Night Owl Cards

If 2022 Topps really wanted to draw my interest, it would recognize a significant anniversary in its history this year. It's been 50 years since Topps installed an "In Action" subset into its flagship set for the first time, in 1972. And it's been 40 years since Topps repeated that tactic in its 1982 set. I was quite disappointed when I opened packs in 1992 and found no "In Action" subset. Since that time, the only "In Action" references from Topps that I can think of are online one-off deals. Maybe it was an insert set recently? I don't know. If it isn't part of the base set, I lose track.   Perhaps it isn't necessary to have such a subset now since just about every base card is an action card. But I think there are creative ways to make an "In Action" set today by finding special action shots or using different cropping to make the cards distinctive. But again, stuff like this is usually reserved for SPs and such. I'm wi...

  I took the blogging day off yesterday to get some card room organizing done. I finally found a second giant box to store my Dodger dupes instead of the dozen smaller boxes that have been stacked on top of each other and confusing me about what exactly was in each one. Now I have one giant Dodger dupes box that goes from the 1970s to 1999 and a second that runs from 2000 to now. Very convenient how that fell, broken down by century. I also bought a couple of binders to begin replacing the many dilapidated binders in my Dodgers collection. There's only so much you can do with duck tape. And I rooted around a little for the latest installment of Dodgers giveaway packages. Next group of four heads out this week. More to come. Also yesterday three card packages arrived for me -- none that I ordered. This is a rarity as we're long past the days of bloggers everywhere shipping cards hither and yon. The box from Johnny's Trading Spot rivaled some of those packages I received back...

  Twitter, just like the blogs and ebay, suckers me into buying a card when I'm least expecting it. It doesn't happen often -- because, lordy, the weird stuff people are interested in on there -- but when it does, dammit, why do I have to press a key to get ebay to appear???   Such a thing happened when somebody, maybe Ryan Fagan of the Sporting News, was showing a card from 1997 Topps Screen Plays. I don't remember who the player was, probably because it wasn't a Dodger, but it looked magnificent. I ran to ebay immediately and found a Hideo Nomo Screen Plays card for like 10 bucks less than anyone else was selling it for and sat in a chair and waited for it to arrive so I could play with it. That is the thing with card gadgets like these. You're required to play with it. I don't really mind that most of the time -- 1970s Kellogg's cards were the precursor to these Screen Plays cards and you know I love those Kellogg's cards. But sometimes I'm sick o...

  I made the inaccurate statement the other day that the forgotten Billy Wynne received just two Topps cards in his career and both of them were high numbers. But actually just one of them was a high number. His 1970 Topps card is a "semi-high number" at card No. 618, according to most set checklists. I suppose that doesn't make a difference to some of you, but if you're collecting a set that involves high numbers, it definitely makes a difference. The 1970 Topps high numbers start at No. 634 and Wynne is just 16 cards away from being studied, memorized and having his mug shot posted on every set-collectors' wanted wall. Wynne's appearance made me wonder if there were any players whose cards showed up only in the high numbers, which was a yearly part of Topps sets between 1952-73, with a few exceptions. But obviously Wynne is not eligible now. And as I studied the high numbers my wondering changed to "who has the MOST cards in the high numbers?" I c...

  One of my favorite little oddball sets from the 1970s doesn't have anything to do with Kellogg's, Hostess, TCMA, Burger King or the Fleer World Series sets.   It's a Dodger-specific issue, but I know almost nothing about it, and even the Great Big Book of Everything Cards, the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards, acts mysterious. "Presumed to be a collectors' issue," it says, "due to the lack of sponsors or licensors logos." Even the name is a little bit in dispute. I know it as the "1979 Go Dodger Blue set" because that's what it says in bright blue letters on the back, with an exclamation point. The Standard Catalog calls it simply "1979 L.A. Dodgers". I figured that with the "rah-rah" style of the back that it was some sort of stadium-issued set, but now I'm a little bit fascinated with how it was issued. This was pretty much before the card shop boom, was it some sort of mail-order deal? Were they given out ...

  I'm still in the middle of my "Dodgers extras" giveaway, probably not even halfway through. I've been sending out four packages a week, which is actually a combination of Dodgers giveaway cards and usual trade packages. So it's slow-and-steady going. Another mailing should go out by the end of the week. And I expect the giveaway packages to continue for another month. But I've already received a return mailing for one giveaway envelope I sent -- and that was not expected at all. I am not looking for cards in return for this. I know card collectors are super-generous and give without thinking but, really, nobody needs to send anything to me. I just want these cards out. That said ... WEEEEEEEEEE! A package? For moi????? Bryan, who is a regular commenter on this blog (major night owl points for those who comment on this blog only), sent me an oddball-heavy envelope, which is squarely in my wheelhouse. Such an expert choice of cards to ship me. He also sent a...