Night Owl Cards

I saw my first pack searcher last week. Yup, really. First one. Apparently you people who encounter pack searchers every other week live in areas with lawless card aisles. But our mamas raised us right up here. But this wasn't the typical pack searching scene. And I apologize in advance for what I'm about to relay. I was in Target, shopping for something else. So I was coming from the back of the store. That means that when I turn into the card aisle, I can't see whether anyone is standing there. However, I can SENSE whether someone is standing there. How pathetic have I become? I actually know whether people are shopping for cards before I can see them. So I go to make my turn into the aisle and the first thing I see is that there are two people together shopping for cards. The second thing I see is a butt crack. A female butt crack. It's two girls. The butt crack girl is seated on the ground, doing terrible things to a pack of cards. The second girl is st...

More than ever, I am cautious about entering group breaks. Sometimes it's for money reasons, but just as often it's because the sets being broken will yield a bunch of dupes for my collection. As a team collector I've accumulated quite a few Dodgers cards. I tried to figure out how many about a year go and came up with a guess-timate . I'd say I've added a few hundred more since then. And I've probably added about the same number of doubles. So I'm wary when another group break is announced. Nachos Grande , which holds a lot of group breaks, held one a month or two ago and the sets featured were ones where I didn't need many Dodger cards. I was going to skip it. But then Chris said that he'd be opening a box of 2001 Upper Deck '70s Decade. Goodness gracious, I love that set . Even though I had all the base Dodgers from the set, I was hoping for a hit or an insert of the Dodger variety. Even one of those would be worth the price. So...

If you are the type who religiously charts the progress of my Nebulous 9 list on the sidebar -- and if you aren't, what the hell is wrong with you? -- then you know it has undergone a vast makeover. Around Halloween time, my Nebulous 9 was down to a Nebulous 3. It took me a little bit of time to recuperate from the want list beating administered by grogg (who, by the way, has a new blog -- at least I think that's what it is. Don't ask me what "tumblr" is). But Nebby Niney is back to its old self, revitalized, and insistent and once again nine cards strong. So let's have a look at the cards that grogg sent that damaged Nebby so, shall we? The first is the Broxton 2010 A&G short-print. This card took me way too long to obtain. I'm still in need of four more cards for the entire set though (#238, #257, #266, #322). Just once I'd like to complete this set before November. Good ol' grogg also sent the regular-back mini and A&G b...

(Today is "Presidential Joke Day," a day that began when President Reagan mistakenly joked into a live microphone that he had outlawed Russia and would begin bombing in five minutes. That's the power of the president -- make a joke and they turn it into a holiday. This is Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 76th in a series): Hi. I'm Gary Sheffield. There are three of me. This is not a joke. In real life, there are three of me. There is the serious, sensitive Sheffield. The ladies like him. There is the "don't cross me" Sheffield. You watch your mouth around him. And there is the bad-ass Sheffield with a bat and a bad-ass elbow guard. You may think that's the same as the "don't cross me" Sheffield. But it's not. Because this Sheffield has an elbow guard. Respect the guard. It will kill you. First I will kill you and then the elbow card will kill you. You'll be killed twice. Well, really four times. Because the other two Sheff...