Night Owl Cards

  Three weeks ago I won a card giveaway from The Diamond King. The winnings were a selection of random Albert Pujols cards in celebration of his recent retirement. The vast majority of cards were from his Cardinals and Angels days, where he spent the overwhelming amount of his baseball toiling. There were also three Dodgers cards, and ... one of them I needed. That's it. And that was all it took for me to enter. I won this card, and a whole bunch of non-Dodger cards. Some maybe wondered why I entered the contest. I'm not a player collector, and I am known for having very few good feelings for the Cardinals and the Angels. What was the point? The note that arrived with my winnings, alluded to these cards that seemingly didn't fit in my collection. Thank you, I shall. So, yes, obviously there isn't a lot here that I collect. But all that means is it's time to work the phone lines! The first thing I did was check the Pujols cards against Cards On Cards' want lists...

This is your public service announcement reminding you that there are two 2014 blog contests in process and a whole bunch of people who could use your votes. The first 2014 Bip Awards (notice I didn't say "first annual" because that is a crime against the human language) are taking place at A Cardboard Problem . The awards cover "best blog" "best rookie blog" and a host of other categories, stretching into other social media outlets like Twitter. People can make nominations through the end of next week. There's an official entry form and everything. I believe there are prizes, too, which I don't know if I like because people do all kinds of questionable things when prizes are involved. But the more my blog readers nominate and vote the better chance there is for the right bloggers to get mentioned. There is also a 2nd Best Blog Of The Year Award, which is being run by 2 by 3 Heroes . The reason it's the "2nd Best Blog" aw...

I bought another rack pack of Topps Update last weekend just because the usual panic over not yet owning any Dodgers from this set kicked in again. A few cards through the rip, I came across this Derek Jeter All-Star card, and my first thought was, "oh, this is the card Sooz made." Think how about how unique that thought was. That was the first time in more than 40 years of collecting cards that I have ever thought that. I actually now know someone who works at Topps. I realize that I'm exaggerating somewhat here. I've never actually met Sooz in person. I've interacted with her on Twitter many times and on her blog A Cardboard Problem back in its heyday. I've entered a group break of hers and traded cards and notes through the mail a couple times. Some emails, too. I know her as well as anyone can collecting cards through the internet. I also know that she didn't actually "make" that card. Like she says in her post about it, she had ...

Finest is one of those sets that I love but can never get near. It's always sitting in some card shop miles from me, both in terms of distance and price range, making nasty faces because it knows that I can't get to it. So when there's a group break that includes Finest, I'm there. A Cardboard Problem announced a Finest break a long, long time ago -- back when everyone thought the Phillies were going to run away with the World Series -- and I jumped immediately on the Dodgers, with visions of cool, colored refractors and maybe a funky patch so I could hypnotize people who are impressed by that kind of thing. Well, the break finally happened after Topps finished goofing around with what it was going to do with the set (oooooooh, more rookies. Thank goodness. There just aren't enough of those on cards). I chalked it up to another "worth the wait" situation. But while Marie and Sooz made the wait worth it by throwing in some extra cards, Finest did not....

This is an atomic refractor. It's my first one. Sooz sent it to me. I never knew what an atomic refractor was until recently. When I first arrived on the blogging scene and read the now departed Wax Heaven, Mario brought up the atomic refractor almost every other post. He bowed before its glory, and everyone nodded in recognition. I was completely lost. That's because Bowman introduced the atomic refractor in the late 1990s when I was in my "silly rabbit, collecting is for kids" phase. I never even heard of the Bowman product that featured the atomic refractor -- Bowman's Best -- until three years ago. So, I had never laid eyes on its wondrousness. I still don't know if the atomic refractor that came out in the late '90s is the same as today's version of the atomic refractor. They don't look the same. At any rate, there is nothing that disputes the explosive greatness of the 2011 Clayton Kershaw Atomic Refractor. It is sparkly in a sta...

A few months ago, my financial situation wasn't the greatest. It still isn't now, but at least I'm able to buy a rack pack of cards without the guilt police trailing my vehicle. During that cash-strained period, group breaks popped up everywhere. I had to go into shutdown mode and pass up I don't know how many of them. But there was one break I really wanted to join, and that was the case break at A Cardboard Problem for 2011 Topps. I moped around for awhile trying to figure out what I should do. Marie of ACP waited me out, suggested I might actually have a good time, and, bam, I was in. In the end, the cash didn't kill me, and when the break went off last week, I found out it was probably the best card decision I've made in a long time. The cards I received are already in hand, and there is some great stuff. There was also some unexpected, super generous stuff, too, which I'll show at the end. First I want to address the leather nameplate ...