Night Owl Cards

  After much internal debate, I've decided to end this series with two single-year posts. I started the Best On-Card Element series with posts dedicated to an entire decade. But as the number of sets increased through the 1980s and into the 1990s, these posts got more and more difficult. So the last two posts in this series will settle on just a single year. 1993 first and then 1994. That'll be it. It will mesh nicely with my departure in the hobby, which was somewhere in the middle of '94. To be honest, even though I've come back to the hobby, I've never really cared about the year's current cards as much as I did pre-1994. As for 1993, I've probably mentioned this before, but I consider it the last great year in cards, as well as the last great year in music. Heck, it was the last great year in life! I'm being somewhat facetious, but ever since '93, it's taken quite a bit of piling through a thousand tons of crap each year to get to the good st...

  This is another post inspired by a Twitter prompt. I guess I can never delete Twitter from my phone -- as I've often threatened to do -- because it's pretty clear that half my blog ideas come from there now. I don't know what that says about me. But anyway, the Twitter account Wax Pack Gods shot out a general question the other day, one of those things that always gets a response: what's your favorite Fleer design from the 1980s?   I could have sworn I ranked those sets ages ago on the blog, but the best I could come up with is this (probably should update that one). So I guess I haven't done it before. And I sure don't feel like doing it now. The short version is 1984 Fleer is my favorite of those '80s Fleer designs. It was back in 2010, it is now, it's always been -- except between 1981 and 1983, of course. But there is another '80s Fleer set that's been creeping upward over the years, particularly the last few, probably because I'm col...

  One of the best aspects of the hobby, something that keeps me coming to it again and again, is that it provides the best physical example, on almost a daily basis, that I'm making progress in SOMETHING in this life.   Success is all over my hobby, and I can't say the same thing for any other topic presently.   Whenever I add a card, when someone sends me a card, especially when that card is related to one of my main collecting missions, there is progress to behold. I stand up straight, put my hands on my hips, smile broadly at the brand-new card and chuckle smugly to myself.   OK, I don't do any of that. But I feel like doing that. SUCCESS! PROGRESS! I am doing things!!!   Bob from the best bubble has been sending me envelopes willy nilly lately. He is including cards that cover a wide cross-section of my card interests. I showed off the 1970 Topps Bills quarterback card a few posts ago . Some other cards helped me make a big leap forward in other card quests...

  Today is release day for 2022 Topps and true to form I am going to work, not the store or hobby shop. I'll wander out to Target or Walmart eventually, maybe Friday, maybe Sunday, more likely Monday, to see if there's anything left (or if it's even arrived). There are lots of folks on Twitter who have grabbed boxes or packs or whatever. And there are even more people advertising their breaks or trying to get you to join breaks. Getting through all of those pitches is kind of a chore. It hasn't reached one of the "must-avoid" Twitter days like Election Day or when some major world event happens (Twitter: the world is ending! THE WORLD IS ENDING!). But it gets a little annoying. Then there's this: This story came out in The Sporting News on the occasion of 2022 Topps being released. This isn't anything I find annoying really, just something that is interesting to me, as someone who isn't nostalgic about 1987 Topps at all.   I've never met Ryan F...