Night Owl Cards

Have you checked out the new "stats" feature on blogger yet? You can find out all kinds of odd-ball things about who looks at what posts and how they get to your blog and other great stuff. Aside from it alerting you to the fact that the world is filled with strange people who happen to be looking at your blog, there are some enlightening items there. For instance, some posts that I wrote long ago are still popular in terms of views. One of those posts was the first one that I did on the dollar store near me that sells cards. I'm not sure why people are still looking at that thing from a year-and-a-half ago, but they is. Back then, the store was packed with old cards from the '80s and '90s. Since then, it's been up and down, but mostly down. I still manage to find some adequate stuff for next to nothing, but there's less of it. A few days ago I headed there because at this time of the year I'm poor. I needed to buy cards and be cheap about it...

I'm not a movie person. I used to be. But I haven't been for years. When someone references Kick-Ass or Ironman2 or Shrek 46, I feel fortunate to know they are movie titles. I watch very little television, which explains my inability to decipher movie references. If it's on a commercial that doesn't appear with a baseball game, chances are I'm clueless. My deficiency in this area first came to light about 10 years ago, when younger people at work began to reference movie lines with disturbing regularity, and I had no idea what they were citing. Thank goodness I did see "Office Space," or I would've missed out on half the conversations of the last 10 years. This disinterest in movies and television means I am slow in a lot of pop-culture areas. And it's rather drastic. For example, I just acquainted myself with iTunes the other day. That is an embarrassing admission, given that it's been around for almost a decade and ...

I have decided to create a series out of my visits to the particular dollar store that sells cards from the '80s and '90s. I wasn't going to do this after the last couple of visits, because the aisle seemed to be conquered by football and basketball offerings. But things changed during a trip there the day before Easter. So, if you want to read about my previous visits, go here and here and here . Meanwhile, I hope to chronicle more dollar-store trips and I'll have them all linked on the sidebar. And that's because during my latest trip, I found a number of new zip-lock bags had been positioned in front of the non-baseball cards. In most of those bags were cards from 1981. Dang! I had stumbled across cards from the era of instant gratification. For those of you who remember 1981 and were collecting before '81, you know that was the year that Fleer and Donruss showed up in the same candy aisle as Topps. That may not mean much to those who know nothing b...

I went to the dollar store yesterday. There are probably 15 to 20 dollar stores within easy driving distance from where I am, but I think by now everyone knows which store I'm talking about when I say I went to the dollar store. It means I went to the dollar store with BASEBALL CARDS! (Proceed with party dance. ... OK, stop now. You're just embarrassing yourself). I was there to pick up some prize winnings for zman , who won my 700 th post contest. But as usual, I have to grab a few cards for myself. The football and basketball cards have taken over the whole card display at the store. They're like cancer cells, growing unchecked, burying the baseball cards all the way to the back of the display. But they do not deter me. I still leaf through all those bags for as long as it takes, until it's freakishly obvious that the dude with the baseball cap over there has been standing in front of the same display for 40 minutes . I swear he has not moved . ... But don...

I was back at the dollar store that sells cards today. It was in the general vicinity of where I bought my wife's Mother's Day present (no, I didn't buy the present at the dollar store. Don't get huffy). I know I've talked about watching my card budget and buying 2009 cards like UD First Edition. That's all lovely for current cards, but there is no beating what I find at this dollar store, at least among your retail options. I've developed a strategy for my trips to the store. I know what bags hold the football and basketball cards, which I don't want. And I've struck upon just the right "shaking" strategy to make sure I don't end up with this anymore. I suppose you could consider this "pack searching," except I don't harm any of the cards doing this or open the bags either. Today I bought six bags for 6 bucks plus tax. I ended up with no non-baseball cards and I counted maybe a dozen doubles out of 210 cards. And ...