Night Owl Cards

There is a well-known line of dialogue in the old "Mad Men" TV series in which the main character, Don Draper, is berated by his latest love interest, who says that he can never commit to anything because he "only likes the beginnings of things." Like the best of television shows, that line has stayed with me for a long time and has led to periodic self-cross-examination. However, I have also found that often -- maybe more often -- I like the ends of things. More importantly, I like the ends of things when I'm still around to see the end. Yep, what I'm saying is we've reached the end of my least favorite month again, and I'm celebrating because I'm still alive. Honestly, I don't know why we have to stuff every conceivable life activity into the third month of the year every year. The biggest sports tournament of the year. Holidays. High school sports championships of every stripe and color. Birthdays abounding. Mid-terms. Special...

Before I get to today's topic, I'd like to mention that Julie at A Cracked Bat is holding a contest in celebration of her 100th post. The prize is a bunch of quality cardboard! Personally, I'm hoping I don't win because I need to cut back. But secretly, I do hope I win so I don't have to take up golfing or some other more depressing hobby. So, anyway, I've mentioned a couple of times that I'd like to complete the 2015 Panini Americana set. I should have completed it by now because it's only 73 cards, but nonbaseball stuff is way, way down on the priority list and now that I've acquired most of the pretty girls in the set, where's the inspiration? But a little while ago I decided to take some action, and by that I mean begging another blogger to send me some cards from the set. Commish Bob of The Five Tool Collector grabbed some packs at the The Dollar Tree and instinctively wanted to get rid of them. I get it. It's not for everyone. ...

After so many years of writing this blog, I think people have a pretty good idea of what I'm interested in when it comes to cardboard. But what do I like right now? What am I obsessed with right now? What's in my head right now? (OK, that last question may get a scary answer). For that, you'd have to take a look at my latest COMC order. Plenty of people send me cards that I like. But only a COMC blog post guarantees that you'll see cards that I really, really, really like at this exact moment in time. Isn't that exciting? Well, it is to me. These are cards that I received with some remaining Christmas money, because I always get cards for Christmas whether someone buys them for me or not. Let's see what was in my head at the exact moment I pressed SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!!!!!!!!!!!!! Grabbing pesky inserts from sets that bug me. That means you, Archives. I still need regular old base Dodgers from 2015 Archives, as well as that stupid SP base ca...

I like women. I've never hid that fact on this blog. True, this is mostly a blog about baseball cards, which means 98.9999999 percent of the posts here display young men in the prime of their lives. Most of the time I'm elated to be collecting cards of these men. But then some girl on cardboard will clip-clop across my line of vision and ... what were we talking about again? What am I collecting? Dudes? WTF? It doesn't make a lot of sense when I'm staring at a card of the beautiful Katrina Bowden, who if you ever watched 30 Rock, you know as Cerie Xerox, the desirable-yet-clueless assistant to Tina Fey's character. And this is how I got suckered into 2015 Panini Americana. In the past, Panini Americana has been a joke of a set for me. Although I have a slight interest in TV celebrities, one pack of P-A was enough to scare me away from the product for years. The design was horrible, the pictures of celebrities too distant, the selection of subjects rarely in...