Night Owl Cards

  I don't have a lot of time today. I've been squeezing in the last few day trips before vacation ends. Also, we added a new roommate yesterday.   That's Francesca, a.k.a. Fran, a.k.a., she'd be adorable if she'd sit still for a second. So after swearing off pets a couple years ago, there's another one to rule the roost. These things are never my idea but I do like my pets. Anyway, here's a quick thing I noticed a week or so ago that may not interest anyone but I thought it was interesting. When I completed the 1977 Hostess set, I noticed something about the back of the set. (This is why you sort your cards by number): These are the final pages of the 1977 Hostess set, cards 118-150 (sorry about the reflections, I was rushing).  If you review all the cards after the Ray Fosse card, card No. 122, you will note that they all feature airbrushed hats and uniform tops. The final 28 cards in the set are airbrushed. I'm not sure what this means, but I think Top...

  I have a bias when it comes to the month of July. Naturally I am going to like it because it's my birthday month. It is also the month for the All-Star Game, one of my favorite sports events. It's also a month in which baseball is the primary sport in action and every one of those other sports that dominates the calendar loudly -- football, basketball, hockey -- isn't playing. Even my next favorite sports event after anything baseball, Wimbledon, is mostly in July. I'm not done. July is the slowest month of the year at my job. Therefore it is the month in which I take the most vacations. I am always off in July. Always. And July is the height of summer, probably my favorite season, just edging out fall. Finally -- and this just occurred to me about a week ago -- it is the month in which I regularly acquire the most cards. It's been that way for the last three Julys. Thanks to TCDB, I can chart my month-by-month progress and July is the only month from last year fo...

  I don't know about you but among the many voices in my head are the ones that say "have you finished this set yet?" "Don't forget to complete that team set!" "Wow, it's a long time since you did anything with that set!" So many voices and out-and-out badgering about card tasks. So the first Sportlots order of the year was about quieting a bunch of those voices -- or at least cutting down on the volume -- by completing as many sets as I could as cheaply as I could. You already read about me finishing the 1986 Traded set . I posted that back on May 27, and there's still one card straggler from that Sportlots order that hasn't arrived. It's always interesting how some cards show up within days and others seem to have a long conversation with themselves over whether they really want to live in my house. When that card arrives, it will complete a team set, too. But let's see the stuff that's actually here. Look it, you guys, 19...

  I have probably mentioned a couple times that I feel like my era of collecting is underrepresented on social media. That's likely because folks who collected as kids in the '70s are less likely to be appearing on Twitter/X or Instagram. And I don't do cards on Facebook, which probably has a better chance of showing card stuff from my era. But it's difficult for me to match the glee for late '80s and '90s cards that I see constantly on those other social media sites. Like I've said before, it seems like every collector online began collecting in 1987. There's probably a book in there somewhere because it's definitely a thing. But I don't want to collect stuff from that time. I see pack-openings of 1990 Donruss a lot. I already know what's in those packs, they do, too. I don't have any desire to be trapped in a 1990 time loop. Also, and this is the key thing, I like cards issued earlier a whole lot more. Folks who collected those cards fr...

    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....

  So, after experiencing a personal crisis with my all-time favorite oddball a couple of months ago , I took some action. I removed all of my Kellogg's 3D cards from 1970-78 from their top loaders and placed each of them inside a shoebox in stacks. This, I hope, will limit the cracking that I saw with some of my top-loadered Kellogg's cards. I kept the 1979-83 Kellogg's cards in their top loaders and upright in the same box where the '70-78 Kellogg's cards used to live. I haven't experienced any of the '79-83 cards cracking so I think they're safe. Meanwhile, my Dodgers Kellogg's cards, all of them from 1970-83, are still in top loaders in their own stack. That's playing with fire, after I experienced the issues with the other Kellogg's cards in top loaders. But only one of the Dodgers cards has cracked, it's the 1970 Bill Singer card above. Oof. The point is, I now have my Kellogg's cards in four different places, a shoebox for 70-78...