Night Owl Cards

  I received an unexpected quick flyer in the mail last week from reader Grant. Of the variety of items in the envelope, very few were cards.   Just two, in fact. One was this 2025 Topps Cosmic Chrome Josh Allen card. I consider it good luck because the package arrived on Thursday, mere hours before Allen and the Bills beat up on the Lions defense. (I know, not difficult to do).   This was the other card, a Heritage buyback, a.k.a., someone/something stamped Rick Auerbach's 1976 Topps card.   This is just my second '76 Heritage buyback, as only 1975 cards get the collecting treatment in this house. But I certainly will take any stamped Dodgers, no matter the year.   And that was it for the cards.   But there was more and I consider it the highlight of the envelope.     Those are wax pack wrappers -- from my prime collecting time -- and a couple are from sets that I never collected as a kid -- because I never saw them for sale.   For informati...

A couple of blog housekeeping notes: First, an update on the 5,000-post repack giveaway. I have sent out 11 of the 20 packages. Another is packaged and another is selected. I'm currently selecting winner No. 14's cards. Also, today's the last day to vote in the first round of the Cardboard Appreciation Hall of Fame series. If you haven't voted yet, copy and paste this link and vote!: https://vote.easypolls.net/6286614c5617e80062aee2cf  EDIT: POLL HAS CLOSED ).   Way back when I wrote the 1975 Topps set blog, I mentioned how much I liked the '75 Rick Auerbach card as a kid . Really, I shouldn't have liked it at all. It's a Dodger, surrounded by Giants colors. But I loved the orangey glow, it reminded me of my favorite drink of that time -- root beer -- and, heck, it was the '70s, that color combination was in everyone's house. It's also a great example of the color clash that is all over '75 Topps. I submit that the Auerbach card would not ha...

In 1992, U2 came out with a song called "One." It was hugely popular. I liked it, too. U2 was my favorite band since way back in 1982 when no one outside of the U.K. knew what a U2 was. But not long after One, Mysterious Ways and Achtung Baby, I started to lose interest. U2 got a little strange for me, and Bono, who was always the "look at me" sort, seemed like he was ready to swallow the whole band. In fact, if rock stars wore jerseys with uniform numbers, I'm pretty sure Bono would wear the No. 1. That's how some of us view that number, as a blatant way to draw attention to oneself. "Look at me, I'm No. 1" And then there is the corresponding reaction: "Who does he think he is, wearing the No. 1? This is a team game. Nobody is above anyone else. Nobody is "No. 1." But I get the feeling that for baseball folks, the No. 1 means something different. Or at least it does with the Dodgers. The Dodger associated the most wi...