Night Owl Cards

  I made it to the monthly show across town today. It was the first time I was able to get there since January, having missed the last two because of poorly-timed weather.   This is good because the big Syracuse show is in a week and I'm probably not going to be there due to the lack of a vehicle.     The monthly show is definitely not the Syracuse show. I was reminded again by the ever-pervasive fantasy card tables that you can ignore at the Syracuse show because there is so much regular card show goodness. Today's show featured two tables that got my money. There were probably four tables total that offered the cards that interest me -- i.e. sports cards not encased in plastic.   But all things considered in the hobby (*waves hands at everything*), I'll take it.   This show will not be long for my world if one particular dealer decides it's not worth it (two of his seller buddies who used to accompany him at the monthly show have ditched it for Syrac...

  The internet has a great way of providing something you have always wanted, or never even imagined possible ... and then eventually ruining it.   I experienced this great disappointment in duplicate in 2025. Two sites, so entrenched in my entertainment preferences for so many years, had evolved so far away from what I had valued them for that I could no longer ignore it.   I am struggling now to separate myself from one of them, which is Spotify. I have used the streaming site daily for the last four or five years, it has been where I discover new music and how I determine my favorite songs and albums of the year. So getting away from that and finding a new option (I'm trying Tidal right now but it is not cooperating with me) is going to take awhile.   The other site I hope is more of a clean break. In fact, I have already declared in multiple places that I have made my final order on COMC. I hope that remains true.   I have been ordering from COMC since late ...

  I've been going to the card shows at the New York State Fairgrounds since before I started this blog. My guess on the year I first went is possibly 2007, maybe 2006. I wasn't seriously back into the hobby until then.   For many of the years that I attended, the shows were in the Horticultural Building, which I think is the biggest building at the fairgrounds (I only go to the fairgrounds for card shows, have never been to the state fair).   That building can fill a whole bunch of tables and it feels like home to me. But for a number of years now -- I'd say a good decade, it's been in the smaller Science & Industry Building -- which is around the corner. I sound like I know what I'm talking about here, but I don't have a good handle on the names of these buildings, as Angus of Dawg Day Cards found out Saturday when we drove to the show.   We got an earlier start than we usually do. The show was closing an hour earlier, at 3 p.m., because the building was h...