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...

I mentioned a few days ago that I'm doing an update to my want lists. I'm not removing anything from them (don't I wish). I'm mostly adding a bunch of sets that I glossed over the last time, and I'm even throwing in some parallel sets, too, because I like to have unattainable goals. Speaking of that, I have reached the point of updating that would make most collectors hesitate. I have reached the mid-1990s. Specifically, I'm at the tail end of 1995 and stopping for reinforcements before plowing through 1996. A lot of collectors -- mostly those who grew up during the '90s -- love the '90s era of cards. The variety. The innovation. The choice. But as a team collector from an earlier time, the '90s is a black hole of cards for me. I like the cards. It's just there's no way I'm going to collect them all. It forces a change in mind-set. Back in the '70s, early '80s, you could conceivably "collect them all." It was sat...