Night Owl Cards

  Wow, if there's an early theme for 2024 for me, it might be that I don't have the time to be blogging here any longer. That's a pretty jarring realization because my blog rep is built partly on my unspoken guarantee: "I'll blog when no one else can." But it's been one thing out of my control after another this year. For example, did you know that USA Today yesterday named the city in which I live the most ideal spot to view the eclipse next week?" Good gosh, what now? You wouldn't think something like that would take time away from blogging, but with the expected influx of people, I've got to run around and get errands done in advance. So other responsibilities have been piling up, including cards -- good cards from good people.  Let's get to it. I'll start first with some great retro stuff from Bru of Remember the Astrodome . He wailed on my Swell wants, specifically the 1991 set, which I like the most. That's a whole bunch of o...

  An immediately apparent observation since starting my chase of the late '80s/early '90s Pacific Legends and Swell Greats sets is how available they are. I shouldn't have been surprised -- they came from the late '80s/early '90s -- but as someone who collected fairly frequently at that time, I never saw these cards for sale. Pacific Legends cards were issued mostly as part of "Collectors boxed sets," which were popular at the time. I'm guessing a little bit here as I was a little too old for that stuff at the time (or believed I was). Swell cards, I don't know how they were issued. I started coming across these cards in my early blogging days, from blogger swaps and through repack boxes. The sets are delightful, especially the Swell cards, mostly due to the set checklist, which runs the gamut. You could pull a Honus Wagner, you could pull an Eric Soderholm. Anyway, these cards have been traveling a constant flow to my home from everywhere. TCDB tr...

  When you have incoming card packages constantly arriving as a blogger, clutter isn't something confined to the stacks of cards, envelopes, notes, those cut-up pages of three pockets and top-loaders and penny sleeves galore, clogging up space on desks and tables and floors. It's also the clutter that you see in your phone gallery and on the desktop of your computer. I often take pictures of arriving cards for future posts and then they sit and stare at me for weeks, I think the little photo icons are actually stamping their unseen feet impatiently, until I finally write about them. I hate being stared at almost as much as I hate to-do clutter. There is also one whale of a box of incoming cards that has no space to land (it's sitting on the floor trying to avoid being kicked right now). So I've got to make way. Here is where I'll start: I received an envelope -- or was it two, don't recall -- from Torren' Up Cards recently. One of the items was an unopened, ...

  That's a moment-in-time snapshot of my card table and surrounding other activities in my card room. There's a lot going on in there right now. Not only is it the central hub for cards coming in and cards going out, but there are two large boxes of cards coming in that I'm trying to get myself around. Also, TCDB offers have ramped up again. And, those card stacks off to the left will tell you I'm in the middle of another Dodgers dupes card sort. I try to do this once a year, around September or so. But I skipped it last year so there's even more to do. Also, life has somehow turned what was once a week-long activity into a two-month activity. I don't know how it did that, but it dood. More card stacks. More incoming. There is a lot to do, card-wise. And blog-wise. I have topics in mind that involve research. And little time to do it. When I'm in that kind of crunch, sometimes I dismiss incoming cards for blog posts, thinking that I just can't come up wi...

  I've been watching the cards from my first Sportlots order of the year trickle in. It seems like it's taking longer than usual. But I'm down to the final two cards that need to arrive. Unfortunately they were supposed to be part of this post. In fact, the plan was that I would have all of the cards I needed to finish the 1985 Fleer set for this post. That was the first mission of the year: complete that set. But I'm still six cards short. One card that I ordered did not show, I received a refund -- Mike Brown, of all players. Two Darryl Strawberry cards were swiped from my cart. Damn player collectors. I think a couple of the others were snatched from my cart, too, but it's possible I missed adding a couple. All of those cards should be easy enough to snag and very quickly, too. But I don't want to wait for those to get this post done. So now you'll have to suffer through two 1985 Fleer posts. Sorry, I'll make it interesting, I promise.   The '85 F...