Night Owl Cards

  I've been involved in a few of Nachos Grande's group breaks over the last few years. They come in handy for a team collector like me. I'm at the point in my collecting journey where there are more card sets that I don't want to open than I want to open. Way more. Way, way, waaaaaaay more. That's where Chris' group breaks come in. Honestly, his motto should be "Opening Product So You Don't Have To."  So, last week I received my Dodger-card spoils from the most recent group break (or last two recent -- my memory is shot). I'm happy to say that about 40 percent of the cards were needs. That's very good for me. I almost didn't sign up for the most recent break for fear I'd come away with 10 needs and pay for a bunch of dupes. I'm not going to show all the cards. I'll limit it to a top 10, though none of this is in order. And you'll see why I'm glad Chris is opening this stuff and not me.   1. 1998 Pacific Online Bob

  Like many folks, I've enjoyed the good fortune of a few extra funds lately. I've been a good owlie and dedicated almost all of it toward real life requirements and needs. I finally got that new roof so I can end years worth of hand-wringing over squirrels and rain clouds.   But I've also used some to gain some long-sought cards, which you've seen here over the last couple of months. And you'll see some more. I also decided to grab a smattering of cards for trade bait. These are cards that I care nothing about but I know others value quite a bit. They are from that late '80s/early '90s period, and I'm not going to show them because I want to use them for when I think it's the right moment. But probably the most coveted one that I grabbed -- no, it's not the '89 Upper Deck Junior -- is this one: For those of you who ignore cards from this period, that's the 1990 Leaf Frank Thomas card. I have no connection to 1990 Leaf and very little int

Not sure how much I'll be posting here in the next few days. Posting is already sporadic and it's about to get super-radic, if you know what I mean. If you do see regular posting know that I'm exerting myself far beyond what I usually do to get something on here. The only thing there's time for today is opening a pack. No thought, just cards. I had planned to save this for A Pack To Be Named Later , but desperate times, man. Besides, Series 1 and Series 3 of '94 Stadium Club have already been opened there. I don't want to be too repetitive. This is one of the dollar packs acquired at the card show in Vermont. 1994 Stadium Club is a weird bird. Much like everything in '94, Stadium Club was trying to get younger. Trendy. What the kids like. So it overhauled its three-year look, added some edgy graphics, slapped "extreme" and "premium" on everything, and hoped that kids would buy baseball cards -- in the middle of a baseball strike.

This is not the right card. This card is not elusive. I think I acquired it in a random repack. It's Frank Thomas' rookie card, sure, but you all know the version that everyone sought. This is an image of the card that everyone wanted. No, I don't own it. It's almost impossible to own. This is the no-name variation of Thomas' rookie card. It's also known as one of the "blackless" variation cards in the 1990 set as several cards are missing black ink and all of them were located on a card sheet near Thomas. This thread explains it in more detail. The interesting thing to me about this card is how relevant it is even today. While a number of rookie cards from the junk wax era are still highly respected and coveted, they are readily available, some for mere dimes and nickels. But this Thomas variation rookie card will cost you hundreds of dollars -- if you can find it. That's staying power. Long after the insanity of collectors searchi