Night Owl Cards

   There's a certain amount of isolation built into being a blogger, or a writer in general. I don't know if that's exactly the right word but I definitely have the feeling of being on my own island from time to time, and probably more often lately.   There's no easy way to gauge who is reading your copy or how often. Blogger (and I'm assuming Wordpress) is imperfect like that. All you have are comments -- and Blogger has now made that more difficult by requiring you to use the Google Chrome browser to comment on its blogs (but I make sure to go that extra step to comment on other blogs). And also you have reader numbers, and wow is that inaccurate, especially lately.   Have any other bloggers experienced this?:      These are the viewer numbers for my posts on NOC for the last week or so. Numbers are on the far right. They are wildly beyond what is typical. The same holds true for my 1993 Upper Deck blog, where posts the last couple of cards is in tri...

  Whenever I finish off an old vintage set, it takes a little while to get serious about another one. I have to work up the energy to go through what it takes to tackle another one. It's a time-and-money investment. It's a project, really, not a work project, but a fun one. But, as always, projects take dedication, drive and stamina. It's not for the weak. Take that however you want.   Often it isn't until I purchase a certain card do I feel like I'm really in the right mind-set and I'm on my way to pursuing another set.   The 1969 Topps set, coming after I finished the 1970 Topps set, has been a goal for the last four or five years but casual-like as I focused on more pressing card needs. It's always been in the background even as I added '69 Topps cards to my collection.   But with 1970 and other stuff out of the way, it's not in the background. In fact it's staring me in the face, waiting for me to commit.   You may think that with 624 of the ...

  So, I went right for the 2024 Topps binder at dealer Tom's table at the card show and prepared to pull the final cards I needed for the set. I was under a dozen in wants, this should be easy. Sure, I didn't expect the Elly De La Cruz card to be in there, probably long-ago pulled by some rookie mojo dude who paid extra for the early-bird entry and doesn't remember when the hobby wasn't "exclusive." But I hoped to find the others and then maybe the De La Cruz somewhere else at the show. I ended up pulling all but five of the cards I needed. Fortunately, I had received some 2024 cards from Tony of Uncle Charlie's Shoebox not long before the show that whittled down my wants.   All of these were much-appreciated. I did get the Stone Garrett in a TCDB trade around the same time. The 2024 flagship was flying fast and furious for a period there.   Tony even found a couple of Dodgers I needed. Super-cool! But getting back to the show. After failing to find the D...