Night Owl Cards

It's nothing short of bizarre how ESPN has started dictating the prices that people can charge for commonly available cardboard. Recently, people flipped out over the ESPN "Last Dance" documentary, which mercifully just ended Sunday. I don't have any problem with Michael Jordan or the documentary, in fact I will always be on the MJ side of any Jordan-LeBron debate. But I have zero interest in the NBA and watching Last Dance referenced all over my timeline the last few weeks is not how I want to enjoy my quarantine time. That's my problem though. What sellers have been charging for Jordan rookie cards (and other Jordan cards, I guess, I have no idea what those are) since the documentary came out could be your problem. If you're not a regular follower of the card market, that is. In other words, if you're thinking now is a good time to buy a Michael Jordan rookie, maybe hold off on that urge a few months or so, or probably a little longer than tha...

(Today is "Teddy Bear Day". Sadly, I never had a teddy bear when I was a tyke. Probably explains why I'm so screwed up now. Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 231st in a series): This probably doesn't happen as much these days with the number of fans involved in fantasy baseball and internet junkies pouring over stats from the lowest levels of the minors, but there comes a time in a person's life when he discovers a player on a baseball card who he never knew existed. Perhaps you don't remember the exact instant this happened for you, but I remember it for me. It was early in my senior year of high school. Baseball cards were becoming less prominent in my life, but I still collected actively. The baseball card season had ended (back then, there were card "seasons" and the baseball card season stopped around September or October as that year's packs slowly disappeared to make way for football card packs and football card season)...

(Today is "National Mincemeat Day." Really. Have you ever had mincemeat pie? It's a combination of ground up beef, raisins, apples and rum. I had it when I was a kid. My grandfather liked all kinds of weird food. I've never had it since. Anyway, time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 87th in a series): I waited forever for this guy to get a card. Back in the 1970s, there were no cards of draft picks or college players or high school players. There were barely cards of minor league prospects. Also, back in the '70s, players stayed in the minor leagues for a longer time than they do now. Ron Washington was signed by Kansas City in 1970 as a graduate of their Baseball Academy. He was then traded to the Dodgers in 1976, still having never played in the majors. In fact, Washington's minor league resume is quite lengthy: Sarasota, Waterloo, San Jose, Jacksonville, Waterbury, San Antonio, Albuquerque, a 10-game visit with the Dodgers in 1977, th...

(Hey! It's the first day of summer! I have a few summer-like posts on the horizon. Come to think of it, all of my posts are summer-like, seeing as they focus on baseball. I like that. Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 70th in a series): For less than a week, the Stephen Strasburg 2010 Bowman purple refractor was one of the most valuable cards in my collection. It isn't any longer. I mailed it off this afternoon. I do admit that I did it with a hint of sadness. It was nice to have something that cool in my possession, even though I knew almost the whole way that I would give it up soon. It's a different feeling for me because I don't have a lot of cards that would be considered extremely valuable. As a collector of modest means, I have a few "jewels," but nothing that is terribly difficult to acquire. All of my high-priced cards were obtained either through finding a deal somewhere or through sheer luck. I've never thrown a ton of money at a...

Take it easy. I said "almost." I would never bring you folks down to the level of drudgery I currently experience with my present employer. It's just that "catching up" has been on my mind, seeing as I have been on vacation all week. On Monday, I'll take the first hour-and-a-half of my shift to wade through the ridiculousness of the past week while I was away (I know what you're thinking. But I absolutely refuse to check my work email when I am on vacation. I would much rather go through the "Monday after" ritual than do that). Plus, I returned home from three days away and couldn't believe the number of card blog posts logged since early Wednesday. Wow. How'd you guys fit in time to eat Thanksgiving dinner? I threw in a couple of pre -written posts, but aside from that, I was basically a long way from blogville . It took me a few hours, but I think I'm officially caught up, although I'm sure I've missed a few. One thing I...

Don't ask me why I was going through my 1991 Fleer cards the other day, but I was. And I came across this card. Being the hopeless color freak that I am, I read the name, looked at the border, and chuckled. That prompted me to track down these other cards: The Bud Black card may not be as obvious as the other ones, but it works for me. I didn't spend a lot of time searching, so I don't know if there are similar cards for Pete Rose or Frank/Roy/Bill/Gabe White or Kevin/Bobby/Chris/Emil/Gates/Jackie Brown. But I'll search again some other time. If you found this as fascinating as I did, or even vaguely eventful, then you may be a color freak, too. If you didn't, well, that's OK. I now return you to your colorless, barren, despair-filled lives. Joking. I'm joking.

Tonight after dinner, the family and I were browsing at Target (the toy shelves are piled dangerously high at this time of year). As usual, I stopped by the card aisle to see what caught my attention. This has to be the peak time of the year for card variety and the boxes were stocked. I could've bought a couple of packs of Masterpieces (because I'm still looking for that Russell Martin card), or Upper Deck Series 2 (I might have all the Dodgers, I'm not sure) or Upper Deck X (just because I haven't yet) or Bowman or Bowman Chrome (just to say I wasted my money) or Allen and Ginter (for the minis) or Baseball Heroes (for the colors) or Heritage (still collecting that thing) or Topps Series 1 (is that STILL around?) or Topps Series 2 (I can't think of a reason). Instead I went with Topps Updates and Highlights -- reluctantly. I had a blog topic in mind, and that's the only reason I bought them. Isn't that a piss-poor reason to buy cards? But that's t...