Night Owl Cards

I've been hearing for maybe a couple of years now how difficult it is to find cards from about 15 years ago. I'm not sure of the exact time period, but I think it's around 2000-2005. I don't go looking for cards from that era very often, so I'm just basing it on heresay, and please don't turn this into an internet legend, because I'm still trying to get that 1966 Topps Grant Jackson-Bart Shirley card thanks to "legend". But I've definitely seen it discussed. It mostly has to do, I think, with buying boxes of cards of certain sets from that time period. They either are too expensive or just not that available. And I've heard this complaint enough times that I've started treating cards from this time as pseudo-rare finds. Recently, a couple of cards from that time period landed my way. They came in a PWE of just five cards from Twitter friend, Chris . But two of the cards were off my want list and both were from 2001, so, they we...

It appears that card bloggers have stepped up their package-sending recently. After week-after-week without cards in the mail, the metaphorical "dry spell," I have officially entered a wet spell. You never hear the term "wet spell" used outside of a meteorologists convention, so let's take care of that. This is the first part of my wet spell, a package from Tony's Sports Pub , who has a very wet blog name. The only thing dry in a sports pub is the pretzels. Tony did something that makes me very happy -- he swam through my want lists. Shucks, it makes me teary eyed just thinking about it. Let's see some cards he washed off those lists: This is a blue shiny from 2003 Topps Chrome Update, before Topps started putting them in boxes and sparkling up the backgrounds. The only sparkly here is coming off Burnitz's balding head. He looks like he needs a wet towel for that dome. It's 1994 Bowman's Best, '90s kids -- time to get all...

During the early days of the blog, when I was first trading through the mail, I would finish off team sets fairly quickly. When your want list includes 1990 Donruss Dodgers, people are lining up to fill your order. I remember Dan from Saints From the Cheap Seats being particularly good at this. There was also a guy named Eric -- he had a blog for awhile -- that did the same. I'd set up my want list stacks and they'd knock them down. That doesn't happen much anymore. It's not because those guys don't blog anymore, but because I have a lot more Dodgers than a few years ago. So when I received a card package from Nick of Dime Boxes last week, I couldn't believe my eyes. He actually completed three team sets for me in one swoop. 2000 Stadium Club. 2005 Topps Rookie Cup (yes, I know there are a zillion parallels. Let's not get ahead of ourselves). 1991 Topps Archives (inspiration for the '53 set ... or maybe not). That's a succ...

I received a very nice package in the mail about a week ago from Mariner1 of Emerald City Diamond Gems . He helped with a few Dodger/set needs, which you'll see later. But also in the package was this: That's nine 1981 Topps Terry Forster cards. Actually, I think I missed one. There were 10 in the package. As a veteran bippee, I looked around for the confirmation note. The "ha, ha, you got bipped, sucker" note. I didn't find one. So, I'm confused. Was this a bipping or not? Don't leaving me hanging. I have received packages in the past in which there were more than 6 or 7 of the same card without an accompanying note, but that was before the whole bipping epidemic. Now that bipping his officially passe, I'm wondering if Mariner1 executed a stealth bipping. Maybe he didn't leave a note so he could bip with impunity. Very clever. If that was the intent. I suspect not. Or maybe I do. I'm still a little skittish you know. But a...