Night Owl Cards

Out of all the manufacturers of the trillions of sets issued during the 1990s, the one I find the most elusive is Pacific. I don't particularly care. I've never been fond of Pacific's cards. But as a team collector, I have this unhealthy interest in accumulating everything , and you don't know how distracting it is (or maybe you do, since you're reading this) to see all of those cards that I don't yet own under the name "Pacific." I am convinced that if I ever become lucky enough to complete everything on my want lists, that the last card I will need will be from a Pacific set. Fortunately, I feel a little bit better about Pacific's avoidance of me after receiving a package from Metallattorney, who is a Red Sox Fan in Nebraska . I'm assuming that's a bit unique. I don't know the typical baseball rooting interest of a fan in Nebraska. Royals? Twins? Rockies? Red Sox seems like a smart choice to me. Whatever the case, I wouldn...

A few minutes ago I finished researching a topic for a blog post. I was going to publish it this morning and it was going to be pretty good. I scanned all the appropriate cards and looked into the facts about each card and the individual pictured on each one. Then I did one final bit of research ... and the post fell apart. The premise to my post was false. It turns out the player that I thought was dead is actually alive . Oops. So here I sit, with a modest amount of work wasted and nothing to post. Fortunately, I have lots and lots of cards that people sent me, right? Cards From The Quarry operator hiflew sent me yet another package recently. In that package were these two needs: 1999 Skybox Thunder is such a terrific set because you can make fun of it all day. Unlike my aborted post, the good folks at Skybox didn't realize the error of their ways and actually went ahead and published their wrongness for everyone to read. So, let's read: On the...

A year ago, I addressed one of the two years since I began my collection odyssey in which I did not collect cards. That year was 1996, and I ran down what I missed that year. Tonight, I'll present you with the other year that I did not collect a single card. That year is 1999. And I wasn't collecting not because I was too busy partying like Prince or hiding in a Y2K bunker. I was dealing with a year-old child. There wasn't an ounce of time for collecting ... unless you're talking dirty diapers. I could have won some very smelly contests there. Much of what I have seen from 1999 cards is just a continuation of other late '90s themes. Silver and gold. Shiny. A willingness to experiment. And some so-bad-they're-good items. So let's do a quick rundown of what collectors consumed while I was busy filling the diaper genie. Irksome parallels: I'm a sucker for some kinds of parallels, but these I don't understand. When I first came to rea...

There are times on this countdown -- probably too many times for some people's liking -- in which I will throw out all rational rules of grading card backs in order to feature a set that is so bad that it is ever-loving awesome. This is one such time. I cannot begin to explain to you why Skybox Thunder did what they did in 1999. I didn't buy a single pack of cards in 1999. I was so far removed from collecting and baseball in general that any attempt to apply my logic to this set would be laughable. What I will say is that I don't think the text on the back of the card was even cool in 1999. Somebody who knew what was going on in '99, please confirm this for me. Was immitation gangsta text on the back of a baseball card "all that" -- to borrow a phrase from the '90s? Here we have Raul Mondesi, admiring a blast in front of a curtain, with an inexplicable baseball montage traveling across the top of the card. It's the motiff for '99 Skybox T...