Night Owl Cards

   On the good side of being down one vehicle for at least the next month is I won't be able to act on any impulses to drive to Target/Walmart in search for cards.   The past week demonstrated how home-bound I will be (we're a two-car family and opposite work shifts allow us to trade-off the remaining -- older -- vehicle). The only alternative for card purchasing will be online.   I'm well-aware of the online options. I've mentioned many times that there have been no reliable card shops where I live for decades. The monthly card show has been a blessing, but that brings me to another obstacle: the weather.   I had planned to go to the latest monthly show Saturday. I skipped the one last month because it was zero degrees with wind-whipping snow. But this time, snow reappeared again, starting overnight -- more nasty angry-wind stuff. But the forecast promised it would wrap up by late morning. So, no sweat, the card show runs until 3.   Then the late morning f...

  I've been watching snippets of spring training the last couple of days. It's a busy time of the year for me, so I can manage only a couple of innings at a sitting usually. But that's enough to get that spring high that I'm so desperate for here in the later stages of winter.   I watch the the spring games and marvel what I see, like it's life on another planet. Spectators in the stands are actually fanning themselves! I take a quick look at the temperature bud on my laptop screen. 18 degrees. Nope, no urge to fan.   I can only imagine what it's like to live near spring. Going to ballgames sure is great. But I'd appreciate the simple, carefree feeling of hopping in the car (without clearing it off or stumbling on ice) and traveling a smooth street to the nearest big box or card shop. Sure, every life has problems, but in some places there is no snow on top of that.   One person who lives near spring is Jeremy of Topps Cards That Never Were . He was able to ...

  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...

  Let's just stay with the out-of-season Christmas posts here. Why not? Nobody's celebrating late January. As many of you know, Rod of Padrographs is a great guy who opens up a bunch of current product around the holidays and then distributes a lot of it to his favorite bloggers. I'm one of those! Most of the cards he sent this time were Dodgers or Orioles. The Baltimores are for my nephew, but he's in college now, when card interest is way low, so they'll stay with me or maybe be sent to another Orioles collector. He also sent three unopened packs: All of these have since been opened. I'll show off the contents at the end of the post. But I need to get on with the Dodgers because, brother, did Rod boost my 2024 content in that area.   Here is where most of the Holiday team set came from -- before I opened that Holiday dome in the previous post. One of the cards is a silver glitter parallel for Yamamoto. Rod took care of just about all of my Stadium Club team n...