Night Owl Cards

  OK, I have some more time now to write about the goodies that landed on my porch last Monday.   The Orel Hershiser auto from the previous post was one of the highlights, but it wasn't the only highlight. I received envelopes from four different people. Besides Gavin's "thanks for reading" prize, I received another envelope from the great state of Oregon, from The Diamond King . Upon reflection, he said he wasn't too enthusiastic over a few of his card show dime box pick ups, but I sure was. I am an admitted mark for colored border parallels, even Panini ones, so yes I am quite happy about these cards showing Kershaw in his milkman delivery uniform. These three cards happen to be Nos. 894, 895 and 896 in my Kershaw collection. That No. 900 post is on the horizon! A needed Jackie mini from 2019 also appeared in the envelope. Another parallel that I love more than I should. The next Monday envelope arrived from the Card Stacks Blog , which has perked back up again...

Out of the two main ways that I collect -- set collecting and team collecting -- the one that is suffering the most from the sudden surge in trading card popularity is team collecting. Not only am I not able to head down to the local big box and open some packs in search of my favorite teams -- this is still my favorite way to open cards, and it will always be that way -- but looking online for team sets is starting to get more difficult, too. This would be a good time to become a Marlins fan because searching for available 2020 Dodgers team sets is not always successful. So, that definitely sucks. Set collecting, I can get by. I don't want to collect any ugly ol' 2020 sets anyway. But team collecting, my objective is to get anything and everything. But I can't do it -- and it's less fun to do so -- if I have to turn it into a major project. I won't stand in lines and I won't get into bidding wars to get my Dodger cards. So, what's that leave? G...

If you're dumb enough to be a team collector during, oh, the last two decades or so, then you know the feeling of always being behind, always trying desperately to catch up, reaching one destination and then suddenly discovering there are many more miles to go. Topps' habit of issuing product after product, month after month -- and they're merely the only one to blame now, Upper Deck, Fleer, Pinnacle, etc., all did it -- keeps collectors, particularly team collectors, on a perpetual hamster wheel, paddling and paddling and never getting anywhere, never coming up for air. It's like that every year. And it seems to get worse, what with the growing number of inserts and variations and online cards. But this year might be different. If you have been adventurous enough to take a trip to a Target or Walmart or maybe an actual card shop, you know that the card aisle is stuck in time. Ever since Gypsy Queen was released in March, nothing else new has hit the shelves....

I was supposed to go to a card show today. It was one of two "guaranteed" card show destinations out of the year for me. I'd get up early -- well, early for me anyway -- maybe meet Angus in the Wild Wings parking lot, drive down to the show, marvel at all the deals and finds, spend all my money, feel giddy the entire drive back, have a nice dinner, then relive my acquisitions when I got home and in the rehash blog post the next day. None of that happened. The show, like everything else fun and worth driving to in the last month-plus, was canceled. And I will wait many months for another one to appear. So, I went to the mythical card show instead. What? You don't know about the mythical card show? Oh, it's great. There may not be as many tables at this show as the one that was just canceled. But the show is always packed. Wall-to-wall people. No more than 3 feet between anyone. But nobody cares, because nobody is going to catch anything. Some kid co...