Night Owl Cards

 (Woooo, I can tell it's March! I've got so many things going on that I'm misplacing stuff like I'm my absent-minded grandma. Between the weather alerts, birthday preparations, endless playoffs, rising costs, deer running down my street (yes, that's a thing) -- ANYBODY KNOW WHERE MY DERMATOLOGY BILL WENT? Hell, let's go without one hour on the weekend, too. Nobody needs an extra moment to catch their breath at this time of the year!! Squeezing in a Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 366th in a series):   One of the reasons I'm still reading blogs 18 years in is because they continue to offer a wide variety of card subjects and cover them in-depth. Maybe youtube can do that, but who wants to listen to someone blather on about cards for that long?   Blogs are still good for unearthing cards that you didn't know you needed or for reminding you that you still need that card -- we old people who still read blogs are sometimes forgetful.   A couple of weeks...

This was supposed to be the last player card that I needed to complete the "just-go-away" 2016 Topps flagship Dodgers team set (still need a league-leader card). But Alex Guerrero here got involved in a fender bender when I wasn't looking. I don't know how it happened, it could have been a myriad of ways. I get so behind on hobby issues that the incoming cards get wedged together in a tight corner of the desk (please don't tell anybody the same thing is happening to the outgoing cards), and damage is bound to happen. Also, cards get packaged so tightly sometimes -- not saying that this is what happened in this case -- that I end up damaging the card getting it out of its quarters. But however it happened, the upper left corner is officially dinged. A closer look: This just will not fly on a modern card. Cards these days come out of packages slick, sharp and shiny. Place a modern card on an incline and it just might slide around the earth before it co...

As a kid, one of the great tricks of adulthood was the big people's ability to get me to do what I didn't want to do with a single declaration: "Because I said so." No reasoning. No elaboration. It was an amazing power. And I did whatever the big people demanded. Because they said so. I admit, as an adult now, being able to say those four words and watching some little person do what you want, is a pretty big perk. Unfortunately, that perk wears off when the little person becomes a bit bigger and single sentences don't work anymore. These days I say lots of things that could be considered instructions, orders, advice, etc. And nothing happens. Because nobody is doing anything just because I said so. That's why I honestly don't expect anyone to follow any advice I give out on this blog. I don't expect anyone to do what I say when I rant. And I certainly don't expect anyone to give me cards just because I say I need them. I get ign...

Oh, it's you again. I suppose you've come here thirsty for my knowledge-filled words. You simple people. Give me a single reason why I should take a few seconds out of my busy day to amuse your likeness. I am the owner of the two-time Blog of the Year ! I have no time for your commoner games. Your mindless musings. Your childish desperation for cardboard pictures. I have heads of state to meet. I have decrees to announce. I have an appointment with Oprah to cry on her show. You are but a ink splotch in my date book. But because I am a kind and benevolent king, I will allow myself to amuse your unsophisticated sensibilities with something that should be at your speed -- a smattering of cards with no connection other than that they came from a single person. This person happens to be the same person who so rightly and justly crowned me Blog of the Year once again. And Wes of Jaybarkerfan's Junk was so confident in my winning the Blog of the Year once again, that ...

This card threw me a little, although it shouldn't have since I was collecting in 2008 and fully aware of how insane it was that year. I received the card from Mark at This Way To The Clubhouse . I had to turn it over to determine the set. The "LA14" makes me reasonably certain it's from the team set, those cards you find in blister packs hanging from racks at Walmart. Emphasis on YOU. The only ones I find are Yankees or the occasional Mets (and one really odd time, Angels ). I'm sure I knew about the card back in '08, but had since forgotten about it. That's not necessarily a bad thing as if I had known about it I would've been plagued with the knowledge that there were three totally different 2008 Topps Joe Torre cards to obtain. The regular base set version. The "limited edition" team set version. And the "regular" team set version. I don't think there's ever a reason to have three distinct manage...

I thought about listing my 2012 collecting goals as others have, but I quickly lost interest in writing about that. That's because, first, any collecting goal that I have on January 1, is likely toast by the end of the month. I've found that life absolutely hates specific collecting goals. Or goals of any kind. Life wants you to do the same thing you've always done, be the non-contributing blob you've always been, always. Life, basically, is an insecure control freak. Secondly, I've already recorded my collecting goals for everyone to see. They're right here . I'll make any 2012 additions as soon as I know what the hell is out there. So, instead, for tonight, I thought I'd just ramble about a few things that I've noticed, probably only of interest to me ... just like, you know, personal collecting goals. One has to do with Lineage (I promise this is one of my last posts about this set -- except for the minis). I have noticed that Lineage is ...