Night Owl Cards

  From the beginning, I was not impressed.   Trying to collect three sets was a lot. This was the new world in 1981, after collecting nothing but Topps for the previous six years (with some side runs into Kellogg's and Hostess). While eager to try out all the newness, I felt overwhelmed -- a newspaper carrier salary couldn't possibly cover three sets -- and was looking for ways to cut back. Finding fault with one of the new sets would help me control my habit.   Donruss made it easy that year.   The difference between its set and the Topps and Fleer sets that year was obvious right away. While Topps was printed on the cardboard that I knew from the beginning, and Fleer's was also sturdy if a bit rigid, Donruss was flimsy. You could bend the card easily. I had never experienced cards on such thin stock. Even the Hostess panels felt more solid.   I ranked Donruss third among the new trio right away and while purchasing all three throughout that summer of '81 -- be...

  Last week I bought a blaster of 2024 Topps with the cash that I didn't spend at the card show that I went to at the start of the month.  That doesn't sound like the smartest of moves -- save that cash for something vintage you want! -- but I've been living my card-purchasing life online for the last month-plus and it's getting tired. I needed to buy in person.   I had planned to add some Heritage but it wasn't there. I could have missed it because there were two guys dominating the space talking about their next Magic thingy and I had to squeeze past them. But I was happy with the '24 Topps.     Some of the highlights, there were others that I needed, too. There were also many, many dupes, so I won't be getting any more retail. It's all about Heritage now anyway. (If I was MLB commish, I would reinstate real extra innings first and ban public displays of unnecessary ballplayer yelling next). I did pull my first autograph of the year. This was appropria...

  I've hassled Donruss pretty good over the life of this blog, slagging them for childish '80s designs, repetitive card backs with just five years of stats, and burying every man, woman and child in sets from the late 1980s. But there is one element of those old Donruss days that no card company can match. Not Fleer, not Upper Deck and certainly not Topps. Through one, small gesture, Donruss endeared itself to a generation of collectors and still does to this day, if I am any example. See if you can tell what it is. It's right here on this card:   It's on this one, too:   And on this one: Surely you have figured it by now ...   DONRUSS PUT THE YEAR THE SET WAS ISSUED ON THE FRONT OF THE CARD! Right there on the front. Where every collector could see it instantly. No questions, no wondering, no confusion, it's right with the logo. 1984!! This set was issued in 19-EIGHTY- FOUR! I've never been more confident about a card fact in my life. You would think this wo...

(Around about now, I start hating rain and hoping for snow. It makes perfect sense to me, but it won't in March. Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 308th in a series): I have written a lot about the cards that came out in 1981. Not only has it been 40 years since those cards were new, but it was the start of new era, of more than just Topps cards to buy, and it was a mind-blowing development for this collector. I was looking at this Bruce Sutter card earlier today, thinking that I have written everything I could about those 40-year-old cards. There is nothing left. But Bruce Sutter reminded me that there is. For example, 1981 was the first time since I had started collecting that I could look at each of the brands out that year and determine which player received the best treatment from the three companies. Which player had the best three-card display? This is something we've taken for granted since the 1980s -- heck in 2021 it would have to be which player has the be...

  This group put out a one-hit wonder 40 years ago and I had never heard it before this year.   That is shocking to me because 40 years ago would place me smack in the middle of high school and I knew every last song that was on the radio 40 years ago. Seven-Year Ache, Gemini Dream, Hey Nineteen, I knew them all.   But not " So Lonely ," a power-pop, do-wop throwback from a duo called "Get Wet," which barely cracked the Top 40, reaching No. 39 in April, 1981.   I heard it for the first time this year, listening to retro radio from 40 years back, and then weirdly, the video popped up on my recommendations and I thought, "there's no way this would happen with a baseball card. I knew ALL the baseball cards in 1981."   Um ... maybe not. Welcome to another edition of One-Card Wonders. We're in 1981 ... again. I covered 1981 in this series earlier but I looked only at Topps. So this time I wanted to see how the other two sets released that year did with ...