Night Owl Cards

  Ever since the local monthly show (and many other shows throughout the country) has become overrun with TCG cards I've debated skipping or at least not automatically attending every month. It's become less and less productive over the past 9 months to a year.   But like they say in the majors, "that's why you play the game." I was pretty surprised when I walked into the usual hall Saturday.   First, it was packed. I normally attend closer to 1 p.m. when typically the crowd has thinned out. But I could tell driving into the parking lot that there were still many people there. Second, the show was overwhelmingly sports cards. Any Pokemon, Magic, etc. seemed limited to a handful of tables. I don't know what caused the sudden shift back to sports cards but I was glad I got up off my recliner.   The change affected my mood more than my shopping. The tables were still overrun with graded football and basketball and I'm sure I heard "PSA" uttered 25-5...

   One thing that has become very clear to me over the last year is that my way of collecting cards -- the way that was the established primary way of collecting for as long as I've been alive -- is being phased out.   There are a variety of reasons -- and forces at work -- for this. I am reminded of one of them every time I attend the monthly card show.   In the past year, the show has moved from primarily sports cards to primarily RPG/TCG cards. I have less than zero interest in these. When I paid my entrance fee at the table, the guy there asked if I wanted to enter the raffle and gestured toward a gift basket filled with TCG stuff -- don't ask me what it was, I couldn't tell you. I gave the guy a flat "no" that sounded like "of course not."   But I'd say more than half of the tables was Pokemon, Magic and whatever else there is in that fantasy realm. Just about the rest was graded football and basketball of mostly modern cards. But I've writt...

  Just a short post today. Fridays are always busy and it doesn't help that MLB starts the World Series on a Friday now. We sat through three off days so we could get to a day when I absolutely cannot watch. The current configuration means that I will get to see exactly one game live even if it goes a full 7 games. Also no World Series game on a Sunday is appalling. Makes me want to write a strongly worded letter to the commissioner.   So there's not nearly enough time to relay my complicated thoughts about my Dodgers going for a second straight World Series title for the first time in my life as a baseball fan. It's already a weird space to be in, having to constantly bat away "anyone-but-the-Dodgers" spewing on the usual sites. (I spent part of the morning deleting any youtube video suggestion that has to do with "the Dodgers are ruining baseball". Why would these be in my suggestions?)   The Dodgers can do something in the 2025 World Series that has b...

  I don't know how many more times I'm going to visit my local monthly card show. I can feel my interest waning.   I skipped last month's show, mostly because there was a bigger, better show the next day. But another reason is the content of the local show is just not interesting to me. I've already mentioned how it's now dominated by RPG cards (Pokemon, etc.) and graded slabs of mostly modern football/basketball, but today it was particularly dire.   There was one table that I found dedicated to sports cards as I knew them as recently as 25 years ago. Just, plain, good, ol', unslabbed cards from the '50s, '60s, '70s and '80s. It was the usual table I visit. But often there are some other smaller tables with the same stuff, or dollar boxes I can sift through.   But not today. My dealer friend, of course, was not there, having passed last month . The other guy I know who used to work in my office hasn't been there for at least a couple shows....

  It hit 90 degrees today. I'm not someone who is bothered by the heat, but once it's 90 I take notice. It's not super rare around here -- I'd say we're in the 90s about 5 times a year -- but I was still tempted to stay inside.   Fortunately I didn't.   I was in a yank to get to the monthly card show. I've been frustrated lately by the lagging arrival of my online card purchases the last couple of weeks. I don't know if this is a traditional July thing (sellers and postal workers on vacation), but shipments are not appearing on the days I was told. Also, I have received back-to-back postage-due slips on orders, which seems a little outrageous.   So it was one of those times where I thought "I can't get anyone to send me my cards, I'm going to go get them myself ." Crank the AC, I'm coming for you, show!   I had no expectations for this show. With just five 1969 Topps cards needed, and none of them available the last time I visited, ...

  I stopped at the monthly card show Saturday. It was the second straight weekend card show I had attended. This would have been crazy talk in the first 10 years of my blog, but it's something that could easily happen two or three times a year now -- and if I wanted to do a little more traveling around the state, I might be able to go to a show nearly every week over the next six months.   I'm not quite that obsessed. Two in two weeks is quite amazing enough for me.   So you may remember in the show write-up last week that I said I actually finished the show with cash left over. That means I carried that cash into Saturday's show. I padded it just a little, but I budgeted about half the amount for this show that I did for last week's.   It turned out to be plenty because I left this show with money left over, too!  I'd like to blame the expanding number of tables selling Pokemon and such -- it's getting so pervasive that I'm starting to see a world where the...