Night Owl Cards

  During the 1960s, the Dodgers made the World Series three times, all within a four-year period. Throw in 1959 and they were in the World Series four times in seven years.   Currently, the Dodgers have been to the World Series four times in six years. It's a fairly similar run to the 1960s one, although this version of the Dodgers has been more successful winning Series. (Three compared to two).   I wonder if these Dodgers will be thought of in the way that the '60s Dodgers are, as a talent-laden team, filled with some of the best pitching talent ever, with some OK offensive talent -- though nothing like what L.A. currently has. They are respected. I don't think people got disgusted with the Dodgers showing up repeatedly in the Fall Classic -- something tells me that if fans then were disgusted by that kind of thing (I have my doubts), it would be toward the Yankees (five straight WS from 1960-64).   A lot of fans will jump in and say that the two scenarios are diff...

  Most of the time when I show new Dodger card arrivals it's related to cards a fellow collector/trader sent or it's a larger order from sportlots or COMC or another online site.   Rarely do I show single card purchases unless I can turn it into a post. I guess I'm doing that now, but this 2026 Sports Illustrated For Kids Yoshinobu Yamamoto card could be any Dodger card to get this quick post started. (Yes, another quick post, I swear someone made the days only 22 hours now).   This is the first 2026 Dodger in my collection that was not made by Topps. I received it in a unique TCDB trade in which I traded a couple 9-pocket mini pages for it (I hope JR3 has received the pages, I always get nervous when I see no update in the transactions for a few days -- especially since the USPS ate a few random Dodgers I ordered a month ago).   Obviously I don't have a lot of 2026 Dodgers yet but it's a good time to go through another update of how many Dodger cards I have for eac...

  I placed what likely will be my final comc order Saturday. I'll write about why I'm feeling that way when the order arrives but I think everyone reading this who has dealt with that site recently knows that it's not what it once was.   I'm going to have to widen my horizons yet again when it comes to purchasing cards. It seems like the reliable old ways -- comc, card shows, retail shelves -- aren't as fool-proof as they once were, and I'm going to need to look for more alternatives.   Fortunately I'm well-connected and my love for the hobby is well-known. Cards can come from any direction as this post will show.   These cards arrived from Alan through the BlueSky giveaway thread. They are TCMA reprints of the 1936 Goudey set (R322). My excitement in getting these -- other than that I love everything TCMA -- is that they're from 1972, which is the first year TCMA began issuing sets. These are the oldest TCMA cards that I own! Heck, they might as well b...

  Before I wrote this, I was caught between wanting to celebrate my team's World Series championship and thinking maybe I'll shut up about it because people don't want to hear it.   I know I shouldn't worry about that -- who cares what those people think, my team just won two World Series in a row for the first time since I became a fan 50 years ago! But I was raised not to boast and if people are mad about the thing I want to boast about maybe it's not worth boasting about anyway.   Still, I didn't come up with the current MLB climate of haves and have-nots. I picked my team a long time ago, before free agency was a way of life. The only super-team I knew then were the Yankees. There are several super-teams now (look up MLB payrolls, the Dodgers aren't even first). The Dodgers get a lot of hate, warranted or not. But I can't let that spoil my celebration of TWO WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONSHIPS IN ROW.   I'm not accustomed to this, obviously. I've watc...

  I am clinging to at least four dying sources of information ... some would say "dead" in some cases.   I work at a newspaper and still read one virtually everyday. I'm certain half of the current population couldn't tell you what one looked like. I write for a magazine and read that same magazine -- when I have time. Again, half the population would say something like, "my dad used to talk about those."   I'm still part of Facebook. I check it maybe every other day just to stay up on the few friends that are still on there. But many, many people deleted that app a few years ago, and again, people in their 20s consider it social media for aunts and uncles. And, finally, I still run a card blog -- and I expect it to supply me with information and entertainment just like all those other "archaic" mediums.   But clearly, my expectations are too high. My own blog is probably dying, too. I used to brag about the still-robust reader numbers for year...

  I am in that wonderful between period in which I've opened Christmas gifts but there are more to come. So I hesitated writing this post as there could be more cards to come. But I can just write another brag post later! All the cards I received so far came from my sister-in-law. You've read about her before. She's the one with the magic touch when it comes to selecting items in the card aisle. Two years ago she sent an Archives blaster that yielded a George Foster autograph , which I still have. There were many instances before that, too. This year I received two hanger packs of 2024 Update from her. These are the first packs of Update I've opened as I've purposely avoided them, simply hand-picking the Dodgers.     Upon opening the first pack I felt like I made the right call, probably right around pulling that Padres' duo rookie card. "Why am I opening a pack with Padres rookies?" was about the exact thought I had. These cards seemed meaningless.   ...

  I've been blessed with a few Dodgers-centric packages in the last month. They're most appreciated because I get distracted with other non-Dodger things in my collecting and sometimes I feel that the Dodger part suffers a little. But only just a little.   Thanks to those packages I've reached another milestone. I'm going out of order with when I received the packages here to get straight to that milestone, but you'll see the other packages in good time. I always show them off.   I reached 30,000 unique Dodgers cards yesterday. It was a heavy mail day Monday, which was a nice surprise. Four separate envelopes. The Dodgers started with the beautiful 2024 Finest Shohei Ohtani, which is from the "1993 Finest 'What If ...' Prototype" insert set -- we're just getting more and more complex with our insert names.   That was my own purchase and it was Dodger card No. 29,994 in my collection.     Next up was a surprise envelope from Matt of Cards Over C...