gifts coming and my sister-in-law is involved so the potential for cards is always there. Plus, I get plenty of card gifts from collectors around the country. I certainly don't need anything extra from the family. You know how better at card-buying collectors are anyway. They buy them with the holiday in mind, too. See? T...

I woke up late Saturday morning to discover that Topps had joined the usual suspects in spamming my inbox. There, among the advertisements for walk-in tubs, weight-loss supplements and teeth-whiteners that had escaped the spam filter, was a breathless Topps message stating that cards were available of Vlad Guerrero Jr. only for the next 24 hours! I had somehow managed to avoid most Topps Now advertising so I don't know why suddenly I was receiving these emails. Another one arrived earlier today. There were only 3 hours left! At the exact moment that the second email arrived, I was online checking out the prices on my needs for the 1976 Kellogg's 3-D set. I can't think of two kinds of cards that are farther apart on the card spectrum. An underpriced oddball from the '70s that you could find in your cereal box or an overpriced slicked-up online exclusive, get it now or it's GONE FOREVER (not really) . Topps had become as useless to me as the spam...

I'm having more and more trouble finding words to say about current players -- not current cards, mind you -- but, definitely current players. That's a problem when buying modern cards and then attempting to write about them. The designs and photo presentation and info on the back can take you only so far. Sooner or later you're going to have to talk about the player and ... (*sigh*) can't I talk about someone from the '80s instead? So, if you haven't noticed, this tradition of buying packs of the latest cards is slowly disappearing on this blog. Soon, you will see new cards from me only when flagship, Heritage and Allen & Ginter show up. But, habit is habit and I was in the red big box store yesterday running errands and I scooped up one of the 2019 Opening Day packs. The contents were awful. First cards out of the pack: Giant, Diamondback, Angel I've never heard of. There was nothing -- I mean nothing -- that I could even say about the pack. ...