Night Owl Cards

Topps loves to rehash its old designs and it knows faithful collectors like me will eat it up because they grew up with Topps and they love the old designs (better than the new designs). But I will eat only so much. I know when I'm full (kind of). Topps is forever riffing off its old designs in Archives and insert cards like the one above, sent to me by Cards On Cards recently, and yes, there is a blue-bordered parallel of this '85 Koufax on COMC right now. Even though I adore colored-border parallels, I'll take my reverence only so far. Much of what Archives produces and those inserts yield, I can take or leave. But when it comes to Heritage, and doing border stuff with old designs, that's when it gets serious. I started to become aware of Heritage creating colored border parallels in 2011. The black-border parallels were part of retail blister packs and they were all the rage. Although Heritage chrome black borders were a thing prior to 2011, the 2011...

Every year at this time I go to a card show. It's usually right around the anniversary of Jackie Robinson's major league debut, which happens to be today. Since Robinson's memory is so prevalent at this time, I decided that I would try to acquire a new Robinson card every time I went to the show. And not only have I been able to do that for most April shows, but I've been able to do it for the other shows I go to during the year. It's my little tribute to Jackie. It's really not that challenging of a task. As you know, Topps keeps churning out Robinson cards as if he was still putting on a uniform today. In fact, I actually put a Robinson card that I didn't have BACK into a dealer's box yesterday because it was the same damn pose that I have seen so many times before. But I did pick up one Robinson card at the show. It's the card you see here. This card is from the 2011 Heritage set, the special short-print parallel set that paid tribute...

(So, the Dodgers have reached the off-season. I think you could say it was a decent year for my team. I never expected them to be in contention until the second-to-last day of the season, and there's a lot more optimism in store for 2013 than there was for 2012. Not much to complain about really. Other than having to root against some awful teams in the playoffs. So let's turn to cardboard. This is the 161st in a series): There is a particular cliche that baseball people love to use. Here it is: "That's one thing about baseball. You always see something you've never seen before." Every time I hear that tired, old quote repeated cheerfully by some manager or broadcaster as if it's the first time anyone has ever uttered it, I think, "you could say the same thing about any damn ritual that has ever been devised by man." If cooking or walking or shopping or exercising or playing with your kids or riding the bus or going to the bathroom...

Time is not my own today, so all I could do was grasp at some cards that had something in common and declare it a post. Viola! You're reading it! Mission accomplished. I've noticed a flurry of Matt Kemps entering my collection lately. This is very good, because when players start to reach star status, people begin to hold onto their cards for reasons I don't entirely understand. I'm certainly not clinging to Robinson Cano or Albert Pujols cards. Give me all your Kemps! But, fortunately, some have escaped into my clutches. I grabbed the latest Kemps that I've acquired to show here. Two apiece come from various pleasant collectors. The last card comes from ... me. I'm so generous. First, we have the 2012 Topps Heritage NL(TM) Home Run Leaders card. Go out and purchase your official National League memorabilia NOW! Aside from that big of ugliness, you'll notice that Kemp is not in the center of the card even though he led the league in home runs an...

When I was executing my big card purchase a couple of weeks ago, I actually wrote out a plan of attack, much like I do at a card show. Normally, I don't do that for shopping online -- which gets me into trouble periodically. But I just have this attitude about online shopping. I want it to be just like how I shop in stores -- go, get item, pay, leave. Unfortunately, with the online route, there's too much oh-let-me-compare-this-with-that-and-how-much-is-that-and-what-about-this-and-oh-there's-something-about-this-here-and-if-I-combine-this-with- AHHHAAAHHHH-STOP IT!! But I made my list anyway and it worked out fairly well. One item right up there with my card goals for the year are 1975 Topps minis. But I left it off this shopping list. That's because so many good people have said they think they have some minis to send me. I'm not going to order minis and then wait for dupes to arrive in the mailbox. I'll just wait until my collecting buddies ship someth...

I wasn't going to do this this year. But when you're scratching and clawing for ideas, you grab onto anything that will keep the blog afloat. Like I said last year, I don't feel all that qualified to present the worst card of the year. I don't buy as many new cards as I did two years ago. I don't feel that I have a complete view of everything, and therefore my idea of "the worst" is skewed. But, what the hey. "Worst" is subjective anyway. And there ain't nothing more subjective than a blog. So let's subjective the hell out of some stupid-looking cards! This card is disturbing and it has nothing to do with the fact that he's a Giant. It looks like Matt Cain is well on his way to becoming a shrunken head. Who's neck is as wide as their head? Plus, Topps' off-center presentation of Cain, combined with the blurry background, just draws you to Cain's contracting noggin. Every year, since I was little, there have b...

Yesterday, Dinged Corners (so glad they're back) asked what we all would recommend to someone who hadn't been collecting in months. What was out on the shelves, virtual or otherwise, that would catch one's fancy? I ran through my mind all of the various choices released this year, discarded some automatically, and rambled off some incoherent answer. At the end, I realized there really wasn't anything great from 2011, and that the item that I recommended -- Topps Heritage -- won my vote solely because I like how it looks stacked up in a pile. To me, it looks like a cord of wood -- if wood was sliced very, very thinly. Don't look at me that way. I find firewood comforting. It's a cold weather thing. But I also realized that this was a sign of someone with a short attention span. Only a 2-year-old would recommend a card set based on what it looks like stacked up, as if they were building blocks. But that's how I've gone through card sets this year....

What was your gateway drug into collecting? A lot of us card collectors were addicted barely out of toddlerhood. We were "using" as 5- and 6-year-olds, mindlessly consuming without even knowing that we had a habit. For me, there were two collecting addictions before baseball cards came along. One was Matchbox cars, and the other was stamps. Matchbox cars were my first love. My interest in them was so long ago that I can't remember the first one I ever owned. I do remember specific purchasing highlights, and going to the drug store with hard-earned allowance money to score a sweet Matchbox hanging in the toy section. But I shunned Hot Wheels. Not realistic enough. At some point, subconsciously, I realized that I'd never stick with collecting cars and moved onto stamps. I became so enthralled with stamps as a "big person's pursuit" that I treated it as if it was going to be my job someday. One day I would be A Stamp Collector, Esq. I received on...