Night Owl Cards

  It's been a fairly stressful week, between traveling, a delayed doctor's appointment, the loss of a beloved player from my youth, and now the most taxing World Series matchup I could possibly conjure up as a fan. The weekend will help a little (stupid sports teams still have to play on the weekend, tho) and so will the collection. I just happen to be wrapping up a super-simple sportlots order with the final cards trickling in. I like simple orders. Big-ticket and super-cool arrivals are always fun but they contain a certain amount of worry what with prices paid and condition concerns. Simple orders are just simple cards, they don't cost much but still they fill holes and are always wanted.   Some of those cards were upgrades and they've already been filed away with a smile. A 1983 Topps Ron LeFlore, a 1986 Fleer Bobby Castillo, items that should have always been pristine but weren't, and I was horrified. But now the monster is back in the closet.   Others were reg...

  So, way back before my vacation started, more than three weeks ago now, I met Angus of Dawg Day Cards for lunch. He was passing through town on his way to a concert. I was one day away from vacation with a ton of crap to get done, but we made it work and settled into our usual Buffalo Wild Wings spot -- like literally the same table -- to talk sports card shop.   Angus showed up offering gifts, as he often does. We had a bit of a wait before our meals appeared so I dug into the cards right away.   Although the selection contained the usual baseball, I'd say the highlight were the music cards, particularly one music card set.   Music is my second-favorite card thing to collect after baseball. Yes, even more than football or anything else. I think I've made that obvious on this blog. Music rivals baseball for my main interest all the time. As an example, which I've mentioned prior, music dominates the videos I watch by A LOT.   It's my main reason for clicking ...

  Have you seen the latest installment of the 1975 Topps worst-to-best countdown? My goodness, five episodes in and I guess everyone's bored to death of it. Probably an overreaction on my part, but after averaging 280 views on this series it was suddenly down to 135 yesterday! I know it's just a bunch of head shots, but check it out if you haven't.   OK, sorry, blogger's lament there. Moving on.   One of the craziest transformations in cards over a period of time has got to be the evolution of the Pacific brand. A lot of what I hear about Pacific is related to cards that look like the one above, stuff that came out in the second half of the 1990s.   Or stuff like this:   I can handle that kind of Pacific in small doses. Not many of their primary sets do much for me. Too much pointless bling. But I'll enjoy a crazy insert or parallel or two.   Something that's more my speed is earlier Pacific, when it was known as Pacific Legends.   I received all of t...

  The card blogging scene has ebbed and flowed during the 15 years that I have been doing this. It's gone from sensation to "so-uncool" to consistently and always there. Blogging about cards isn't going away, no matter how much it gets dismissed or ignored.   Aside from writing about cards, which has always been the why, one of the very few constants in all that blogging time is giveaways.   From Tribe Cards to Johnny's Trading Spot, the generosity is off the chart for blogs. I don't care what Twitter says with its RAKs and "hobby fams" (lordy, that phrase is annoying), nothing has the history that blogs do for sending off cards just because.   Sometimes months go by without some sort of giveaway and then all of a sudden they're back, two, three, four at a time. The prize hounds know this, too. Often the only time I see a comment from certain someones is when there's something in it for them.   But I do try to win cards, too -- I just make su...

I had a free day to do what I pleased Monday, something that has been a rarity these last three months. I thought it would be a good idea to catch up on organizing and packaging some long-delayed card envelopes. I found the next five collectors on my backlog list and settled into the rhythm of stacking the cards on the dining room table, searching through the collection and gathering the mailing supplies. For a little bit, it felt right to be doing this again. I made it through one plain, white envelope. That was it. Today, I put all the cards that I had meant to package back on the desk where they have been waiting for weeks. Turns out, I'm just not ready yet. I like the idea of getting those card packages prepared, but my physical enthusiasm for the process hasn't returned yet. Although I feel like I'm OK after my parents' passings, this is another reminder that I'm not ready to get back on that horse. But I'm still making mental notes of what cer...