Night Owl Cards

  The birthday went pretty well. They're quiet these days. The highlight may be a new chair for my desk area where I type these posts. Yay! Also, I did use the gift card (actually two of them) for some current cards. You'll see that in the coming weeks.   After this post I'm taking a few days off from the blog. There are vacation things to do, yes, but also I've been getting a little cranky about blog stuff and that's an indication that I need some time away.   It'll also allow me to rededicate myself to some other topics besides showing off the latest cards, which I've done a lot of lately ... and am doing now.   A series of arrivals have been piling up on the roll-top desk and it's a mess so I'm clearing out. Enjoy the card view.     These were my latest claims on Diamond Jesters' Time Travel Trading. Both probably need explaining. For the Sweetness card, I added it simply because his earlier cards have been so difficult to obtain. Might as we...

  When I completed the 1969 Topps set eight months ago , I was certain that I was finished with trying to build vintage sets. I had been through my share and I wasn't getting any younger and it wasn't getting any easier.   That's still where I'm at -- not going to take on any other set big projects, nope, not doing it, not never, not never again.   Still ...   If I was to build a vintage set again, there is one that makes the most sense -- 1968 Topps is right there.   Now, before you get all "but the Nolan Ryan rookie" on me, here is why this set makes sense to build:   -- It's the next set in the line of complete Topps sets in my collection. You can go in either direction for that. The next set on the front end is 1993 Topps, which is far easier but also holds zero interest for me. 1994 is more interesting but not enough to leap over another year. So, the back end is 1968 and finishing that would wrap up 25 complete sets in a row for me.   -- It woul...

I may be an adult who collects trading cards but I don't like my trading cards to remind me I'm an adult.   Here's how:   Most of the cards I value, almost all my favorite sets and all my favorite players, come from three decades -- the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. These are the cards that produce the greatest memories when I look through them in my collection.   But looking for memories after that gets a little dangerous. The 1990s is full of adult concerns, worries and incidents ... and all that angry music. I can say the same for the 2000s, 2010s and 2020s. Best just look at the cards and be done with it, don't start dredging up memories, you're not gonna like it.   So when I looked for cards that interested me in the latest Diamond Jesters' Time Travel Trading post, I instinctively picked cards from the '60s, '70s and '80s. I didn't even realize I was doing it. They were just naturally the ones that appealed to me.   '60s     First up, a 1961...

    This 1975 Hostess card of Brewers pitcher Billy Champion cost me 8 bucks -- a little more than 10 with shipping included.   The card contains a small crease in the corner and the pitcher, although featuring one of the all-time names in the sport, was an average performer in the '70s, otherwise known as "a common." But it's a short-print.   The Champion arrived not too long after the card of his former teammate, Robin Yount. The Yount is a short-print and its his rookie card, too, but it cost only a few bucks more than the Champion, likely because it's got a few issues (though nothing that bothers me in the slightest when it comes to Hostess cards).   I've returned to attempting to finish this set after getting frustrated with it last year. I didn't encounter the kind of price bumps I'm seeing with '75 Hostess when I was completing the 1976 and 1977 Hostess sets (1976 completed at the end of 2021 and 1977 in mid-2024). But I've got around 17...

    This morning, I sent off my "response" to the cards I received from Matt during the most recent Diamond Jesters Time Travel Trade . That means I can post what I got, guilt-free.   Often when I claim cards from the vast Time Travel inventory they are not related to any set I'm chasing and rarely Dodger-oriented. In fact there's seemingly no rhyme or reason to why I chose them, like I'm randomly gobbling them up. But there is always a reason. Always.    Let's see what those reasons are, unveiled in beautiful backlit words for the whole world to see. I shall go chronologically:     1964 Topps Jerry Adair   Probably no need to justify picking up a vintage card, but 1964 has never been on my list to complete. I wanted this rough-and-ready version of the Jerry Adair card because this card is one of the ones I picked up at a card show 11 years ago that featured written updates on the fronts. My copy includes "+SS" written in pen underneath 2nd base. ...

  October is one of the busiest months on the calendar. But unlike some of those other always-busy-months (*cough* "March"), October features fun busy stuff that interests me.   Last night, for example, both of my teams were playing: The Bills (yuck) and the Dodgers (yay!). It was a lot, and I saw almost none of it because I was working. Probably for the best. But then I got home and I wanted to see the Dodgers highlights and that "fly out into a double play" that everyone was discussing online. I waited and waited. It got to be 2 a.m. and still no youtube highlights. I went to bed. Fifteen minutes later the highlights were up.   It's just a lot this month and it's been that way for quite awhile. I do miss the younger days when I didn't have as much on my schedule -- or at least that's the way I remember it. I miss many of the elements of those days, which is why I want cards from back then.   Diamond Jesters' Time Travel Trading is a great way ...

  I'm sure some set-collectors can relate this: I purposely avoid collecting certain sets that I like, even love.   It's mostly a means to keep myself in check -- I have only so much money, so much time and space, and an increasingly confused brain.   So it is with 1959 Topps, a set that I think is one of the greatest of the 1950s, a set I'm on record as really enjoying , but almost always avoid any time I come across a readily available '59 card.   Why is that, specifically? Let's explore (this is more a "me" exercise, sorry):   1. I know my lack of willpower. If I add a certain number of cards from a set -- not really sure how many, let's say 30 or 40 -- I'm going to automatically want to collect it. If I find it appealing, all those cards together are going to break down whatever walls I put up.   2. I need a break. I'm one card away from finishing 1969 Topps. I've been aware since I was probably 100 cards away from finishing that set ...

   Trading cards takes a lot of time. Also, sometimes it takes a lot of work.   Everyone collects differently and sometimes it's difficult to match up with another collector. That happens all the time. No big deal really. Then there are the fellow collectors that drag out trades for too damn long.   I never participated in collectors forums, but I've heard that trades were often like that there. I have no problem trading away nice cards, but I'm not going to send a couple dozen messages back and forth to come to an agreement on an exact accounting of precise compensation. I've dealt with this in the past with a couple bloggers. It's not fun. Trading is supposed to be fun.   That's why I gravitate to super simple trades. My favorite are: "I'll send you some cards whenever and you send some cards whenever." That's how most trades go on the blogs. It's about the only ones I make these days.   It's also why I participate in stuff like Diamo...