Night Owl Cards

I think it would make a nice test case study if you could put non-card collectors in front of a card display, featuring every kind of current card imaginable, and come to some conclusion based on what kind of packs they select instinctively. I kind of do a mini-version of that study -- all in my head, of course -- at Christmas time. I've now gotten to the point where I know I'm going to get something related to cards each year at this time. But since I refrain from asking for specific items -- I'm not going to make them track down a 1958 Duke Snider -- I'm basically sending them out into the woods and asking them to shoot at the first thing that looks good. And from the looks of what kind of cards they find for me, I can draw some horribly inaccurate and unfair conclusions. But it's fun, so what the hey. For example, my in-laws would be the shiny mojo type. I know this because almost every time they've purchased cards for me on the last 4 or 5 occasio...

Some Orioles fans wanted me to show a card of their favorite team in the last Allen & Ginter post. ... OK, one Orioles fan did. I didn't show it because, well, because it's an Orioles player. I don't think about the O's much. I think about them when I stray onto an Orioles card blog and when I talk to my brother, who is an Orioles fan and who I hassled because he was an Orioles fan. But that's about it. I didn't show any Cubs, A's, Diamondbacks, White Sox or Marlins cards either, but, no, Commishbob tells me I've got to show the Orioles card. Fine, here you are: Adam Jones, wearing the retro Orioles logo cap. I have no idea if he's wearing a cap in which the Oriole is also wearing an O's cap, or if it's a cap with just splotches of orange and white on it. I don't even know if I'm understanding the explanation by another O's fan -- Kevin -- correctly. Reading it was like trying to crack the Ginter code. You fans...

I received this card from jacob mrley of Starting Nine last week. It's from this year's Heritage set, of course, and it's flat-out ugly. Here, I'll show you the original Dodgers Big Three card from the 1963 Topps set for comparison. Isn't that much more purty? Now, you may not notice much of a difference -- or maybe you think I'm whining again -- but I'm not talking about the unnecessary italicizing of "Dodgers" on the Heritage card; the lack of an apostrophe on the Heritage card; or the relegation of Clayton Kershaw's name to the second row, when there was none of that nonsense with the original card. No, I'm talking about something much more apparent. It's the registered trademark symbol. Yup, it looks just about that big when I view the card. In fact, it's about all I see. Part of this is because the fonts used with 1963 Topps were rather large, leading to large trademark symbols. Obviously, trademarks ...