Night Owl Cards

I admire a collector's devotion toward a set more than any other kind of dedication in our hobby. As someone who came from the golden years of set collecting (1950s-late 1980s), I understand that kind of collecting, that kind of enthusiasm better than any other pursuit. Then there are people who take that set devotion and advance it, and that's when I think ... "how do they have the time?" OK, I'm also impressed with that, too. Jeremy of Topps Cards That Never Were and Completing The 1992 Topps Set has demonstrated that kind of drive with the '92 blog. He has created a custom card of every player who appeared in a major league game in 1991 and is showing them on his blog. That is some kind of set devotion. I don't ever see myself doing the same thing with the 1975 Topps set. The '92 set is Jeremy's favorite and I've got to admit it's a pretty good one, although it does mark Topps' departure from traditional card stock, and,...

("Don't bother me. It's Thursday." I think I'll make that my outgoing message on my voice mail. So. Much. Crap. But I figured out a way to squeeze in a Cardboard Appreciation! This is the 166th in a series): I have heard some collectors complain about Topps' Cyberstats series from 1995. One even said it was "awful." That threw me because I always thought they were cool. Sure, all the stats are fake. Not real at all. And I'm someone that likes reality. But mathematically projecting someone's stats is good, clean fun. We all like to see what "might have happened." I think it was particularly important during this time. A lot of people were mad at baseball in 1995. The strike had just wiped out the last third of the season and the World Series. Frank Thomas, Matt Williams and the Montreal Expos got screwed. (Often forgotten is that the Dodgers could've made the playoffs for the first time in six seasons that year). Ever...