Night Owl Cards

OK, I finally got my hand on some of those blue parallels in Opening Day that everyone and their dentist is endorsing as the parallels of the year. I wanted to compare them to the emerald parallels in the base set that I love so much and see if they really are inferior like everyone is saying. Yes, everyone. Here, look: I think they might have the emerald Flagship parallels beat. And here: i like these better than the emerald parallels from series one. And here: The blue parallels are just like the Emerald parallels, only they are blue.  Therefore, they are miles better than the green ones.  And here: The Blue looks Waaaaaaaaay better than the Greens. And now look at the people who prefer the emerald parallels: Right. But press on, I must, because I just don't think the blue parallels are as terrific as everyone is saying. They're very nice. That's true. Still better than those gold sparkle things last year, without a doubt. But I love my e...

I absolutely love my card desk. I've loved it from the moment it arrived . It's useful, it's functional and it keeps the peace. It never lets me down and is always faithful. But, I regret to inform you that outside forces are bringing it down. It's not performing its duties as well as it once did. I'm starting to lose things and I get this feeling that certain people are looking at it in that "will you please pull the roll-top thingy DOWN so we don't have to see all that clutter?" The problem is that the roll-top thingy won't come down because of all the clutter. Now there are a few suspects to blame for my desk's sudden inefficiency, but the real source of this problem is basically a good thing: baseball is back. The return of baseball means a lot of things: going to games, watching games on TV, following your favorite players, snagging autographs, great weather, great food, all that stuff. But it also can mean stupid stuff like ...

Even with all of the acquisitions that the Dodgers have made in the last six months, everyone knows -- or should know -- that the core of the team is Kemp and Kershaw. The last two years have established that the Dodgers don't do a damn thing if those two don't do a damn thing. This is the main reason that I collect cards of both players. The other reason is I think they're decent folks. I don't take player collecting as seriously as I do set collecting or team collecting. But I do pay attention to how many cards I have of both of these players. In particular, I am interested in the Kershaw total. It is my goal to have more Kershaw cards than I have cards for any other player. I'm well on my way to doing that. Just last week I passed 250 unique Kershaw cards, which I think is pretty good for a guy who lists "player collecting" as priority three. Kershaw has appeared regularly on cards only since 2008. Outside of Hideo Nomo, Orel Hershiser, Mike ...

I don't really enter blog contests anymore. It's not that I don't like winning things. It's just that I don't have the time. I pride myself in trying to read as many card blogs as possible on a daily basis (I have 360 on the blog roll). But it's getting more and more difficult. And the maximum effort that I can guarantee is that I will skim your blog post. I'll get more heavily invested in certain blogs, but on average it's done, done, onto the next one . Especially at this time of year. You should see my daily life. It's a wreck of chaos with me wandering around in a haze as the bombs go off. And you're asking me to take the time out for a contest? Sorry, I'm trying to put out this bonfire with a teaspoon of water. I'll get back to you. So a week or so ago, I was doing my usual blog skimming, trying desperately to keep up, and I happened upon some cavalcade of contests produced by 30-Year-Old Cardboard . Brian, being the generou...

Today, I'm feeling pretty good about the way things are going. That's not to say everything's cool. Let's just say that I like today and leave it that. I hate being cryptic. But there are just some things not meant for the blog. That's hard for me to accept as I've never been one of those "all-business" card blogs. The emotions of the day seep into everything that I do, and that includes collecting. This blog isn't any more immune to what's going on in life than anything else that's important to me. If things turn out fine, then I'm sure I'll babble about it on here. But in the meantime, I just want to say thanks for all the well-wishes. It means a lot. I wish I could do more for you than this trade post, but that's about all I have time to do. Besides, what kind of post is more thankful than a trade post? Thanksgiving should be a day of trade posts. People giving thanks for cards instead of Aunt Evelyn's green be...