Night Owl Cards

Here is a difference between movie fans and card collecting fans. When I say "purge," movie fans think of this: Creepy masks and anarchy fantasies. No thanks. But card collectors -- at least this one -- think of this: This is what came out of the 18-pound box from Dave that I showed yesterday. Isn't that a happier sight than costumed clowns coming at you with machine guns? About a year ago, I was the happy recipient of a purge, meaning someone was downsizing their collection. It led to a contest and the long-overdue completion of my 1987 Topps set and a totally unnecessary number of 1992 Upper Deck Eric Karros cards . So this, I guess, is my second annual showing of a purge. This is not a test. The first thing you should know is that the two binders made up the bulk of the heft of the package. And I'm quite pleased about this. I don't really need 18 pounds worth of more cards. What I could use are some cards that fit my collection and some bi...

Much better. No more "Rip Master" at the top of this blog. That's what I like about these cards. Looking at them is like taking a bath and washing all the 1-of-1 muck and cut-auto gunk right off you. No hyperventilating talk about how the card you just pulled features a jersey and a bat and a base and a stadium seat and a plastic nacho holder from your favorite stadium. Just a photo of old-time Dodger reliever Hugh Casey in the ballpark grass. This is another TCMA set, much like the beautiful blue cards I featured a couple of months ago. This set was printed a year later than the '52 Dodger cards, but I actually bought this set first. It's the first set I ever purchased from a catalog. Like the other TCMA set, it is refreshingly simple. All of the cards feature the same backs: It's a list of what TCMA selected (at least I think they did the selecting) for the all-time Dodger team at that point. (You can see at the top of the card the tape marks...