Night Owl Cards

  It's been a frustrating year for collecting the kind of cards I like collecting. I've eased up on my vintage interests because there's no sense paying those prices. I'm hoping they'll settle back to normal in the coming months or maybe years (ack!), but for now those are not hard-charging needs. The same with Kellogg's cards from the '70s, which practically break my heart. It wasn't even 3 or 4 years ago when dealers were close to begging me to take them at card shows and now try finding one of the stars from those sets uncracked for under 20 bucks.   I experienced first-hand this sticker shock after an accident in my card room a few weeks ago.   I store my completed Kellogg's sets in stacks of top-loaders atop a shelf, out of the sunlight. There's probably a better place for them but I like that I don't have to move them because moving leads to ruin when 3-D cards are involved. I probably should get them in one of those card storage boxes ...

  I finished off the outstanding 1978 Kellogg's 3-D set last week when the final card arrived. Wrapping up that set also finished the trifecta of Kellogg's sets that I consider the absolute pinnacle of the Kellogg's 3-D experience. The 1976, 1977 and 1978 sets are completed, sleeved and stacked, and every time I look at them I have to beat back the memories with a cereal spoon. I don't remember much about the '76 cards, but memories of the year are all up in my brain. Meanwhile, the '77 and '78 cards are the first ones I ordered off the Frosted Flakes box and waited FOREVER for them to arrive. Few folks remember how cutting edge the 1978 Kellogg's set seemed at the time. Not only was Kellogg's using the very '70s color of BRIGHT YELLOW as its primary backdrop, but it slapped its brand logo on the front of every card in bright red. In terms of content, the first Blue Jay and Mariner to appear in a Kellogg's set showed up in '78. Eddie Mur...

  As I've mentioned a number of times, I devote two-thirds of the money I receive for magazine writing to savings. Working for a newspaper doesn't generate enough funds to even match a teacher's salary, so that cash comes in handy for real-life costs. The other third goes toward cards and those funds in the last couple of years have boosted my collecting in a significant way. You saw probably the flashiest card that I bought with my most recent article earnings, the 1956 Harmon Killebrew . But there were other cards that I bought with those latest funds, too. I moved closer to completing the 1978 Kellogg's set with a selection of six more cards from the set. With these latest cards I'm down to needing just four more cards to finish it. Those last few cards are Eddie Murray, Larry Bowa, Tommy John and Dave Parker. I have both Murray and Bowa in my cart right now. And I'm sure I'll track down John and Parker in no time. But enough about the stragglers. This po...

  Hello, it's contrarian night owl here, telling another tale about how obsessed we are with saving our cash.   I can tell you're shocked already.   Saving is a good thing, right? It's the American way. Getting the cheapest possible deal on whatever you're interested in purchasing gets you a little gold star or check mark somewhere, correct? Actually, I don't think that's the way it works. Which is why I haven't been much for trying to find the cheapest way to buy cards. I've addressed this before . I see the point if you're on a strict budget or your job status is shaky or you're paying tuition for three kids in college. But saving for saving's sake I just don't get. Sure, I get excited when I find a deal on ebay. And I pat myself on the back when I discover a shirt I bought that I like was on clearance. But it's never the point of the sale for me. The point is: did I get what I want? Recently, I think I found another point, when it ...

  Even though it's clear to me that I'm enjoying the hobby more this year and being much more productive as far as my collecting is concerned, I still need convincing. I've collected by buying packs at the store closest to me since I was a wee owl 45 years ago. It's a habit that's been difficult to break when that's all you've known as the Way To Collect. But now that card aisles remain vacant, I keep coming up with good reasons why regular pack purchasing is pretty pointless. Earlier today, while continuing to sort through all of my Dodgers dupes, I noticed again how rookies overrun Topps products. My dupes from the last 10 years were absolutely saturated with rookies that are now long forgotten, even if the product is only a couple of years old. Players like Zach Lee, Trayce Thompson and Alex Guerrero dominated my recent doubles. People can't wait to get rid of these sudden no-names. And when you look back on that product from three years ago, you real...