Night Owl Cards

  As you know I have another online life aside from the blog world. I've been on "social media" as far as the hobby since 2010, first on Twitter and then in the last couple years on BlueSky.   Social media is weird no matter where you are but I like my online friends I've found over there and it's nice to have a place to show cards that doesn't take an hour of dedicated writing.   Still, it's a weird place. When I moved to BlueSky I tried to carve out the niche I had created on Twitter with more than 4,000 followers. I was figuring out the lay of the land. BlueSky is not Twitter -- and thank goodness for that -- but it's not exactly the hobby hub that the old Twitter was.   In an effort to have something to say -- because, brother, I don't care about most of the stuff that is discussed that isn't cards -- I posted a "late night card of the day" from my collection. Just a random card, uploaded after midnight. I have a lot of cards -- w...

  My first COMC order of the year came in today. I've settled into averaging out to two COMC orders a year. It used to be more than that, but there are more options now and also COMC prices have been unreasonable in many cases for several years, so I've been forced to comparison shop.   My first order of the year is usually smaller than the one that often shows up in the fall. But both orders usually show how scattered my interests are. I read stories about collectors working on some super-focused, often highly unattainable pursuit and only that pursuit . Every time, I am filled with feelings of admiration/envy (wish I could do that) mixed with feelings of relief (glad I chase more than one thing!).   This order is very much this-and-that. It took almost exactly a month to show up, which is fine, though I was expecting earlier based on the lightening speed from several months ago.     One of the first items I put in my cart were the last two Dodgers I needed fro...

(I am vacationing this week, which usually means more time for blog posts. But all that extra time makes me feel like avoiding blog posts. Why is that? It's time for Cardboard Appreciation, but it's going to be a short one. This is the 338th in a series): I received a two-card envelope from The Collective Mind a short time ago. Both cards were Dodgers of the vintage type, both former want list material. I did own the 1961 Post Maury Wills card already but this one is unmarked, whereas the other one I received 12 years ago had some updates. At the time of receiving the "updated" card, I mentioned that I appreciated this kind of an update. Wills had an exceptional 1962 season and whoever owned this card absolutely had to get that season down in writing and where better than on the man's own card. It's all there in ballpoint pen -- games played, at-bats, hits, home runs, RBIs and batting average -- from the fabled 1962 season (nothing about his then-record 104 s...

  It's getting down to the last few days of 2022. I've exhausted just about every card anniversary that has occurred in the past year. But one thing I've never done is acknowledge my complete 1962 Topps Dodgers team set. It's still the 60th anniversary of the original wood-bordered set for another 12 days. In fact, I don't even recall what the last card was that completed my team set for '62. I went back through the blog to see if I could pin down that triumphant day, because this blog is always about celebrating my card milestones. Still, I couldn't find it. Then I realized why I couldn't. It's because I haven't completed it. I may never complete it. Thanks to this guy: Bob Uecker is on one of those rookie prospects cards with Dodgers prospect Doug Camilli. I'm just not willing to pay 60 bucks or so for a tiny floating head, I don't care if Ueck did get me through a couple lonely Saturday nights watching Mr. Belvedere. So, this team set ...

  I've heard of, and even come across a time or two, people who collect only Topps cards. The reason seems to be that Topps is the premier card company in the land and their cards are superior to any competitors in their eyes. Some, I think, decided they can't be collecting other kinds of cards, it's too much. I wish I could have done that. I sometimes wish I was around 29 when I saw Donruss and Fleer cards for the first time in 1981. I think I'd be resistant to their charms if I was, and I'd be one of those "only Topps" guys to this day. But I was 15. I wanted new stuff and I thought I could collect everything. It was released, I needed to have it! That was my perspective at the time. And I'm paying for it now. My "m.o." ever since 1981, for years and years, was to try to get it all, or at least all the Dodgers. As the number of releases multiplied, I started to get burned out and I was done collecting by the mid-'90s. Even when I resume...

  This is another post inspired by a Twitter prompt. I guess I can never delete Twitter from my phone -- as I've often threatened to do -- because it's pretty clear that half my blog ideas come from there now. I don't know what that says about me. But anyway, the Twitter account Wax Pack Gods shot out a general question the other day, one of those things that always gets a response: what's your favorite Fleer design from the 1980s?   I could have sworn I ranked those sets ages ago on the blog, but the best I could come up with is this (probably should update that one). So I guess I haven't done it before. And I sure don't feel like doing it now. The short version is 1984 Fleer is my favorite of those '80s Fleer designs. It was back in 2010, it is now, it's always been -- except between 1981 and 1983, of course. But there is another '80s Fleer set that's been creeping upward over the years, particularly the last few, probably because I'm col...