Night Owl Cards

(Happy birthday to The Simpsons. On this date in 1987, the Simpsons debuted on the Tracey Ullman Show as short lead-ins to commercial. Twenty-five years later, Homer, Marge and Bart are still cracking wise, although I stopped watching around 1993. Speaking of '93, it's Cardboard Appreciation time. This is the 139th in a series): No one wants to admit that they need 1993 Donruss. It's a sign of weakness. A desperate plea that could lead to derision. It's like this: You've started a new job. The manager shows you around and fills you in on the procedures and rituals of the position. You learn the computer system. You meet your co-workers. You figure out where the bathrooms are, the cafeteria, the snack machine. You know where to park, how to answer the phone, who to go to for a problem. Months go by. Years go by. You're now a veteran of the company. You're showing other people how to do their jobs. People come to you with their problems and you ...

I go to the post office about once a week. It's a small office in an almost vacant business building that houses everything from a bridal store to an outpatient chemical dependency clinic. I've mentioned before that, except for Christmas time, hardly anyone knows the post office is there. So, at most, there is a line of three, and I'm in and out. It's a familiar routine. I know the two guys that work there. One, Charles,  is an older, pleasant type of few words. He walks with a bit of limp and usually prefers sweat shirts and sweat pants. The other, Dave, is flashier. He wears open Hawaiian shirts and lifts weights. Sometimes the portable radio blares behind him with a strange mix of AC/DC, Lady Gaga and Britney Spears (it's a bit uncomfortable waiting in a longer line when Britney is moaning "Gimme More," let me tell ya). But both are efficient and friendly. I put my envelopes on the counter, and they plop it on the scale, and the amount pops up ...

When I say I'm not collecting any 2012 Topps, that means I'm not collecting ANY 2012 Topps, in all its forms. Heritage, Opening Day, Attax, Update, Allen & Ginter (gulp), none of it. I'm reasonably confident that I will be able to stick to this. Even if I grab a few packs every so often, there's nothing there that's going to make me chase the set. However, Allen & Ginter is the one that could give me some hesitation. It's not for the reasons you might think. I'm beyond the design (two straight years of disappointing designs will do that). I'm beyond the non-ballplayer subjects. I'm even beyond the quirkiness (there wasn't much quirkiness in last year's set). No, the problem I'm going to have is next summer when everyone gets their boxes of A&G and the latest edition of Gint-a-Cuffs commences. As a three-time Gint-a-Cuffs participant, I know that GAC is a heck of a lot of fun. It's even fun for a loser like me w...

The second part of the package I received from smed is a puzzler. It's a heaping helping of Heritage from '09 and '10, two sets that depict two of my favorite Topps designs from the distant past. But how to present cards from two years ago that everyone has seen? How to find something new to say? Combine that with my hectic schedule this week and I couldn't exactly sit in the middle of the room until an idea arrived. I was flummoxed. Ah, what the hell: Words are overrated. Any jackass can write a sentence. Thanks, smed. (P.S.: Those of you thinking that it had to take longer to scan those cards than to come up with a topic obviously don't have a blog). (P.P.S: Those aren't even all the cards). (P.P.P.S: In light of my recent declaration that I'm more of a team collector, especially with modern-day sets, I don't know how I reconcile that with receiving 400 Heritage cards).

I've finally reached the portion of my trading backlog where I address the massive collection of goodies sent by Smed during his spring cleaning fiesta. I've paid the postage, and started looking for some cards to send in return, but unfortunately, there's no time for anything else. Normally, with a collection of cards like this, I'd do a What's the Best Card in the Package post and force you to view the whole thing until your eyes bled and you were humming '70s commercials for the next two months. I can't do that this week. So, instead, I'm merely splitting the cards into two different posts. The first post is my 12 favorite Dodgers cards from the package. The second post -- who knows when you'll see that. There won't be anything too creative with either of these posts. It's a trade. Here are some cards. Deal with it. Oh, and thanks, Smed. Commence countdown: 12. 2010 Bowman Draft Leon Landry gold parallel: "Neon Leon...