Night Owl Cards

When I started this blog, one of the first people who ever sent me cards -- perhaps the first person who ever sent me cards -- was David from Tribe Cards . I was absolutely elated when he sent them to me. I'm pretty sure it came through in the post. I was practically typing it from the ceiling. YOU GUYS! THIS PERSON I DON'T EVEN KNOW JUST SENT ME A BUNCH OF BASEBALL CARDS THAT I COLLECT !!!! YOU GUYS!!! I DON'T EVEN BELIEVE THIS!!!!!! Dave had one of the first card blogs that I knew, certainly the first that I knew who ran contests where people could win cards. Yes, it was once a novel concept. And he's still at it. He's got a 2013 giveaway going where people can win cards of their favorite player, just by entering. And last year, he opened packs for every day of the baseball season, and gave away the contents. I was the fortunate person who received the Dodgers. I kind of entered the contest with my present been-around-the-block night owl attitude. Yo...

I often find myself in the middle of never-ending debates concerning vintage vs. modern, or retail vs. online. Periodically, when I feature a modern set that may not be up to my standards, commenters will jump on my negative vibe and say something like, "thanks for reminding me why I don't waste my money on the garbage they're putting out today." Ooooo-kay! I wasn't really saying "this set has flaws, therefore burn all of your post-1994 cards." I was just saying "this set has flaws." Or I'll feature a beloved vintage card of some sort and the response will be *crickets.* Not enough modern innovation for the mojo crowd, I guess. The same goes for retail vs. online. Although I haven't really come across a ton of collectors advocating for retail, I do come across plenty advocating the online route. Their main clinching argument is: "and that's what I picked up for the price of a blaster." It's a pretty good arg...

The title for this post is a little flip, considering that some people haven't had much luck with the Diamond Giveaway at all. But I think I'm running out of interest in the site. That's probably because I've landed the other Diamond Diecut card that I really wanted. The Clayton Kershaw diecut was traded to me by reader Martin. I was so impressed by his transaction that I bumped his trade way up in the rotation. (As mentioned before, these cards are really much more sparkly and shiny than is capable of being shown on scans -- also my scanner bed apparently is plagued by dog hair. But don't let the dull scan ruin your appreciation of shiny, shiny goodness). This leaves only one other Dodger Diamond Cut to get -- Andre Ethier. I'm sure if I offered my Reggie Jackson Diamond Cut for Ethier, I'd land it right away. But I don't want to do that. Instead, I'm very close to requesting shipment of both my Jackson and Tommy Hanson Diamond Diecuts and se...

I'd like to make a little comparison. There are two brand new baseball card products on retail shelves right now. One is Gypsy Queen and one is Topps Attax. At my particular Target, each product is offered in the exact same way, in a rack pack. That's the only way it is available. Gypsy Queen costs 5 bucks more than Attax and offers eight fewer cards per pack. Yet, I have seen three blog posts about Attax and -- I'm trying to be accurate here -- 4,342,541,976,842,342,778,623,510,981,025 posts about Gypsy Queen. Two sites in particular converted their blogs into shrines to the Gypsy Queen. All hail the Queen. Of course, you're saying right now, you don't actually expect collectors to treat Attax on the same level as Gypsy Queen, do you? Attax is a game. A kid's game. Yeah, I get you. But to the outside world, they're all the same. And we've got a Gypsy Queen bias. At my Target, the Attax packs were hanging up on racks next to all of their rac...