Night Owl Cards

  Twelve days ago I wrote a post about my thoughts on the 2024 Heritage minis after receiving a bunch of the cards from Johnny's Trading Spot. I said that I didn't plan to collect the set. Even though it's a tribute to my most favorite set of all-time, the 1975 Topps mini test set, I didn't feel enthusiasm for it, mostly because trying to collect the main Heritage set was tough enough and I didn't want to repeat the exact same exacting task. Well, sometimes when you have written a popular blog for a long time, you don't get to do what you had planned. Sometimes your reputation precedes you. I am known for loving the 1975 set and the mini set, therefore it follows for many that I should love the 2024 Heritage set and the mini set. Who cares what I wrote!   So two days after that post , I received the following from reader Grant:   A day after receiving that, I received the following from former blogger Greg/grogg:   And the day after THAT, I received the followin

    As a team collector, I don't really do a great job of acquiring the separate team sets that Topps puts out each year. It's a little difficult to stay focused because the team sets often feature mostly the same cards that are in flagship -- out of around 20 cards, maybe three are different. But mostly it's me forgetting, because I do want the team set each year. Jim, from cards as I see them, does a much better job of remembering and each year he has a post in which he compares the Dodgers in Topps flagship to the Dodgers in the team set. He wrote one this year a couple of weeks ago and I made a mental note to add the team set to my collection. I even took the next step of finding it online and adding it to my cart. Over the following days I'd note that it was still in there and think about cashing out but I still hadn't. Good thing because a week ago a box showed up on my porch unannounced. It contained: The 2024 Dodgers team set AND the 2022 Dodgers team set.

  Diversity is a huge deal in the business world and I've been hearing about it virtually my entire career, probably even during college when I was preparing for my career. Diversity, in a different way, is a big factor in the hobby, as it relates to variety, different brands, different styles of cards, etc. When collectors complain about Topps' exclusive license, they're complaining about a lack of diversity. But as far as individual collectors, there are those who have diverse collections and those who keep the parameters limited. I admire those collectors with limits and am also baffled by them. Every time I hear someone say they collect only Topps cards, I feel a swell of admiration for that collector and at the same time I yell, "HOW? You're missing so much!" I can't do that. My collection is diverse. Sure, people could put me in a specific category -- set collector, team collector -- but I like too many card things to stay in the same lane all the ti