Night Owl Cards

   I had planned to publish my giveaway contest post of the extra goodies I received from The Diamond King's giveaway today. A nice festive post to kick off the weekend.   But that's been weather-delayed. My backyard helps tell part of the story as it converts into a pond for the second time this winter. A warming trend, complete with howling winds to keep everyone up at night, came through just as I got off of work last night. I'm on no sleep and the gloomy, doomy sky is not ideal for taking pics and a photo-heavy post.   I had planned to display all the card goodies I'm giving away but also a bunch of recent cards I had received from people who had been spurred on by DK's original giveaway. But I can't show dark pictures on such a cheerful post! (This should be exactly the kind of spark that gets me to spring for scanner number 4 or 5).    So that post is pushed back, hopefully to Monday. The sun better be out -- or at least there better be snow on the gr...

  Blog readers appear to be on vacation this week, which is fine, it's where I want to be. I don't want to put too much effort into a post today anyway, so I just have a follow-up from a post from a few months ago. Back then I was updating my progress on the Ron Cey MSA discs from 1976-77. The joy of collecting those is certainly not the fronts, with every one basically the same, Cey's hat black as night and a generic vibe you could pick up from yards away thanks to the blazing yellow edges (it was the '70s).   No, the goodness is on the back.     I showed off nine versions on that post. I've since added two more. I wanted to have more by this point, but I get distracted by so much card stuff and some of the variations aren't easy to find. Here are the two I've added: Towne Club Pop Centers. And Holiday Inn. So that brings me to 11. If I add the smaller Wiffle Ball disc in my collection, that's a full dozen.   But there are too many differences between ...

  When most card collectors think of parallels, they think of present day cards, or at least cards from the last 25 years or so. Some may think back to the 1990s, which is when the mass production of the parallel began. Some may even cite 1989 Donruss, as I have, with its Grand Slammers inserts that came in a variety of top-and-bottom colors on the front. Parallels have been running through the hobby for decades and decades, long before anyone even called them parallels. Many collectors see parallels as a plague, there are so many now that it's impossible for the brain to keep up with them -- and if you do, you're seen as a genuine nut case with way too much time on their hands. I like dabbling in parallels but try not to waste a lot of money on them, I chase way less of them than I did 10 years ago. For my parallel excitement now, I go back to the 1970s. Yes, the '70s had parallels, even if they weren't intentional.   I've posted about chasing the Ron Cey MSA discs...

  I hope you know that I'm never going to stop writing about '70s and '80s cards on here. To me, that's the greatest era for cards and the most appealing cards. It's the most appealing time period, too, for ... well, just about everything. Then we hit the '90s and pretended everything was the same but knew it wasn't and now we're in the 21st century and nobody knows what a radio is anymore. The beauty of cards is I can collect the same period over and over without anyone getting on me for living in the past (well, some people still might, but that would be rude of them).   I once worried that I was running out of cards to collect from this time but I now know that's absolutely not true and won't be for as long as I'm dragging myself around.   One of the best sources for '70s and '80s cards continues to be Dime Box Nick , which is a bit strange as I'm pretty sure he never set foot in either decade. He certainly understands the glor...

    When history comes to document my card purchases in March of 2023, it will find one large purchase of 1969 Topps cards. That will be the defining buy of the month for me. The remaining card acquisitions for the month have all arrived in dribs and drabs, only when I have a few spare dollars, never more than a handful each time, sometimes only one at a time. There was no card show, no comc or sportlots binge, not even a blaster splurge this month. I also think I've made my last card purchases for the month, and they're not here yet. So all I have for you is the most recent arrivals. It's probably not much to you, but they are everything to me, right now.   This was a single-card snag from @BettSpaghett79 who is known for offering up single cards for sale once in awhile. Most often, they are prospects I've never heard of, but a Dodger pops up periodically. Perhaps you're wondering why this card, so here it is: Why'd I buy this? 1. It's a Dodger card I need....

Charlie Brown, the lovable comic-strip loser, was fond of saying, "I never know what's going on." Charlie Brown, no surprise, was a baseball card collector. It's a hobby, I've found, in which you will never truly know what's going on. Even if you've been collecting for decades, even if you follow all the release dates and the online news, even if you're part of forums or blog communities or deal cards out of a shop, you will always come across something that you've never seen before. And isn't it great? The above card appeared in one of two back-to-back packages I received from Max from Starting Nine . "OK, it's Jackie Robinson on the 1961 Topps design," I said to myself. "This makes no sense at all." A few other Jackie Robinson cards came out of the package and they weren't any more logical. Jackie Robinson on the 1953 Bowman design, with a written notation on it. Jackie Robinson on the 1950 ...