Night Owl Cards

Ah, 1998, an epic year in the night owl timeline. But baseball cards didn't have anything to do with it. I was five years into my collecting hiatus. The year is legend because I became a dad. I am sure I watched some of the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home run race with a baby in my arms.   Somewhere in the summer of 1998, my wife and I were wheeling that baby in her stroller while walking through a mall, I don't remember which one. We walked into a chain book store -- I don't remember which one -- and I spotted Topps cards on one of those islands near the front of the store. They were packs of 1998 Topps. OK, sure, I'll grab a couple of packs and see what cards look like in the year 1998.   I recall thinking they were OK, nothing special. They certainly didn't break my hiatus, which lasted for another eight years, give or take a pack or two. I had no idea how active the hobby was at that time -- the number of sets and companies and "innovation." It was a year...

Have you checked out the new "stats" feature on blogger yet? You can find out all kinds of odd-ball things about who looks at what posts and how they get to your blog and other great stuff. Aside from it alerting you to the fact that the world is filled with strange people who happen to be looking at your blog, there are some enlightening items there. For instance, some posts that I wrote long ago are still popular in terms of views. One of those posts was the first one that I did on the dollar store near me that sells cards. I'm not sure why people are still looking at that thing from a year-and-a-half ago, but they is. Back then, the store was packed with old cards from the '80s and '90s. Since then, it's been up and down, but mostly down. I still manage to find some adequate stuff for next to nothing, but there's less of it. A few days ago I headed there because at this time of the year I'm poor. I needed to buy cards and be cheap about it...