Night Owl Cards

  As a set-collector I have written many times about needing the final card to complete a set.   It's almost an ongoing issue for our collecting type -- I always seem to have three or four sets that are getting close to being finished and I either know what that final card is or I am speculating on what it might be.   Longtime readers may remember the One-Card Challenge, which I set up 13 years ago in a bid to help collectors find that one card that they need to finish a set. It was pretty popular for a few months before fading out. No coincidence, that was right around the time collectors were flocking to Twitter.   Today, I am one card away from finishing the 2024 Topps Update set. Finishing Update is usually not a big feat in the year in which it's issued, it's a smaller set and a lot of collectors are so done with the design by that time, plus it's known for being crammed with filler and plucked for rookies.   But finishing 2024 Update would be notable for m...

  March is kicking my ass per usual. But I have a hobby to off-set that, and when I get the time, I dig into the greatness and realize my life should consist of nothing but sorting all the goodies people send me!   I've been swimming in new-to-me cardboard for the past month or so and it was ramped up when my friend Greg ( @grogg.bsky.social ) sent another amazing package -- rather a big ol' box -- that I knew was coming, and even knew some of the contents, but was still not prepared for the greatness.     There's the box now (with the dreary winter backdrop -- right now the wind has decided to howl for three days straight). Inside that box were several smaller boxes, with lots of variety but with one thing in common -- I collect that stuff!!   Now whenever I show off an arrival this size with this kind of variety I usually go for the big finish. But I realize some readers don't care about the old stuff (although I've probably driven away all the people who only...

  I am in that wonderful between period in which I've opened Christmas gifts but there are more to come. So I hesitated writing this post as there could be more cards to come. But I can just write another brag post later! All the cards I received so far came from my sister-in-law. You've read about her before. She's the one with the magic touch when it comes to selecting items in the card aisle. Two years ago she sent an Archives blaster that yielded a George Foster autograph , which I still have. There were many instances before that, too. This year I received two hanger packs of 2024 Update from her. These are the first packs of Update I've opened as I've purposely avoided them, simply hand-picking the Dodgers.     Upon opening the first pack I felt like I made the right call, probably right around pulling that Padres' duo rookie card. "Why am I opening a pack with Padres rookies?" was about the exact thought I had. These cards seemed meaningless.   ...

  We're getting our first snow of the season today. The good news is November is almost over before we saw snow, which is pretty unusual. The bad news is it's lake-effect snow, on the holiday, and why couldn't it have snowed on Nov. 15th when no one was visiting anything? But we'll get over it, we always do. It's nice to be inside with no responsibilities and cards to pass the time. Today I've been sorting the bunches of cards I received from Johnny's Trading Spot a couple of weeks ago. That always demands some open time in my schedule so I can squint at the copyrights on the back for the cards I don't know. He's always unearthing something I've never heard of. The box arrival was actually signaled a few days earlier with a thank you note and three cards for playing one of Johnny's guessing games recently. I was mystified by the envelope because I didn't remember participating, but it turns out I had, just poorly and wanted to forget abo...