Night Owl Cards

I made a trade with Jason from Hobbs' Knights a few weeks ago. He sent me a pack of 2012 Topps, which contained mostly cards that I didn't have -- always nice. He also sent this card separately, which is also nice in its own little "I collect that guy" kind of way. What's not to like about the player? But if I'm being honest I don't like these inserts at all. I think the gold commercials parody post I wrote a couple weeks ago made that pretty clear. But especially with these particular Golden Greats, I find the look epicly boring. The design, the weird gold coin logo, the faded picture, the questionable concept. It all smacks of an excuse to put a legendary player on another card. But the absolute most annoying part of this card is we've seen this photo of Jackie Robinson over and over and over again. It didn't used to be the way. Remember 10 years ago when the "Legends on New Cards" craze first began? Remember Upper Deck Le...

Here is the remainder of my COMC loot. I'm starting with Le Grand Orange because this 1971 Topps card of him is the last time Rusty Staub would appear in a Topps set until 1974 (with one exception, as you'll see in a moment). This has always intrigued me because there aren't a lot of cases in which a high profile player was cut out of a Topps set. In the few that there are, the reasons are well-known. Barry Bonds wouldn't sign the MLB licensing agreement. Jason Varitek didn't like the photo that Topps took of him. Maury Wills resented Topps for not signing him to a contract and became Fleer's No. 1 guy. And then there were the Topps-Bowman card brawls of the 1950s. But I haven't come across a specific explanation for why Staub wasn't included in Topps' 1972 and 1973 sets. All I've heard was that Staub and Topps "had a falling out" or "couldn't come to an agreement." Why? There had to be a reason. This was before f...

Pitchers and catchers report to Dodgers camp today in Arizona. What a glorious, fantastic day. That is if I was 2,500 miles to the southwest of where I sit. But I celebrate in my frozen little corner of the world in what little way I can. So my celebration of the arrival of another Dodgers spring training camp is to show off some recent Clayton Kershaw card acquisitions. You remember, Clayton, right? Cy Young Award winner? Ace of the staff? The most dominant pitcher the Dodgers have had since maybe Ramon or Orel, but more probably since Sandy and Don? Of course you do. I'm coming across more and more Kershaw collectors these days, and it's not because there are more Dodgers fans. People just gravitate toward star players. And that means Clayton's autograph cards and relic cards go for amounts that I don't want to spend. So I've been holding off on the "hits" and focusing on the pretty parallels instead. Some days I even prefer the parallels. I...

No, it's not Rickey. Stay with me now. In my continuing pursuit of the complete 1984 Donruss set, I am down to needing just 39 cards. That is most excellent. But you know what that also means. Yup, I'm left with a bunch of stars and rookies to find. Including: Cal Ripken Jr. Nolan Ryan Mike Schmidt Ozzie Smith Joe Carter rookie George Brett Gary Carter Reggie Jackson Darryl Strawberry rookie Ryne Sandberg Wade Boggs Paul Molitor Quite a bit of firepower there, huh? Now, I have no doubt that I'll eventually have all of these car ... Wait, what? I'm missing someone on that list? No, I think I've got them all. Those are all the big stars and rookies that I still need. I'm not including some of the Diamond Kings, but I'm not as worried about those. They're just paintings you know and who cares about ... What? No, I'm telling you that's all of the big cards in that set. Anything you don't see in the list, I have...

I said that I would update the progress of the One-Card Challenge periodically. This is the first of what I hope will be several updates. One of the best parts of the One-Card Challenge for a busy person like me is that I don't have to do much to keep it going. I update the original post periodically, forward an address occasionally, and distribute a "congratulations" here and there. But fellow collectors do most of the work. Of course, that's a drawback, too, because I don't quite have a handle on how many One-Card Challenges have been met. So far, I know of nine. And I'll show them all here. But if there are others, please let me know. Here we go: Challenge: Ozzie Smith, 2008 Masterpieces Set Completed by: Captain Canuck Challenge Met by: Two Packs a Day This is the first successful OCC as far as being notified. There might have been one that was completed sooner, but it's hard to keep tabs on stuff like that. As always, if a One-Ca...

Hey, if I'm going to show them all eventually, I have to show this one. This is the first team card from the 1956 Topps set that I have displayed in this series, and it suffers from the same issue that other team cards from the '50s and '60s suffer from -- you can't recognize anyone! At least during the '50s, Topps would run a handy identifying key across the bottom, although sometimes distinguishing who is in which row is rather tough. Another issue with this particular card is the IDs aren't from left to right -- like with IDs with 99 percent of photos -- but right to left. How do I know this? Well, unfortunately, there were only a handful of African-American major leaguers during the '50s, so when I'm desperate to identify someone out of the mass of similar, blurry Caucasians, I look for the darker skin. Willie Mays is seated third from right in the front row. Go down to the identification key and Mays is the third guy mentioned in the fron...

With the exception of blogging, I'm not feeling any aspect of card collecting right now. I can't get myself to send out my half of trades, or search for the necessary cards. I can't get myself to file cards or catalog them -- usually two of my favorite things to do. I don't even want to head out to the local Target and see what's not there. I'm dealing with a semi-serious issue right now. How serious, I don't know. Could be trivial, could be life-altering, could be a warning shot across the bow. Everything's in limbo. Meanwhile, the not knowing is putting a damper on almost everything. Except for blogging. Because as I've said many times, this is my oasis. So let's get to the oasis, shall we? I just received a shipment from Check Out My Cards. It's the second part of my Christmas money shopping spree. The spree got delayed because of life problems. Then the package got delayed because of COMC life problems. Apparently, they were in th...