Night Owl Cards

  Look at that card. Isn't that fantastic? That's what a football card should look like. Why shouldn't I have that card? No one can tell me I can't have that card. So I have it. Because I'm weak.   I've told myself over and over not to think about tackling another vintage football set, not until I finish the 1979 Topps set. Certainly I shouldn't try the '76 Topps set with a known expensive card that will surely be at the end of my completion rainbow.   But '70s cards are a weakness. They speak to me like no other cards. This is why I will never get to collecting old tobacco card Dodgers or Goudey Dodgers or whatever 100-year-old card because they do not have the magic that '70s cards do. Also, I'm weak.    More football sets I shouldn't be chasing. 1983? I shouldn't be even thinking about this until '70s stuff is out of the way. THERE MUST BE ORDER. But I can't resist. All of these were available at the baseballcardstore.ca an...

  It's been more than a year since I did one of these. There are reasons for that: These posts are brutally time-consuming and I should do posts like this in shifts, but I haven't learned to do that. Also, I'm covering a time period in which I didn't collect and also a time period in which set-collecting was going out of style.   But I'm plowing through, at least for another year.   It's 1997 and that sound you hear is me opening a single pack of Topps and thinking "well, that's enough of that."  That's all I did in collecting in 1997. But it was more than I did in 1996, which was absolutely nothing! For me, 1997 is about taking a job that I still have and preparing for the arrival of our first kid. All to the theme of "I get knocked down, but I get up again, you're never gonna keep me down." (Yeah, I know, you hate that song). Like in 1996, far too many sets were issued in 1997 and a whole bunch of them couldn't even muster 4...

Christmas greetings, everyone! This is your official Christmas post of 2011. Don't expect anything else until after the big day. I'll be too busy rolling around in relic and autograph cards. (Pause so everyone can recognize the sarcasm) This Christmas Eve, I'm pulling out the Define the Design segment to see if I can find some Christmas-related names for some sets. It's actually not that easy. Christmas, of course, is filled with iconic symbols -- trees, wreaths, elves, sleighs, Heat Miser, Snow Miser, etc., etc. So, naturally, baseball card designers would probably go out of their way to avoid anything that can be associated with Christmas. Baseball and Christmas don't really mix. But that doesn't mean I can't mix them! Most of these names won't make the official Define the Design file. This is just a holiday thing. But a few I like enough that they may stick. So put on your Santa hat and let's go: 1994 Post: The Christmas Set...