Night Owl Cards

OK, I've delayed what I was going to write about so Fuji can hijack my blog again. But this is an idea  that I should have come up with myself, so I deserve to have my schedule shaken up a little. Fuji, channeling dayf , asks "what is the ugliest set you've ever seen?" Excellent. If there's one thing I know about, it is ugly. I am forever coming across wardrobe choices, pet preferences, automobile selections and, dare I say it, people that others think look perfectly fine. In fact, sometimes they say, "that is beautiful ." And I stand and stare in disbelief. "No it ain't, child," I say to myself. "That ugly." And so it is with baseball card sets (yep, strictly baseball here). Some folks have some strange ideas of what looks good on a rectangular piece of cardboard. And I was able to come up with 15 ugly-ass sets. (that's right, 15. You think I was going to give you only one? This is a full-service blog here). A...

It's July out there. It's really too nice to concern myself with blog affairs. I'm already high on Clayton Kershaw's dominating performance last night -- which I enjoyed on the MLB Network. So in this light and airy frame of mind, I'm just going to show some cards from a trade and get on out of here. The Kershaw Bowman goldy came from Marcus at All the Way to the Backstop . He knows a thing or two about gold. His favorite team is the Padres. No, really. It is. He was offering some team lots and he had more Dodgers than anything else, so I chomped down greedily. Actually, I did it more warily than greedily, because at this stage, I know I'm going to end up with a giant chunk of doubles. And I did. But there were a fair amount of cards that I didn't have, which makes everything well worth it. I got to get rid of some Padres, too! I love, love, LOVE N.L. West trades. So let's see some cards and then head out to the beach or the grill or the ballpar...

Perhaps because I write headlines for a living, I am sensitive to the titles that are selected for insert series in card sets. The mission for the writer of sports headlines and the thinker-upper of titles for insert series is rather similar. You're trying to come up with something that sums up an idea or theme and you're trying to make it snappy and memorable. If you can make it fun, well then, you're living right. It's not easy. Writers are constantly complaining about the headlines slapped on their stories, but headline writing is honestly one of the most difficult tasks in the journalism profession. I guess that causes me to wonder whether writing titles for insert series is one of the most difficult jobs in the card-producing profession. Because, given some of the titles that I've seen, a few folks aren't taking their job all that seriously. While leafing through my Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards, the thought came to me: "good gracious, there h...

I was back at the dollar store that sells cards today. It was in the general vicinity of where I bought my wife's Mother's Day present (no, I didn't buy the present at the dollar store. Don't get huffy). I know I've talked about watching my card budget and buying 2009 cards like UD First Edition. That's all lovely for current cards, but there is no beating what I find at this dollar store, at least among your retail options. I've developed a strategy for my trips to the store. I know what bags hold the football and basketball cards, which I don't want. And I've struck upon just the right "shaking" strategy to make sure I don't end up with this anymore. I suppose you could consider this "pack searching," except I don't harm any of the cards doing this or open the bags either. Today I bought six bags for 6 bucks plus tax. I ended up with no non-baseball cards and I counted maybe a dozen doubles out of 210 cards. And ...