Night Owl Cards

  I did some light card organizing over the weekend. I moved my 1983 Kellogg's 3-D complete set from binder pages to top loaders, as it's one of the later sets that I'm confident won't crack when confined like that (unlike mid-'70s 3-D sets).   I also moved a small stack of 1981 and 1982 Topps stickers into leftover pages I had bought for early '50s Bowman cards. It took me forever to realize that the stickers would fit that size, too.   I have less than 20 stickers from the '81 set, so it fit into one page (pockets double-bagged). That's a good thing because my 1981 Topps binder is large and STUFFED.    There's a reason for that but just to illustrate how large the '81 binder is, here is a photo of the 1980 Topps and 1981 Topps binders -- both flagship sets complete -- side-by-side.   The 1980 binder is 44 pages (double-bagged, of course) and the 1981 binder -- maybe a little overstuffed is 71 pages -- 71!!!   Where does that compare among the l...

(I ignored a card show today that I usually go to, one that I went to last year . Early September is just not a good time for shows for me, and setting it up on the first Sunday of the NFL season is weird. I'm sure some attendees who live nearby went to the show early and then left to watch football. But I am neither an earlier riser nor live close to the show. But no big loss. There's something next month. Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 324th in a series):   The last couple of times I've updated my post on "The best Dodger card for every year I've collected," I've received questioning comments on this particular card. They're mystified that I would choose this as my pick for 1981. Well, maybe I've thrown them off by titling the post "the best" instead of "my favorite." But I do make sure to mention in those posts that these cards are my favorites of the year, not "the best," decided by some impartial co...

  I better get this post finished before the World Series is finished. I'm expecting that to happen today (not that I want it to).   I mentioned in an earlier post that this year's Series matchup between the Phillies and Astros is just an NLCS from 42 years ago. That 1980 National League championship will always be the foremost thing in my mind when these two teams meet.   Much like 42 years ago, I am rooting for the Phillies to win and it's not looking too good. Just like the 1980 NLCS, the Phillies are one win away from elimination (although the '80 series was just five games). The Phillies came back and won the last two games against the Astros back then. I want history to repeat. But I'm not confident.   Hoping to put out a little good mojo I have a Joy of a Team set post in which I'll review each of the teams from the 1980 NLCS, using the 1981 Topps set.   The design for '81 Topps is so prominent as far as colors that I tend to like a team's '8...

  The World Series is about to start -- way later than it should -- and it's another odd matchup with the Phillies playing the Astros. Everyone of a certain age knows that can't happen -- the Phillies and Astros are in the same league! But ever since the Astros were transplanted into the American League and started cheating ... er, winning, there have been odd Series matchups all over the place. Last year's matchup, the Astros and Braves, was something I knew for years as a midseason get-together for two National League West teams going nowhere. The Astros-Dodgers World Series of 2017 began as, hey, this is a showdown for the 1980 NL West pennant, before turning into something more sinister. And the Astros-Nationals Series from three years ago was just plain odd, unless you turn the Nationals into the Expos and then that's a National League game I saw in Olympic Stadium in 1990. This season's World Series can be summed up in the card above. The Astros and the Philli...

    The biggest of the blog projects I have been working on has involved several sheets of paper, a long period of malaise and staring at way too many Dee Brown mug shots. Almost six months ago, Gummy Arts, that well-known Twitter card artist, posted his interpretation of the 1981 Topps Pirates Future Stars card. Here's that tweet: It was a reference to just Tony Pena, but, of course, we diehard card collectors know this card means much more than Pena. The following conversation: Ah, yes, I smelled a project. It was something I had wondered for quite some time. Which of those multi-player prospects cards, those two- and three- and four- and sometimes-even-five rookie stars/future stars displayed the greatest firepower? Which displayed the starriest stars, when all of the players featured had finished their careers? And how did all of them stack up with each other? So I went a hunting. For months. I had no idea there were so many multi-player prospects cards. I should have know...