Night Owl Cards

Ever since I was a budding collector, I have been ever-vigilant about preventing doubles from invading my collection. It's obsessive, I know. And at the rate that cards arrive in my mailbox, it is now also a little pointless. But, still, I can't shake the mind-set: filter the dupes, filter the dupes, filter the dupes. My Dodgers collection is rather advanced at this point so the routine that I go through every time a package arrives in the mail is pretty important. Upon opening the package, I shuffle through the cards and place cards I know I need in one stack and doubles in another, separating the wheat from the chaff if you want to get biblical about it. "Got it, got it, need it" will be a prevailing thought process as long as I'm collecting, and I've got this routine down cold. I'm pretty good at it, although I'm extra wary about any card from the mid-to-late '90s or early 2000s. So, I went through the ritual again in my first trade w...

We're a want list family. When nearing major gift-giving days on the calendar, I both issue and require want lists. The more specific the list, the better. I'm not much for surprises. Surprises are for lazy people who don't want to make a list. Make a list! You'll get what you want and the person giving won't feel like an inadequate loser when you don't like what they gave you. Not once has a Christmas been ruined because there weren't enough surprises. But a few have been ruined because someone was waaaaaaaaay off target in their gift selecting because there was no list because everyone was too busy dancing through magical flowers in Surprise Me Land. Make a list! This is why the want list on my blog is so detailed. I need to tend to it more than I do, but for the most part it features everything that I desire in mind-numbing detail. This is because I know what I want and people shouldn't have to guess like we're two newlyweds. Convers...

I am making a semi-serious effort to cut down on my Dodger doubles. I've already made arrangements on Twitter to send Dodgers to four or five people. That's not nearly enough to get to a respectable level of dupes. So if anyone wants a variety of Dodgers extras -- and, yes, I know the usual blogging candidates -- please let me know. I'd rather get rid of them this way than in more anonymous ways, which is what I will consider next. One person who already has some Dodgers coming his way is Stewart, who jumped on my offer immediately. Not long ago, he sent a package full of variety straight from Dodger country. There was so much random that I couldn't process it all. In fact, I thought I had absorbed it all finally, when I went back to it last night -- to scan, of course -- and was floored by something grand that I totally missed the first time. I'm saving that piece of wonderful for last as is my custom. In the meantime, take a look at this: All-Time gr...

I was feeling a little down after a post I read here . I haven't really noticed a decline in posting across the blogobingo. In fact, I still can't keep up with all the new card blogs. But the post did remind me that I have noticed a general decline in readers. Most concerning, for me, is the lack of /major decline in activity on some of the blogs that were most prominent during that fall of 2008 when I first discovered the wonderful concoction of blogs and cards. I miss those guys. I wish they would come back. The realistic side of me knows that life intrudes or interests change, and that there are plenty of other blogs out there that have filled in the gaps. But the nostalgic part of me, which is growing larger by the day, wants it to be 24 months ago when everything was new and exciting and damn interesting. So, I was wallowing in that pathetic, sickening puddle of self-pity this afternoon when I noticed a package jutting from the mailbox. After tending to my usual mun...