Night Owl Cards

  The topic of The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading And Bubble Gum Book came up again on the socials today.   It seems to be a repeated topic around this time of year. Maybe people received that book for Christmas as kids, or want it for Christmas. I got it for Christmas about 12 years ago.   So, I thought I'd trot out the book again and update a post from two years ago, when I went through the book to find how many cards in my collection are showcased in the book.   Two years ago I determined there are 243 card images in the book that I have. (I also added the five cards on the front to make 248 but those cards are repeated inside, so that was an error on my part). And I determined I had 48 of the cards shown. I went through the book again today and totaled 50 cards in the book that I have, so I've added two since. However, I'm pretty sure that I didn't own these three since I did the count the last time. So either I over-counted the last time or I'm...

References to one of collecting's "bibles" have popped up on the social medias the last week or two.   That's nothing unusual, as revered as it is in the hobby, I expect homages to the Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book to continue long after I'm gone.   I first wrote about it in 2011 after finally receiving a copy. And I've leafed through it many times since, always delicately because something with so many images of cards from the '50s and '60s makes me nervous.   It now sits on my card desk in a place of honor where it will never likely leave, except when I'm picking it up to be amused by a snippet about Neil Chrisley or Eli Grba.  One of the recent online references was from a post on Cardboard Junkie . In showing off his copy of the book, he mentioned that he's known a few people who have collected every card that is shown in it.   I was impressed. And I immediately wondered how many cards pictured in the b...

(I really have nothing to say between these two parentheses, so let's get on with it. It's time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 204th in a series): Over vacation I was reading the hobby classic, "The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book." I've had the book for three or four years now, and even though I've read quite a bit of it already, I had never read the interview with Sy Berger, the man who made Topps synonymous with baseball cards. The interview was interesting in the usual ways, a behind the scenes look at Topps, even if it was an early 1970s behind-the-scenes view. But two things that Berger mentioned in this interview interested me in particular. The first was when Berger started talking about nonsports cards. He was discussing a new series concept that they were working on: "There is a new series right now on the drawing board," he said, "cards involving puns on well-known brand-name pr...

Every once in awhile there is mention about which blog was the first to relay their unimportant-yet-fascinating thoughts about baseball cards to the world at large. Was it Stale Gum? Was it the Baseball Card Blog? Was it Cardboard Gods? Was it some forgotten blogger who was really first but through a series of cutthroat secret collector meetings was forced from his mother's basement into a life of productivity and riches? It's silly and pointless talk. It doesn't matter who was first. What matters is that collectors are enjoying commentary and insight from a variety of points of view every 24 hours or so. I've been gleaning insight for almost four years now and not once did I wonder who was first. Besides, I already know who was first. And it wasn't a blog at all. This is the first card blog. And I'm not the first person to say that. I received this book from my wife for Christmas. I have wanted it since there was an explosion of references to it on...