Night Owl Cards

    Although I recently lamented the former card bloggers who have disappeared from the virtual card world -- couldn't tell you what they're doing or even if they're alive -- there are still plenty of former bloggers that I see on other social media sites. That's one of the reasons I have not been solely a blogger since the rise of other social media forms.   While blogging is easily my preferred platform for cards, communicating with old blogging friends in more informal ways, whether Twitter or Blue Sky or wherever, is a bit easier, casual-like and a little more fun (sometimes). It's random card thoughts and and conversations in easy bites. Another plus -- trades spring out of nowhere. You start the day with no intention of exchanging cards and 20 minutes later I'm swapping cards.   Recently I sent a few current Tigers cards to ex-blogger/ex-twitterer Boobie Maine , who now is in the card (and music) conversation on Blue Sky. I know too many Tigers fans lately...

  It's pretty apparent to me that the number of parallels in every card product has vaulted into another level of ridiculousness in the last year or two.   Counting parallels has been crazy for at least the last 10 years but somewhere around when Panini started Chronicles and then now with what Topps is doing in its main sets, it's almost impossible to keep tabs on all of them, and I don't know what to think of any collector who is trying to collect them all for one player. Pity? Admiration? Concern for Their Financial and Mental Health?  As I've said many times, despite the over-the-top number, I still like a good parallel. Colorful ones are the best. But I almost never chase them anymore. They've jumped the shark and I've stopped watching.   But also they're still a good way to find cards that are new to my collection and if they are Dodgers, I'm going to welcome most of them even while wishing we could go back to the days when there were just gold par...

  I'm finally getting around to the latest big box from Johnny's Trading Spot , which arrived two weeks ago.   Boxes that size are a lot to deal with amid a busy life. I had to approach it in shifts. The first thing to deal with is why Johnny sent a big box, which contained a few smaller empty boxes, plus the boxes with cards. I'm sure there was a reason but I was baffled.   The other moment of reflection is something that always happens now with a send like this -- do I really want to collect all this stuff? For example, Johnny sent a bunch of minor league Dodgers sets -- low-level minors with many unfamiliar names. He checked with me first and I said, go ahead, because I knew there would be 3 or 4 names in each I recognized and wanted in my collection. But what do I do with the rest? Another example: the sapphire version of the 2024 Chrome Tennis set --but just the dudes? Why would I want those?   But that's the world of Johnny's shipments. There is a little of th...

  Three years ago, Topps put a card of Giants outfielder Mike Yastrzemski in its 2022 flagship set and spelled his name wrong.   "Yastrzemksi"   It was amusing and annoying -- I mean, how --  how could Topps misspell a name linked in baseball lore, a Hall of Fame name? Sure Mike Yastrzemski was just a kid, but his grandfather was an MVP and won the Triple Crown! He is legend among generations of Red Sox fans. What the hell?  I have a specific perspective when it comes to spelling names. My job is to publish the names of local athletes almost every day and to edit all sports names before they appear in the next day's newspaper. I have done this for decades and I have watched as players' names have grown more bizarre and more difficult to spell. Yet, every day, we try to get them right.   Sometimes they are wrong -- often this is because the coach doesn't care enough to spell it right on the roster. Sometimes, it's us, we confuse a player with his older gradu...

  I had viewed enough 2024 Archives pack openings to know I needed to open some myself. Not that I liked the cards -- Archives and I have never seen eye-to-eye -- but I wanted to see the content for myself so I could comment on it on my own blog instead leaving irked comments all over everyone else's pack breaks. Also, there was one aspect of 2024 Archives that folks kept bringing up, but actually there is nothing wrong with that aspect ... well, in the general Archives realm anyway. But I'll get to that. First let's open those three packs. (By the way, these came from Walmart on Thursday -- a place that has barely offered cards for the last couple of years, but in a constant give-and-take with the Target across the street, Target is now devoid of cards. It's odd how neither can be decently stocked at the same time).   PACK 1   I have been opening Archives since its current version began in 2012, I know what to expect -- three past designs, totally unrelated. This year...