Night Owl Cards

  I have barely acquired any cards this year. Adding the grand total of my three 2022 purchases it comes to around 36 bucks and $16 of that was that stupid 2021 Optic rack pack I bought that I should return because of false advertising that there were actual baseball cards inside.   Money just isn't there right now for cards, which is why I'm grateful for every envelope that comes to my door, from bloggers or just plain readers. I'm lucky in that I seldom have to trade to generate card flow. I do need to do that sometimes, but not often enough where I need to depend on something like TCDB's trading function.   Today I received a whale of a gift mail day -- from four different people. I'll show that off some other time, but right now I have a couple envelopes from two different readers. ... Well, it's actually four envelopes from two different readers. You see, each of them sent an envelope and then after a few days, each of them sent another one!   Am I seeing d...

  For Christmas I received a blaster of Allen & Ginter from my daughter. This may not be the only card present, there is a second Christmas happening this coming week (love those). But the blaster was a pretty big occasion because it's the first time I have opened any A&G all year. Think about how much A&G's stock has fallen with me: Once I participated in Gint-a-Cuffs, in which I bought a whole box of Allen & Ginter, plus a few extra blasters. Every year between 2008-15, you could see me at a Target on an almost a weekly basis looking for, or buying, Ginter. And between 2016-18, I'd make sure to get at least a few blasters and packs. I completed every set between '08 and '14. Now, this product is for special occasions only, right up there on the once-a-year list with snowman cookies and tired leg lamp Facebook posts. Thanks to the unavailability of card product on retail shelves, A&G pivoting toward social media figures and my fading interest in...

I am one of those old baseball fan dudes who appreciates defunct teams. I don't go full crotchety and wear only Kansas City A's jerseys combined with Pilots caps when I go to the ballgame. And I'm not knowledgeable enough to tell you all the Federal League teams and where you can find merchandise for those long-ago squads. But I will like a thoughtful Expos reference or picture and secretly appreciate a fan spotted wearing a Cleveland Naps hat. I am not prone to collect cards of those teams, although I do find myself unwilling to let go of any retro Expos. But not long ago Cards On Cards was giving away surplus cards by team and offered up each team on a first-come, first-serve basis. The Cards On Cards proprietor and I have traded A LOT over the years. Cardinals for Dodgers at least 60, 70 times or more. I'm almost certain that except for a few Cardinals tied up in sets, he has all the Cardinals in my collection. And I assume the same situation exists with his Dodgers...

Today got busy with a couple of writing assignments. I'm finishing off the latest Beckett magazine article (another one should be showing up in mailboxes next month), and I'm starting a story for my job that involved interviewing this afternoon the man on the first baseball card I ever pulled, Tommy John. Brush With Greatness post in the future. Right now I just have time for my 2021 Allen & Ginter team set, which also arrived today.     I ordered the team set again this year because I just don't have the energy to do what it takes to chase team sets pack-by-pack, blaster-by-blaster anymore. Out of all of the sets issued today, the Allen & Ginter set used to be the most fun, the most interesting to pursue by the blaster. You never knew what you were going to get and, of course, minis. Buying blasters and posting about them was about the journey and the discovery. But I'm not the same and neither is A&G. We're both rather boring now. Just buy that team se...