Night Owl Cards

  Here is the new product-release calendar for upcoming sets, posted on the main page of Trading Card Database: Please note the first item on that list.   2021 Topps Big League baseball.   To quote Andre Dawson, "what year is it?" I am not insinuating anything about TCDB's list. The site doesn't come up with the release dates (note there are several other 2021 sets in that list). Any collector that's a fan of Big League or up on new card sets knows that 2021 Big League's release has been postponed repeatedly. Why Topps even announces a new date anymore, I don't know. It's gotten pretty comical ever since the calendar turned from 2021 to 2022. Supply issues and backlogs is the reason for the massive delay. I think someone commented when I mentioned the delay earlier that figurines were part of 2021 Big League and the manufacturing/distribution of those was the reason for the delay. I don't care about figurines (see my shrug with today's Fanatics...

When considering the hobby's greatest invention, I'm excluding the cards themselves. It's understood that the cards are the greatest thing about collecting. The greatest invention of the hobby is best described as a tool. Any guesses? Well, if you said "price guide," then you're really at the wrong site. Go find the Beckett site and go nuts. Roll around in some patch cards. Binders and pages? They were pretty radical back in the late '70s, which is the first time I ever came across them. They come in handy to this day. But that's not the greatest invention. Blogs and the internet? Tremendous tools of the hobby. But neither are the exclusive domain of card collecting, as much as we'd like to think they are. Top loaders? Penny sleeves? Card shops? Card shows? Shoe boxes? Bubblelopes? Rummage sales? Nah, none of that. The greatest invention in the hobby for me is also the most useful invention. It is the want list. As you know, I...