Night Owl Cards

The 1975 Topps mini set is the greatest mini set -- the greatest mini parallel set -- to ever show its face on retail counters. This is not merely my opinion. This is irrefutable fact. I will not stand for alternative theories. But do you know the next mini set to come along after 1975's minis? For years, decades, I had no idea. Now that I do know, it makes perfect sense. I've said before that 1986 Fleer is the forgotten set of the 1980s. For years, I'd go through all of the major sets of the '80s and always skip '86 Fleer. When I did think of it, I'd mistake it for '85 Fleer and vice versa. I'm pretty sure that during the '80s I had no idea that '86 Fleer came in mini form, too. But my ignorance hasn't stopped me from owning the complete 120-card set of 1986 Fleer minis. I recently received it -- along with a bunch of other goodies you'll see at another time -- from reader Mike. It came in the tidy box that I pictured ab...

With all of the 1980s boxed sets that are now in my possession, I've thought a little bit on how to best present them on this blog. I have a couple of ideas, but they would require me going through all the cards and there's no time for that now. What do I do in the meantime? Well, I thought I'd present my "Joy of a team set" series but with a little twist and make it "joy of a boxed set." Today's boxed set is one of my favorites from the ones reader Alan gave me. Love the Drake's. And I love that duck mascot. Why a duck? Did you know the Drake's duck mascot (his name is Webster) was created by a consumer poll in 1981? Did you know that was the very first year Drake's Big Hitters baseball card series was released? I now wonder whether the duck was created specifically for the card set. Anyway, this is the 1984 Drake's series and I am without my trusty scanner. So you're going to have to put up with poorly-lit pictures. ...