Night Owl Cards

On the day after Christmas, I backed out of the driveway, turned to my right, and spotted a Christmas tree in a snowbank in front of a neighbor's house. This always depresses me. I hope that people who dispose of their tree the second it's not Christmas day have an allergy problem or the tree was a firetrap or something rational other than "I'm done with Christmas, bring on the dullest part of the year!!!" I'm one of those loonies who wants Christmas to last forever, or at least the 12 days that are sung about in the song. I want my ladies dancing and drummers drumming. Right now, for me, is the Christmas season. There are still Christmas cookies in the house, lights shining outside and those cloying Lifetime Christmas movies airing around the clock. Properly extending the Christmas season also gives me the perfect excuse to show some festive packages that were sent with the spirit of the season in mind that I mostly received before Christmas. For e...

I've mentioned before that my brain doesn't fully comprehend die cuts. The die cut phenomenon started in the 1990s, right when I stopped collecting. And it flourished while I was blissfully unaware of cards. Because I didn't get in on the ground floor on die cuts, I still look at them with puzzlement. There is a lot of "why?" and "what's that supposed to be?" But that doesn't mean I don't like them. I like them a lot. It's nice to say "I have no idea what that is. But I love it." It's freeing. It's like looking at a painting in an art gallery. What is it? Who the hell knows? But it looks cool. Still, there is part of me that stares at the die cuts and tries to determine what I see in them. They're like a Rorschach inkblot test or puffy clouds in the sky. What do YOU see in that die cut? For instance, take this die cut from last year's Bowman Platinum that I received from Sam at The Daily Dimwit . What ...

A couple of years ago, Topps came up with something called "cognac" parallels. A lot of us dubbed them " liquorfractors ," which was a much more appropriate name . The cards were pretty cool because although they never scanned well, they were a sight to see in person. Throw that card under a lamp and the light would bounce off the surface like an inebriated stained glass window. They were nice because although they didn't look like much just sitting there, they had a greater purpose. I'm pretty certain that this isn't the first time this reflective-glass technique has been used -- there were actual stained-glass-themed inserts in the '90s that reappeared again in this year's Archives -- and I'm sure it's been around since refractors were born. But the liquorfractors seemed to have spawned a recent trend of putting what look like shards of glass on the surface of your cards. Panini calls its Cooperstown parallels, like this o...

Back when I first started this blog, the card blogging atmosphere was a little bit different. There were a lot more "how-to-collect" card blogs, or what I would call "card advice" blogs. They actually came in pretty handy because I was really only a couple of years back into the collecting game and didn't have a full grasp on what the hobby had become. I came away with a lot of great pointers and am now in the position myself to give advice. If you're nuts enough to ask me for some. One of the things that I heard back then related to shipping cards through the mail. Here is the gist of what that advice was: "If you send cards in a plain, white envelope, you get everything you deserve." I took it to heart. And when I actually dared to send out a plain white envelope, or PWE, I accepted the consequences with humility . But then this year I joined Listia. I started shipping out more three-, two- and single-card packages than I ever had be...

I'm finally getting around to displaying some cards sent to me by The Daily Dimwit. I'm not terribly bright about a lot of things, so I'm stumped as to why he's The Daily Dimwit. After all, he cracked a code that I wouldn't even be able to solve if you spotted me the first four steps and wrapped them in bacon (because everyone gets inspired when bacon's involved!) Daily's cards were all Dodgers. Well, almost all. This isn't a Dodger. It's the all-time minor league, single-season wins leader. He pitched with Los Angeles of the Pacific Coast League. I don't think he wore a derby during his games. But he WAS a dentist at one time. Anyway, the Dodgers included the Manny Ramirez Icon parallel card that you saw at the start. That touched off the trade. Most of the rest of the cards were 2010 Topps Update needs. All of those gentlemen -- all still with the Dodgers by the way -- are each involved in legit photos. No picture-tin...