Night Owl Cards

A good way to measure the path and development of this blog is by following the exclamation point. Some bloggers often use exclamation points in their post titles. I thought I didn't do that very much, but it turns out I once did. I did the research and here is how many times I've used in exclamation point in a post title over the life of NOC: 2008 (four months): 7 2009: 17 2010: 11 2011: 19 2012: 17 2013: 4 2014: 3 2015: 3 2016 (6 1/2 months): 4 What's that tell you? Well, it tells me I was a goofy goober the first three or four years of this thing, plastering exclamation points all over everything. The totals for 2011 and 2012 are a little skewed because that was during my 1975 Topps mini quest and I can't help but use exclamation points for anything related to minnnniiiiiiiiissssssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But the last few years has shown a more subdued night owl. It's been a more accurate gauge of my personality. I am very subdued in pers...

Slowly unpacking and working my way back to speed. Let's start with some cards I received on my recent trip. As I mentioned before there were no cards under the tree for Christmas. That's not a problem, except for a bit of hurt feelings. There was cash under the tree and we all know what to do with that. The results of that cash are still to come. But meanwhile my sister-in-law bestowed upon me one of those glorious Target gift cards (I hear people get ridiculous things like wicker baskets and pillows with that bit of plastic. Just mind-boggling). And, for good measure, she wasn't scared to give me actual cards, too. But let's start with what I bought with the gift card. I grabbed a box of this year's Stadium Club and a discounted box of last year's Archives. Yes, yes, I know, last year's Archives. I'm powerless in the face of a green $12.99 sticker. As you know, those were the four designs chosen last year. Not great decision-making by Top...

I always feel guilty about my blog at this time of year. Sure, I like Night Owl Cards to be more about cards than "look what I got," but we all know that one of the basic, underlying definitions of a card blog is "look what I got." It's at least part of the reason card blogs exist. But it's been a month since I've purchased any cards and after awhile I think "how long is this ruse going to go on? When are they going to discover that these are just plain old cards from my collection?" Even though I have a pretty good imagination when it comes to cards and have all sorts of ideas floating around in my brain (in fact, I'm working on one now), when you don't show new stuff when everyone else is, you start to feel a little inadequate. So -- yay -- today, I finally could do what others do. I went down to the store and bought some cards. You know, I became a sucker again! Because ripping wax is for suckers. But I don't mind. I'm...