Night Owl Cards

My scanner/printer decided to freak out last night and remains in panic mode. I have no time to tend to its very fragile emotions and probably won't the rest of the week. My guess is I'll be putting scanner number -- what is this number 4 ... number 5? -- out on the curb and getting something that can be stable for a couple years. But, again, there's no time to deal with breakdowns at the moment. I'm not sure what that means for posts the next week. Right now it means: pictures with my phone! Yay! I prefer scans over phone pictures without a doubt. But at least I have some sort of image-making machine to keep this blog going. Yesterday I was running errands and catching up on a lot of stuff that built up over the holidays. I decided to check out the card aisle for the first time in a few weeks. My goal was to grab something that I hadn't bought in the past year. These days, that's a lot. The only 2019 products I opened last year were Topps flagship ...

Every year I act like everyone's curious whether I received any cards for Christmas or not. And every year it seems like the success of Christmas hinges on whether I receive any cards. But that's exactly what it is: just an act. When your kid goes away to college and your folks pass on, Christmas gets real. Prioritizing gifts -- although I still do it instinctively in my head -- is way down the list of the best parts of the holiday. I'm just happy I have people to celebrate it with this year. So, yeah, that means nobody left me any cards under the tree. That doesn't mean I won't get any for the holiday. There are still gifts coming and my sister-in-law is involved so the potential for cards is always there. Plus, I get plenty of card gifts from collectors around the country. I certainly don't need anything extra from the family. You know how better at card-buying collectors are anyway. They buy them with the holiday in mind, too. See? T...

I received at least my 70th card package from Cards On Cards recently. It was heavy on Clayton Kershaw cards new to my collection, which is almost the best card package you can send. One of the cards was my first 2019 Topps Chrome card. I just can't get myself to buy this stuff anymore, so it is appreciated: You may think this is the same image of Kershaw that appeared on his 2019 flagship card and you would be right -- and also wrong. Here is his flagship card: Now, see them together, side-by-side: Move your eyes in a downward direction. Notice something different? Yes! Somebody has zipped Clayton's zipper! This was addressed on the Cardboard Icons blog already , but I did notice the same thing at about the same time , and I can't not mention something notable about my favorite Dodger player when it comes to cards. Because this is a historic moment. There have been card updates for trades featuring players in different uniforms or in differ...