Night Owl Cards

Yesterday I was watching people find 2015 Topps -- mostly in the Midwest, but it's in a lot more places today -- and checking out the Toppstime video of customers opening a bunch of this year's product. It was all very exciting and as usual made me want to go to Target right now to see if any made it here. But one troubling thought mingled with the giddy ones as I was watching all of this. For the most part when the new Topps cards hit, people will show one or two base cards to give viewers an idea of what it looks like, and then go straight to the inserts, hits and other assorted chasery. You almost never see another base card again. Then I was looking at the inserts as they were shown and they all seemed very disposable to me. Not only were many of them similar to the inserts we've seen in past years, but inserts, in general, are only loosely connected to the base set. I don't consider them affiliated with the base set -- or at least my brain doesn't. To...

  (Special note to View From The Skybox : Never fear. I'm OK now. My soul was possessed by college basketball for a few too many stressful hours, but I conducted an exorcism and I'm back! Here is the post that was meant to appear on Sunday night):   I go on quite a bit about the modern hobby's neglect of the base card. It's pretty infuriating for someone who knew almost nothing except base cards for the first decade of his collecting life. But there is one time -- and it's repeated over and over -- when I dismiss the base card, too. It happens when I open trade packages. Often, but not all the time mind you because there is that period in time when a set first hits the shelves, the base cards that fall out are mere dupes. Just something to shuffle through before you get to the good stuff. It's at that time that I feel like a case breaker. And, if I think about it too much, I almost feel guilt and that I am a hypocrite. For example, there is...

If things went right, I'm at the ballpark tonight. But I haven't forgotten about you, dear readers. I'm here virtually to talk about a nasty habit that I've gotten into lately. It's tormented me for much longer actually, but it seems to have cropped up in a much more frequent and frustrating manner. It's the assumption that I've already completed a team set, when I actually haven't. Of course this is easy to do, what with all the inserts and super short-prints that litter sets these days. But I'm not even talking about that. I'm talking about the plain, old base team set. Some of you might remember my horror over last year's Topps Dodgers base set when I realized long after I thought I had finished it that I was missing the Mark Ellis card. Well, guess which card I needed to complete this year's base set? Yup. Mark Ellis again. Fortunately, it emerged from the pile of 2013 Topps Series 2 that Dave sent me. And I realized...

You should have known this was coming. There is no way I am ever going to get anything done on this blog if I don't get rid of this unbearable guilt. When my scanner stopped talking, the mailbox was still functioning and I literally ran out of room on my card desk as cardboard began overflowing onto the floor. I started getting dirty looks and only through begging, pleading and bargaining (that scanner is one shrewd negotiator) was I able to get the scanner conversing again and just in time. But the cards remain. Stacks upon stacks. Only through sheer night owl brain power am I able to not mix them up. But I'm pushing my luck. Two consecutive days without mail (I think the postman has gone AWOL) will not lead to a third. I must show you all of the accumulated cards RIGHT NOW. Yes, right now. Now I can't control what you're going to do after receiving this news. The cards are good, so if you choose to leave, you'll miss out on some fascination and some ...