Night Owl Cards

   I have written about the year 1987 a lot on this blog. Veteran readers know that I wasn't collecting in 1987. I was in college and no longer interested. In '86 I didn't buy a single pack. I'm not as clear on '87, but I think the same was true that year.   So, knowing where I am now with cards, why would I consider 1987 "great"?   Well, I've written about that, too. My social life was never better. I had found my people, I was settling on a new direction as far as my career, and getting comfortable in it, and I also found my life partner, though I probably didn't know it at the time.   I think about that year a lot, particularly in October, which was the month that year that me and several members of the school newspaper went halfway across the country to a 4-day journalism seminar for college students in St. Louis and tore up the town.   It's insane that it's getting close to 40 years since that year. Forty years since Crowded House'...

  I haven't done much with my 1987 Fleer set build. It's the only '80s Fleer set that I haven't completed, yet I've been stuck on 68% finished for awhile.   I haven't bothered to make a want list, either here or on TCDB. I sure don't feel like trading for it, and buying the whole set online would give me 450-plus doubles and there's just no time in my life for a 1987 Fleer art project.   So what I do have of the set is just kind of sitting there waiting. I thought I'd throw it a bone and point out one of the plus-aspects of the set, other than its cool look and wonderfully descriptive "blue freeze pop" Define the Design set name.   This means we're going to have to turn the cards over to the back, so I hope you can handle that.   1987 Fleer was the beginning of Fleer's comic era. I know it's just a little cartoon batter or pitcher squeezed at the bottom of the card and repeated over and over on card after card, but as someone wh...

  In many ways it seems like the years are speeding up and 2023 has only been three months long. But sometimes I think back to something and say to myself "was that still in this year?"   I knew I wanted to review my trades for the year on Trading Card Database but I could've sworn that I started trading in 2022. That's just my fading brain. I wrote vigorously about my first TCDB trades and they were in February of this year.   Before TCDB trading I didn't think I needed it. I was trading plenty through the blogs and the thought of taking extra time for another trading avenue was not appealing or seemed doable. I was wrong about that, although it does seem like extra work sometimes. I still trade through the blogs, on a much more smaller scale (because everyone's doing the TCDB thing), and sometimes I mix things up. I list a card available for trade on TCDB but then ship it off in a non-TCDB deal and forget to update its status on TCDB (in TCDB trades, the sta...

  I like to think of myself as judicious, shrewd, prudent, and all those other synonyms for smart and rational collecting behavior. But I have my moments. Sometimes I can't help myself when someone is offering cards for 10 cents apiece. I mentioned my most recent baseballcardstore.ca purchase a few posts ago and showed off some 1986 Fleer. '86 Fleer is right on the cusp of the era when every card should be a penny ... or less. I have no problem spending 10 cents or a quarter for cards from '86. But cards from '87 all the way through '92? You're going to have to convince me. So how do I explain this? That's a stack of 1987 Fleer from the dime box store. There are 120 cards there for a dime each. That's really overpaying. I can go online right now and buy a complete '87 Fleer set for 10 bucks. So what is wrong with me? Why would I blow extra money on '87 Fleer? Well, I don't really have any good reasons. I do admit I'm not that thrifty wit...

*Gasp* "Did you hear what night owl just said?" "'Who needs a card show?'" "Card collector blasphemy!" All right, settle down everyone. I admit I'm just a wee bit frustrated with the number of card shows I've read about in the still relatively young year of 2018. I believe somebody was going to a card show on New Year's Day! My first card show of the year -- if I make it that far -- will be in April. There is one in March, too, but whoever set the date is obviously not following high school or collegiate sports because that is one busy weekend for people who are shooting hoops or pucks. I'll be occupied. But it doesn't matter because just a week or so ago, the mailman placed something quite heavy on my porch (no doubt cursing as he did so). It was the package from Johnny's Trading Spot . Inside that package was three long boxes stuffed with cards. "Call it the best damn dime box," Johnny said. OK, I ...