Night Owl Cards

I don't really like critiquing artists. As someone who works in a creative field and thinks creative thoughts, I've always respected not only painters and drawers but musicians, comics, writers -- of course -- and anyone who creates something and then, probably against their best interests, presents it to the world. These are my people. And they get far too much criticism when compared with other career pursuits. That said, I don't like the Topps' Gallery reboot. It's taken me three years to settle definitively on an opinion of this set. But I'm sure now. Gallery is not appealing. Part of the reason is art sets are much too inconsistent for me to collect. I am always willing to give a baseball card art set a chance -- because I like those creative types -- but as soon as I see likenesses that don't work or images that are vastly different from each other, I'm done. Sometimes I'll even critique the card, point out that the picture doesn...

I returned to collecting current cards eight years ago. In that time, not one active Dodger had graced the wrapper of a Topps or other card company product. The only Dodger that I can remember seeing on a wrapper is Jackie Robinson, the cover boy for last year's Gypsy Queen. So, when I saw that Kershaw was the featured player for Topps Series 2, my first thought was: "Finally" Followed by: "Topps better not jinx him." I don't think think the Topps wrapper jinx has anything on the Sports Illustrated cover jinx, but let's be real. Ryan Howard, Alex Rodriguez, Joba Chamberlain, Ryan Braun and a few others haven't had the best of outcomes since they appeared on baseball card wrapper fronts. But it turns out I had nothing to fear. Mere days after Kershaw first popped up on wrappers all over the country, he pitched one of the more efficient no-hitters of all-time. No walks, one batter above the minimum, 107 pitches, 15 strikeouts. After that...

Topps always gets me with its annual release date of the flagship set. By releasing it in late January, it's still fresh on the shelves during what I call the "second gift-buying season." The first gift-buying season, of course, is Christmas. The second (or actually I guess it's the first if you're going by the calendar) is early February to the end of March. That season includes the holiday that we are celebrating (or dismissing) today and quite a number of birthdays. I always find myself in stores at this time and some of those stores have card aisles. It's inevitable. I drift toward the cards as a reward for suffering through whatever section of the store that is overrun with hearts or crafts or clothes or that makeup/jewelry/purses, bags and scarves blackhole where I suddenly can't breathe. At this time, flagship is still a little interesting, even for someone who isn't trying to complete the set. So, last night, I grabbed a rack pack an...