Night Owl Cards

It's nothing short of bizarre how ESPN has started dictating the prices that people can charge for commonly available cardboard. Recently, people flipped out over the ESPN "Last Dance" documentary, which mercifully just ended Sunday. I don't have any problem with Michael Jordan or the documentary, in fact I will always be on the MJ side of any Jordan-LeBron debate. But I have zero interest in the NBA and watching Last Dance referenced all over my timeline the last few weeks is not how I want to enjoy my quarantine time. That's my problem though. What sellers have been charging for Jordan rookie cards (and other Jordan cards, I guess, I have no idea what those are) since the documentary came out could be your problem. If you're not a regular follower of the card market, that is. In other words, if you're thinking now is a good time to buy a Michael Jordan rookie, maybe hold off on that urge a few months or so, or probably a little longer than tha...

That is my Mike Trout rookie card. Most days it sits under lock-and-key because I just know there are thieves lurking in the bushes so they can steal it from me. Even when I pull it out for blog occasions like this one, I don't like scanning it outside of its top-loader. I'd do it if I had to -- I don't care about it that much -- but all it will take is one trip to ebay to see how much it is selling for and I suddenly feel like hiring armed guards. My goal is to sell this card someday and I probably would have sold it already, but I've held on to it because I wasn't done with the 2011 Topps Update set yet. No, I haven't completed the 2011 Update set -- no plans to do that -- but there was one card from that set that I wanted above any other one and it took ages for me to get it. The Matt Kemp Toppstown card from that set lounged on my Nebulous 9 list longer than any other card that I've placed on there. But if you look over at the Nebulous 9 now, ...

(Hello on World Penguin Day. This is the perfect excuse to post a Ron Cey card. But I'm not gonna do that. Because I gotta be me. It's time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 255th in a series): All of the Eric Thames autographed cards are gone. Or they're priced way out of your range. All of the parallels from 2011 and 2012, too. Eric Thames is HOT! right now. All of the ebay listings say so. Brewers Power Hitter! Red Hot! On Fire! MVP?? Rare! All of the exclamation points! And question marks, and asterisks, and dollar signs!!!!!!! You can buy 30 of the same Eric Thames card for 65 dollars (but why would you?). After Thames hit two more home runs last night to extend his major league lead to 10, I got caught up in the hype -- in my usual reserved way. I decided to see if I had any Eric Thames cards. I did. This 2011 minor league card of Thames, as a Toronto Blue Jays prospect, is the notable one. Many people are discovering that the Brewers' Tha...

Five years ago, I wrote a post titled "Five Years is a Long Time," in which I updated readers on the vast changes in players' careers in a five-year period. It was a bit surprising to see the results and the post drew a lot of comments. Well, five more years have passed since that post. Crazy, I know. And the set that was just coming out when I wrote that post -- 2011 Topps flagship -- is now going to kindergarten. I figured another comparison post was in order. But I don't have the time I had five years ago, so I won't be calculating like I did the last time. This time, I dug out all of the cards with the rookie card logo that I have from that flagship set (the set isn't complete) and briefly reviewed how those players have progressed since. See, this way I get to bash the rookie card logo while working on the post. It's double the entertainment! The most notable rookie-card logo player from that set that I own -- as of this moment right now...

I'm fairly certain that I have never slid head-first in a baseball game in my entire life. When I was learning to play baseball, the head-first slide wasn't a thought. Almost nobody but Pete Rose did it back then. It wasn't taught in youth baseball or by any coaches. It was considered "hot-dogging it" by just about everyone. Obviously, that was a long time ago. Head-first sliding -- although it seems a lot more jarring and messy than feet-first sliding -- is now as common as any 100-year-old baseball activity. And it makes for very dramatic baseball cards and video highlights, meaning it's never going away. Head-first sliding means business. It gives the perception of urgency, of someone willing to do anything to get that base. But I don't know if it's any more successful than a feet-first slide. It seems like a lot of show. Imagine, if you would, Heath Bell charging in from the bullpen during the 2011 All-Star Game and instead of sliding ...

(I am greeting you approximately six hours away from my first spring break since I was in college. Yep, it's been a long time. So long that I've traded beer and babes for soul-destroying family visits. ... Ha! I'm kidding! It's time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 203rd in a series):   I often have blinders on in this hobby. It's out of self-preservation, really. How can I possibly focus on everything collectible in the cardboard world? If I were to truly pay attention to everything -- given how varied my card interests are -- I'd want to have it all. And I can't have it all. So I'd suffer from cardboard heartbreak and you'd see me on the street collecting gum wrappers because gum wrappers won't rip out your heart. But because I don't devote my energies to everything , I miss some great stuff. For example, the 1964 Topps Giants. Sure, I had heard of them. They were one of those oddball releases from the 1960s. L...

I mentioned the other day that I had made my first card purchase on ebay in more than three years. That purchase begat another purchase, which begat another purchase. "Uh-oh," I thought. "This is how it started the last time." Don't worry. I've got things under control. A much more mature night owl is traveling the scenery these days. But while I'm here, I might as well show you what I got, right? Two of the items have to do with this card here: THE BEST DAMN ROOKIE CARD OF ALL-TIME!!! The last two cards were my first two ebay pick-ups in a long, long while. My question now is how many more versions of this card are there? I know the Walmart black and Target throwback cards are still out there. Those things are way too difficult to find, thanks to Topps' mercifully aborted stealth blaster plot of 2009-2011. I hope to track them down sometime. But besides those, what else could t...

About a year ago, I mentioned the love-hate relationship that we sports editors have with the no-hitter. We love it because big events are always fun to put in the newspaper. We hate it because it's unexpected, which usually means overhauling everything that we've done at a very late hour with deadline looming. I also mentioned that I have been lucky enough to avoid this ritual for almost three years because, mostly by coincidence, I have not been working during the last nine no-hitters. It's been an incredible string of luck because the chances of me working during a no-hitter was basically 50-50. But not since Jonathan Sanchez hurled a no-hitter on the west coast on July 10, 2009, had I had to scramble to put a no-no in the paper. The odds in my favor increased further about a year ago when my hours changed. No longer was I in charge of producing the daily sports section, and I left for the evening often as the night's ballgames were just ending. I was als...

(I just read a lighthearted column in the paper about how this week is "the week that nothing happens." Speak for yourself, missy. The show goes on where I am, only with less people because of vacations, and more basketball scores to take over the phone. It should be the week that nothing happens. But it's not. ... Anyway, let's appreciate some cardboard. This is the 130th in a series): Not a lot of time again today, so let's see if I can squeeze in some half-brained thoughts before I get interrupted. This is the card to which I was referring in the previous post. It is about as obvious an advertisement for a product that I have ever seen on a baseball card. Advertisements on cards are a lot more common than they were 10, 20, 30 years ago. That's mostly because advertisements at ballparks are much, much, much more common than they once were. And, I think it's also because Topps now has little problem with showing ads on its cards. Although it's ...

Hey! Mr. Baseball Player! You've just been spotted making a weird face in 2011 Topps Update! What do you think of that? Yeah, can't say as I blame you. At least one of you doesn't have a problem with it: Smile! You're on Topps Candid Camera, Mr. Baseball Player!