Night Owl Cards

OK, it's been one heck of a busy day with major work and family goings-on all over the place, so let's take a look at the remainder of two of the card packages that I mentioned last night. Each of them featured something interesting that I think I'm going to start doing. First the non-2015 Topps from Kerry from Cards On Cards . This is a four-year-old shiny Kershaw that I didn't have. You don't know how much I appreciate getting Kershaw cards I don't have from years ago. It's as if I beat time itself. See, stupid clock? You may speed by so fast that I don't know what day it is anymore, but I got a parallel from a four-year-old set that nobody bought! HA! Us card collectors remember everything . Da future. You can tell because of all the metal, robot machine imagery in the background. Julio Urias better get on the mound quick before the robot pitchers that can throw 300 mph take over. P.S.: This card is mini, mini and shiny, shiny. I...

I have only two rules when a card inquires about taking up residence in one of my Dodger binders: 1. Do you declare somewhere on the front of the card -- whether in print or in the photo presented -- that you are depicting a member of the greatest team ever, the Dodgers of Brooklyn/Los Angeles? 2. Are you unique when compared with any Dodger card already in the binder? In other words: DOUBLES NEED NOT APPLY! The only Dodger dupes that make it into the binders are those rare breeds, the highly coveted rookie cards, the iconic cards, the vintage from the '50s. But I can count those instances on two hands and probably one foot. Doubles just ain't gettin' in. But there is one card that has found a loophole. I have two of this card in one of my binders. Yet the second version of the card is not intentionally unique from the first. By the rules above, it should be tossed in the dupes box. But I just can't get myself to do it. Here is the first version of the car...

Yes, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Hey, Night Owl, bird brain, the National isn't until this weekend. How can you get stuff at the National when it hasn't happened yet?" And I have one word to say to you all- knowing , always-correct, perfect people out there: relax. I'm going somewhere with this. Settle. And enjoy the ride. The truth is, I won't be going to the National, otherwise known as "As Close to Paradise as You Can Get While Still Standing in Cleveland." I'd love to see all the wonderful cards on display during the biggest collectibles show on earth, but I just can't. Something about having to work and being broke and the usual drawbacks to adulthood. Fortunately, I've already had my "National." It arrived in a big box from Joe. You remember Joe , don't you? Well, he wasn't finished sending cards. He sent a ton more and, honestly, the selection was almost as good as what you'd ...

When I first started this blog, I stepped into the trading scene somewhat cautiously. My main intent with the blog was simply to write about baseball cards, whatever came into my head. I'm a writer, first and foremost. Trading sounded cool, but it wasn't my main objective. My, how things have changed in just over two months. I'm in deep when it comes to trades, and it's all very excellent. Meanwhile, some new blogs have started up recently, and the proprietor of one, The Easy Life , certainly didn't follow my lead. Steve is a trading machine. I see news of his trades all over Blogtopia even though his blog isn't even a month old. That's great. And what's even better are the cards that Steve sends in trades. Not only did he give me the final two cards for my Allen & Ginter set, but the card pile he sent me contained more inserts, parallels and jersey cards than I've seen in such a trade to date. This is definitely a case of quality over quantity....