Night Owl Cards

As I've mentioned a few times, I don't go out of my way to collect autographs. I do like them, and I get a thrill when I pull them . And I do have a separate binder for the Dodgers autos. But I consider that binder as that thing I have on standby for when someone who doesn't know a lot about cards wants to be impressed. Autographs are the best way to go. Sadly, your average civilian just doesn't understand how cool a 1976 Topps Mike Hegan is. Recently, fellow supertrader Brett of Cooperstown Exit 3:16 sent me another bout of autographed Dodgers. I believe they're TTMs, but maybe he got them in person, I don't know. The Ron Cey autograph is far and away the highlight, even though I own plenty of Cey autographed cards. In fact, this 1980 Topps item is my 15th different autographed Cey card. And it has caused me to consider something I've considered before: Should I try to get a signed Cey card for each of his Topps Dodgers issues? It wouldn't b...

I've got myself another little recurring series here. It's another one of those time-savers that requires minimal thought. In other words, it's almost a Tumblr post. (Remember my Tumblr page? It was a good idea until I realized the format doesn't think fondly of words and that was the end for me. This also means never expect to find Night Owl Cards on Instagram). I'm calling it "well, lookie there." It's what one might say as they're going through their collection and spotting something interesting that they are discovering for the first time. ... OK, it's what I might say as I'm going through my collection and spotting something interesting for the first time. The posts in this series after this one will feature some sort of name or title after the "well, lookie there," intro, at which point I expect readership to plummet dramatically for this particular series. That's usually how it goes. The debut entry has to do w...

I was finally able to spend a little bit of money on my hobby today. I wrapped up a few card packages ready for shipment and then headed out to the card aisle, where I haven't traveled in more than a month. Though weeks have passed, there was still very little that I cared to buy. I settled on a blaster of Archives just because I've been itching to document all of my issues with this product. Here they are in handy, bite-size form: 1. It ain't 2001-02 Archives or 2003-05 Fan Favorites: Nothing about cards disappointed me more than when I found this out last year. I really wanted to like this product and it spit on me. All Topps had to do was use all of its classic designs in the base set, as it's done before, and everything would be forgiven. But, nope, instead it randomly chooses four designs for the base set -- like 'em or not -- and basically turns the set into four different sets. It's disjointed and annoys me. 2. Flimsy card stock: I guess it...

The Dodgers have been very busy this offseason, adding just about anyone that will fit into their budget, which is to say they haven't added a single player who I think can help them win a World Series. In fact, it would be more inspiring seeing Bo Derek out there in the outfield, riding her horse after fly balls, than Jay Gibbons, Tony Gwynn Jr., Marcus Thames or Gabe Kapeler. Inspiring in a different kind of way, perhaps. But this isn't a post about Derek or Dudley Moore or the movie I really, really, really wanted to see when I was 14 years old. This is only a post about the number 10. There are a lot of new additions to the team and I'm curious to know which Dodger will land the coveted uniform number 10. It has always been my favorite uniform number, not because of Derek's cinematic breakout but because of a player who worked for the Dodgers from the early 1970s to early 1980s. Before and since that time, the No. 10 has been worn by Dodgers low and high....