Night Owl Cards

  I will have my annual postseason post coming up in a day or two -- I think -- but before that I wanted to show some other postseason cards I've gained lately. I know the early '70s Fleer Laughlin cards aren't everyone's bag, but that's good because it'll keep the greedy suckers who are gobbling up every card they think is valuable away from stuff I love. These cards give me the warm fuzzies, remembering those days in the '70s when Laughlin's art was all the rage (well, it was everywhere anyway) at the same time I was first getting to know the history of the game. I received these four cards, they're from the 1970 Fleer World Series set, in a Twitter sale thread. These are from Allen .   Sale threads are all over Twitter these days, it's about 50 percent of what I see, it seems like. It's pretty annoying but at least I found something I like and could afford. As usual, the quirkiness of these cards, from the topics selected, to the illustrat...

  I've already expressed my thoughts on Topps' new online Super 70s set here , here , here and here , so it's about time I spit it out on my own site.   The 2020 Topps X Super 70s set (no, I don't know what the 'X' means) is another Topps online-only collaboration, much like other, so-called "curated" sets. This time, Topps has combined with Ricky Cobb, who runs one of the most popular Twitter sites, Super 70s Sports. If you aren't on Twitter, the Super 70s site is an often amusing tribute to everything 1970s. It's not for everyone, the takes are frequently off-color and some would say antiquated, but for someone who grew up in the '70s, as I did, a lot of the nostalgia that comes from the site makes sense to me. It's one of the few consistently amusing places on Twitter. The set is 90 cards and you might think that something focused on the 1970s would be all about the 1970s, from design to feel to content. Two out of three ain't ...

Here's another story about "the good in Twitter". I was having a conversation over there with a few like-minded collectors, fans of vintage cards, in which one of us displayed the entirety of the sixth series of 1972 Topps. The difficulty of obtaining all of the cards in that final series is well-known, so seeing that series all at once, even though all of those cards are sitting in a binder next to me right now, was impressive. Seeing that image brought back all of the trials and tribulations that went into completing that last series, which also completed the entire 1972 set for me. It was a grind. It was an obstacle course. It was a treasure hunt. It was nothing like I had ever collected before. So I said: It certainly feels like a club. I'm aware, from being a blogger a number of years, that not just anybody can complete a set. A lot of people don't have that gene. And completing a set with high numbers? THOSE kind of high numbers? That takes a ...

It is becoming apparent that looking for cards in a big box store card aisle is going to be a futile exercise at least through the end of the year. I refuse to hunt down the distributor's schedule and stalk the poor worker, congregating with other stalkers amid a pandemic. There is absolutely nothing released in 2020 that is worth that. I collect cards. I don't flip them and almost never sell them. So, really, what's the point? I don't need you card aisle. Yes, you and me have been friends -- along with card counter and card end cap -- since the 1970s. You have been a happy destination for many, many years. But it's time to address what has become mere habit for too long. Nothing in your card aisle is needed anymore. Find a set like 2015 Topps flagship or Allen & Ginter between 2006 and 2011, or a scenario when Fleer and Upper Deck shared the shelves with Topps, or when Chrome had borders. Then give me a call, card aisle. I'll be there. Repeat...

A couple of years ago I received an email out of the blue from Michael Aronstein, the hobby pioneer who was the main figure behind all of those TCMA sets of the '70s and '80s that I love so much, the SSPC sets and, it turns out, even more. I sent a couple of emails in return but never received a response. It didn't bother me much. A hobby legend can respond to whomever he wants. I'm just one blog in the sea. It certainly didn't stop me from enjoying TCMA's cards or acquiring more of them. I'd like to acquire all of them. It is a completely unrealistic quest (if only because of that much coveted Rickey Henderson minor league card TCMA made) because of the sheer number of sets TCMA created. But you've got to have goals. Recently, I discovered Aronstein's son, Andrew, on social media. The other day we were chatting a bit on Twitter and I felt reconnected to those old TCMA sets all over again. It's clear that Andrew greatly respects his f...

If you look at my Twitter profile page , you will see that Twitter says I joined the social media site in September 2012. Like almost everything on Twitter, that's only partially accurate. I actually joined Twitter in 2010. Then after just over a year of viewing non-stop angst, constant self-promotion and a relentless stream of topics that I didn't sign up for at all , I scrapped my Twitter account. But several months later I decided to give it another try. Twitter had tweaked itself enough so that you could streamline what you wanted to see a little better. The mute button -- what I think is possibly the greatest creation of the social media age -- ensured that I could remain a part of the electronic Tower of Babble without going insane from daily inanity spewing from my timeline. These days, what I view on Twitter is mostly information about trading cards and baseball. That's really all I care about when it comes to screen time. Oh, people try to pollute my tim...

If you do not have a Twitter account, I do not blame you one bit. Twitter, to put it quite bluntly, is the biggest shit show I have ever joined. I am sure there are people who have signed up to Twitter because it's such a mess. In fact, I know there are. And that right there explains the mind-set of Twitter. It is a continuously updated series of disasters and overreactions, from people who love to wallow in disasters and overreactions, dialed up to two thousand and splattered in your face in a fit of pent-up aggression. Think of the most annoying student you knew in college. Now think of that same student with all of his or her neuroses, personal agendas and self-absorbed political thoughts belligerently aired for everyone to hear, just blaring from the student union, almost around the clock, and dammit, you'd better agree. That's Twitter much of the time. Twitter is even more dysfunctional these days because the political takes are just relentless (as it is on any ...