Night Owl Cards

  I've been debating publishing this post to recognize Canada Day, which is a week from now. But I don't like waiting too long on showing packages sent by readers -- it seems disrespectful. So here it is now. I've had the honor of several Canadian readers over the years. I was particularly blessed recently when a collector from Toronto emailed me and said he'd been a reader for several years. One post that I made last month caused him to head to his basement and go through his childhood collection of O-Pee-Chee cards. I'm now the owner of several of those childhood OPC cards. Everything that arrived is from the '70s and I think it's so cool that I've got cards that were in someone's basement in Toronto. This truly is an international hobby! Jeff said 1972 OPC was the first set he collected and he was certain there were a few Dodgers in that group. That's what I expected to get and I sure did! That's a bunch of the team set right there. Don...

I've been on vacation the last couple of weeks and like many people who have encountered vacation time this year, it's a bit difficult to know what to do with it. I'm certainly not going to cancel my vacation. I've heard of people doing that. They aren't able to go anywhere due to the coronavirus and therefore they call everything off and, apparently, I don't know, report back to work? That's madness. There is no way I'm going to give up time off. I'll find SOMETHING to do that doesn't involve the job. So we've been lucky enough to take a few short trips to see family and some sights, and I feel for those who aren't able to do that. But otherwise, I don't think it's been all that heartbreaking. I spend a great deal of time at work wishing I was home playing with my baseball cards and, well, that is definitely something you can do in the middle of a pandemic! This has meant conducting, some would say, mind-numbing exer...

I don't "pal around" with people. It's not my nature. I don't go out with the boys for drinks. I don't spend Saturdays playing golf. I like things quiet and, mostly, on my own. This shows itself on the blogs, too. While some bloggers like to pal around with certain others, I try to give equal time to everyone (given the number of blogs there are, that's difficult). And I try to trade with just about every blogger who wants to trade. But even though I don't go out of my way to be "chummy," I do have trading pals. I call them my "card buds," collectors who either lightly blog or don't blog at all, yet still send me cards. I feel I've made a real connection with those people, something that goes beyond the traditional blog trade. Angus of Dawg Day Cards is one example. (Hey! He finally blogged again today !) He's a special exception because we've roamed through card shows together a couple of times. That...