Night Owl Cards

For all I know, the most confusing year for collecting is the year we're living in right now. With all the online exclusives being issued these days, how in the world is any future collector going to be able to get handle on which card belongs in which set from which year? It's not easy to retro-collect -- i.e. collecting a set from a previous year -- and it's getting more difficult each year. But the thing is, when you're actually in that year, collecting sets from that year, it all makes relative sense. (Except for those oversized cards you're supposed to hang on your wall. That doesn't make much sense). You're familiar with what's being released, you're able to keep track of most of it. Take the people collecting in 2001, for instance. To them, that year of collecting must be the most logical year for collecting ever made. They long for the days of 2001 when collecting was so simple. But me? A guy retro-collecting cards from 2001? There...

I'm probably not going to be able to do something like this on the 4th of July, so I need to take advantage of my patriotic holidays while I can. It's Memorial Day. The flag is out, the street is blocked so the parade can go through, and everyone will be eating barbecue and pie later while I'm working. I'm trying to keep away the cranky by making a list, which has been a tried-and-true tactic in behavior control since I was a youngster. I thought it might be nice to try to find the most patriotic baseball card sets ever made and then do a countdown. But of course before I do this, I must have rules. Arbitrary rules is another technique that helps me forget about things I can't have, like three-and four- and five-day weekends. The rules in this exercise are: no insert sets or subsets allowed. There are several flag-flying insert/subsets, like the Collector's Choice card featured here. But I want these sets to really go all the way with their patriotism...

I mentioned a few days ago that I'm doing an update to my want lists. I'm not removing anything from them (don't I wish). I'm mostly adding a bunch of sets that I glossed over the last time, and I'm even throwing in some parallel sets, too, because I like to have unattainable goals. Speaking of that, I have reached the point of updating that would make most collectors hesitate. I have reached the mid-1990s. Specifically, I'm at the tail end of 1995 and stopping for reinforcements before plowing through 1996. A lot of collectors -- mostly those who grew up during the '90s -- love the '90s era of cards. The variety. The innovation. The choice. But as a team collector from an earlier time, the '90s is a black hole of cards for me. I like the cards. It's just there's no way I'm going to collect them all. It forces a change in mind-set. Back in the '70s, early '80s, you could conceivably "collect them all." It was sat...