Night Owl Cards

  I didn't grow up in a coffee family. My dad would have a cup once in a great while, usually when company was over.   I associated coffee-drinking with the older generation. My grandmother, especially, drank coffee with just about every meal and two of her many quirks included dunking pizza in her coffee and stating "they're trained not to look at you" when she couldn't get a waitress' attention for a second cup of coffee.   That's who drank coffee as far as I knew -- my grandmother, the women she played cards with, and others from her generation.   I never drank coffee and only recently have picked up a cold coffee habit (I dislike hot drinks). And for decades, all those things that went hand-in-hand with the drink -- mugs, stirrers, sugar cubes, little milk pitchers and, often, cigarettes, were foreign to me.   At the top of the list was something called "half and half". For years I didn't know what that was. Even when I worked as a bus bo...

  I don't spend a lot of time checking how many cards I have of each player but it's fun to do from time to time.   As someone who collects sets first and then my team, player collection totals are a natural subset of those and easy to categorize on TCDB or on whichever favorite counting spreadsheet you prefer. Also, unlike set or team collecting, the totals change fairly often.   When Johnny's Trading Spot sends out one of his "inventory cleanser" packages, I can't help but notice those player totals because the guys he's scrapping stand out.   Alex Verdugos   Up to 87 cards. 153rd on the list.     Dalton Rushings   43 cards. 471st on the list.     Tony Gonsolins   75 cards. 189th on the list.     Walker Buehlers (still haven't come to terms with his Padre-ness)   287 cards. 20th on the list.     Duke Sniders   318 cards. 16th on the list.      Shawn Green and (tiny) Fernando Valenzuela...

    I'm long overdue in showing off the latest card bombing from Johnny's Trading Spot . Per usual, he's been updating his collection alphabetically and finding the guys no longer of interest to him and using me, and others, as the circular file.   Judging by what I received, he's recently gone through the P's and Q's ... well, there were no Q's, but that's how we get to the R's and S's (essess), which were also in the box.   I should have shown these earlier because my pattern is to post them to the blog before I file them away. But I just completed a big Dodgers binder sort (there's about two of those a year), so now these are going to have to wait until the fall to get added.   Oh well, something for everyone to look forward to -- the cards, me, and you, the reader, who just loves to read "here's more stuff I got" posts!! You know you do!   To keep this manageable, I'm just showing off 12 key cards for the collection, tho...

  You fellow '70s kids know already that M is for Martha , but fortunately there are collectors in our corner of the ridiculous internet that know that M is also for More Cards.   Johnny has been sending sequels to his recent card distributions and I received my second share about a week ago. He's still ridding himself of players who start with M that no longer live up to his standards. My last package was filled with Max Muncys.   This package was filled with ... no, not Willie Mays ...   Dustin May.   Lots of needed parallel action there. Now that May is with his third team in three years, it's safe to say he's not going to be the future star promised by his prospect cards. I could've told Johnny that quite awhile ago (and gotten my cards earlier!). May just couldn't put it all together -- or stay away from killer salads.           Mmmmmmmmm. Those hit the spot. Mighty nice of John to send them.     There was also one Max Mu...

  I tend to underestimate the size and depth of my collection. When someone says I should set up a table at a show to sell cards, I instantly scoff. I could never have enough cards that could interest people enough to buy them!   That's the way I'm built. I'm not a natural boaster and generally feel inadequate much of the time (though I'm getting better the older I get). I always assume others have more/are better. And that's the way it is in the card world, too.   None of that's true, though. I've been receiving cards from people around the world for more than a decade. It's obvious I have a collection that is both impressive and unique. But I also know there are people out there with far more cards, far more impressive cards, far more expensive cards than me.   I don't know any of those people, I don't think. The one collector that I know who comes close to that -- in my mind anyway -- is Johnny of Johnny's Trading Spot . He's the only ...