Night Owl Cards

Good news kiddies! I've actually packaged up some cards for people! And they're sitting on a desk behind me right this very minute! This means, of course, that I've found enough money for packaging supplies but not enough to actually ship them. I'm hopeful Friday will change that. We shall see. But onto the other good news: we officially have our third inductee into the Cardboard Appreciation Hall of Fame! Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!! (yeah, I know. Too loud for a Monday). As expected, 1971 Vida Blue waltzed peaceably into the Hall with zero challenge from the ghostly '74 Dave Kingman card. The vote totals in the finale: 1. 1971 Topps Vida Blue: 42 votes 2. 1974 Topps Dave Kingman: 15 votes (57 total votes) Well done, Vida. I will add Blue's card to the Hall just as soon as I have a free moment. Thanks everyone for playing and voting. We'll do another round of Hall voting once I go through the proper amount of Cardboard A...

Before I get to the epic championship throwdown, another review of what's going on around here. Actually, it's not much. Sending out packages is on hold for a week or two until I discover money again. But as always while the packages sit tight, the guilt never stops. So here is a list of folks that will get packages someday soon. I haven't forgotten. The Daily Dimwit ARPSmith's Sports Obsession Thorzul Will Rule Starting Nine The Writer's Journey The Card Chop Nachos Grande The Junior Junkie Royals and Randoms Texas Rangers Cards Cards On Cards Let's Play Two Jeff the Angels fan, Matt H., Don S., mr. haverkamp (and probably some other non-blogger I can't remember now) Also, there are the beginnings of packages started for Robert, gcrl, dayf, scott crawford, Roy-Z and others without blogs but involved in email transactions. Probably Twitter, too. Anyway, if I've forgotten someone, let me know in a kind manner. As usual, I will not c...

The last couple of Cardboard Appreciation vote-off posts, I've tried to cover some things that have affected me in the hobby that might not necessarily deserve their own post. But I can't come up with anything this time. I just looked through all of my Allen & Ginter cards -- all two rack packs and a loose pack -- and found nothing. No hits, no blank backs, no different-color printing, no 1/1 cards hidden in the decoys, nothing. Life's pretty dull when your budget for cards is down to "hey, is that a quarter in my pock --- ah, phooey, just a nickle." But I'll try to spice things up by telling you in two weeks we'll have a third entrant into the Cardboard Appreciation Hall Of Fame!!!! Allen & Ginter comes around every year, but there's no guarantee a card gets honored with CAHOF induction every year. It's very possible that rookie Vida up there will be the third inductee. He won pretty handily this past week to become one of th...

I'm full of good news today. First, I'm on vacation. I know you're asking what that means for you. It probably doesn't mean anything, other than I might have a little more time to put together a halfway intelligent post. Or maybe not. You know how life goes these days. But I will be in a better mood when I write these things. Again, I don't know how that benefits you. The second bit of news might benefit you though. I asked UltraPro -- the card page people -- how they were coming with their '75 mini page research. As you know, I'm chiefly interested in pages that fit my 1975 Topps minis. But ever since Topps went on a binge of minis that are approximately that same size, it's rather obvious that somebody needs to make a page to accommodate them. Between the 2012 minis and the '72 style minis this year and a bunch of others, there is a whole lot of floating around in oversized pockets. Well, I think UltraPro got the memo. This was the...

Before I get into the final vote-off that leads into the semifinals in Cardboard Appreciation, the Review 3, I'd like to mention a few baseball/hobby-related goings-on that have happened to me in the last 24 hours. Because everyone's just got to know 'bout little ol' night owl, right? First of all, if you haven't heard about the untimely passing of George "Boomer" Scott, I hate to be the one to break it to you. He died on Sunday at age 69. I have written at least a couple of odes to Scott during the life of this blog. He is, after all, a member of the Bad-ass Club and the man who taught me the importance of the home run . He is at the very center of my first real introduction to the powers of baseball. During that late spring/early summer of 1977, Scott was part of a Red Sox home run bash that was the topic of the sports world. As I mentioned in that earlier post, Sports Illustrated put out a story on Boston's HR binge and it became one of...

Welcome to Night Owl Cards, where a card from the '70s can whoop a card from the '50s any day of the week and six times on Cardboard Appreciation, the Review 3. For the sixth straight week, a 1970s card has been voted the winner of the opening round on this latest vote-off show. And for the second straight week, it's been a card from the often-overlooked 1974 Topps set. Here are the voting totals: 1. Dave Kingman, 1974 Topps, 23 votes 2. Chris VanCuyk, 1952 Topps, 14 votes 3. Erin Andrews, 2012 Allen & Ginter, 5 votes 4. Dave Lopes, 1977 Hostess, 3 votes 5. Sparky Lyle, 1979 Topps, 1 vote 6. Miguel Cabrera, 2011 Heritage All-Star, 1 vote 7. Joe Girardi/Mariano Rivera, Veteran Masters, 2012 Heritage, 1 vote 8. Andre Ethier, 2011 Bowman Platinum green parallel, 0 votes (48 total votes) I think I can safely give an opinion of Kingman's performance (but don't ask Tom Lasorda) and say that he definitely did not strike out. King Kong joins his fello...