Night Owl Cards

I had one of my biggest card show fears realized yesterday. When I know that a card show is coming, I suddenly reacquire all of the irrational feelings that I had when I was a kid. I can barely contain myself and want to be at the front doors as soon as it opens because "what if the card show isn't there when I get there?" This particular show is a two-day show. Saturday and Sunday. I usually go on Saturday because ... "what if?" What if the dog gets sick and we can't go Sunday? What if a vicious storm appears on Sunday and wipes out the building? What if all the dealers pack up a day early because Saturday sucked so much? What if? What if? What if? I'VE GOT TO GO ON SATURDAY!!!!! But I couldn't go on Saturday this time. I worked late Friday night. I had to work on Saturday. There were family activities late Saturday afternoon. Sunday, meanwhile, was free and clear. So, fine, we'll go Sunday. Make a day of it. The show ta...

It's true. I now consider base cards as more valuable, more desired than relic cards. It's quite possible that I've felt that way for some time. But now that I have announced my decision to no longer seek out relic cards, I am now realizing that I don't care about them at all. It's to the point where I instinctively look at them as inferior. I wouldn't say I put them on the same plain as an unnumbered checklist. But they're falling in that direction. So, what do I do when someone sends me relic cards out of the goodness of their heart? Well, of course, I spit on them, scream curse words so the neighbors can hear, and vow vengeance to the grave. Heh. I'm kidding. Julie from Funner Here sent a very complimentary note and a pair of relic cards to me recently. I have the Sheffield bat relic already (I used to have two of them -- which makes me think I should have kept it, so I'd have three now and be well on my way to reconstructing ...

The most consistently difficult task to perform in my line of work is writing a headline. Newspaper readers bag on headlines all the time. They mock them. They deride them. They call up enraged, like any idiot can write a headline. They're wrong. You have to be a semi-idiot to write a headline. It is no easy task to write a few words that make sense together, that is accurate enough to sum up the copy below, that is interesting enough to get someone to read the story, AND that all can be crammed into the proper amount of space, using the properly sized letters in the proper font. I struggle with it daily. Some people have a talent for it. I don't. So usually I produce a workmanlike headline and move on. I count the clever headlines that I've written on one hand. When Miami and Virginia Tech announced they were leaving for the Atlantic Coast Conference, I wrote: "They ACC-ept." When a referee called a basketball player for a controversial traveling c...

I'm pretty sure that when I first started collecting baseball cards as a kid, one of the first "don't's" of collecting was related to what the players were wearing on cards. I vividly remember being thoroughly disgusted any time I came across a player who was not wearing a baseball cap on his card. It was as if, suddenly, he became a non-player. There is a non-player on my baseball card! A guy who is pretending to be a baseball player! But I know he's not one! He's probably an electrician or a piano mover or a garbage man! He might as well be my dad on there! Goodness, I am collecting my DAD on a baseball card! Rule #1: You do not appear on a baseball card unless you are wearing the uniform of a baseball player. This was pretty much law all through the '70s and '80s. But I'd come across a few cards every year in which a player was not wearing a cap -- the joker -- roll my eyes, and then everything would be cool. Then Bowman blew th...

Often I go into tangents on here about how little time I have. Whereas others with no time simply don't post, I continue to post but whine about it in public. That's because I refuse to lose what I've built here. I could cut back on this blog or the set blogs I'm running. But disappearing for a few days is not an option for me. I'd do it if I had to, but I really don't want to. So, as long as I'm in control, you're stuck with me for quite some time. And there's that word again, "time." I have even less of it than a year ago at this time, for various reasons, some self-created, some a matter of prioritizing, and some ... well, some of that's YOUR fault. Yeah, your fault. I'll give you an example. This is a card given to me by Nick at Dime Boxes . No doubt found in a dime box. It's a semi-replica of a 1910-11 Turkey Red card of Brooklyn's George Bell, who lost a league-worst 27 games in 1910. But obviously ...