Night Owl Cards

  An immediately apparent observation since starting my chase of the late '80s/early '90s Pacific Legends and Swell Greats sets is how available they are. I shouldn't have been surprised -- they came from the late '80s/early '90s -- but as someone who collected fairly frequently at that time, I never saw these cards for sale. Pacific Legends cards were issued mostly as part of "Collectors boxed sets," which were popular at the time. I'm guessing a little bit here as I was a little too old for that stuff at the time (or believed I was). Swell cards, I don't know how they were issued. I started coming across these cards in my early blogging days, from blogger swaps and through repack boxes. The sets are delightful, especially the Swell cards, mostly due to the set checklist, which runs the gamut. You could pull a Honus Wagner, you could pull an Eric Soderholm. Anyway, these cards have been traveling a constant flow to my home from everywhere. TCDB tr...

I'm serious about this. If Upper Deck wants any chance of me buying more product than Topps next year, it needs to embrace its lack of an MLB license. And I mean EMBRACE it. Maybe plant a few big, sloppy kisses on it, too. And for me, embracing means showing that you don't have a license with pride . Don't worry about picturing a side view of the player, trying to hide the logo on the helmet or the words on the uniform, that stealth crap that Donruss did. Instead, advertise that you don't have a license for all the world to see. Wouldn't it be great if Upper Deck's cards next year looked like these Milton Bradley cards from 1984? That means not only featuring the photoshopped logo front and center, but designing the card in bright, gaudy colors and throwback designs. I know I've said that I'd have a hard time being interested in a set that doesn't show MLB logos, but going all out with something like this -- that's an idea I can appreci...