Night Owl Cards

I am at the stage in collecting -- or more accurately I'm at that stage in life -- where a retail pack of 2013 whatever can't possibly compete with a simple repack of old cards. They're both the same price, as you know. A single rack pack of Topps Update and one of those Fairfield rack pack "guess what's inside" repacks run about $4.99 with the repack yielding a lot more cards. I guess you're paying for "new" with the other pack. But when I bought one of each last week I received so much more "card collectibility" out of the repack. Not a surprise. Not something I haven't said before. Not something others haven't said before. It was just so apparent , that's all. The most notable feature of the Update pack was that it was a Mariners' hot pack. Besides the emerald Aaron Harang card, there were these Seattlites: What to do with these cards? I suppose I'll send them off to Larry at Emerald City Diamon...

Remember this card from last year's Allen & Ginter set? Everyone had a laugh, or shook their head, over the Invisible Man card, which was part of the "Creatures of Legend, Myth and Terror" insert series. I didn't bother to chase this card, although I did find it amusing. But did you know that 2010 Allen & Ginter has its own invisible man, too? Derek Jeter is not featured in this year's set. I'm sure you know that already, but that stuns me. Not only is he one of the top five most popular baseball players on the planet and has been for years, but he plays for Topps' favorite team. That's what makes this so shocking to me. Why would Topps exclude such a popular player on such a popular team in probably its most popular release of the year? I still don't know the answer to that. Although the absence of popular players from card sets has always fascinated me -- from Ted Williams and Maury Wills to Rusty Staub, Jason Varitek and Ba...

This post isn't about the weather, even though it is zero degrees outside right now, and it's still four days away from the first day of winter. It's more about the Dodgers' offseason maneuvering and the general disinterest I have in my team's transactions. Yes, other teams have been more active than the Dodgers. As usual, the Red Sox and Yankees are acting like hyperactive kids who can't endure a quiet moment. They have to do SOMETHING or they will be forced to deal with their insignificance. The Phillies and Braves are their usual industrious selves. And teams like the Rangers, Orioles and Mariners are surprisingly busy bees this offseason . Meanwhile, every Dodger transaction has come with a string attached. And the other end of that string is attached to a dollar bill. The Dodgers just aren't going to sink a bunch of cash into a major star. It's not going to happen, which is why I can't even look at fan message boards anymore. I can't dea...

With money the way it is around here, I can't think of a better buy than this year's Upper Deck First Edition. Normally, I avoid First Edition (and in past years, Opening Day). But at 99 cents per pack, I literally can't afford to ignore these cards. I already find myself buying more packs than blasters this year. I guess if I did the simple math, I'd find out that is not the economical way to go. Blasters save you money if you're the set-collecting type. But I've never been all that thrifty, so I buy a pack here and a pack there and tell myself I'm saving money. At least at 99 cents a pack, I really am saving some cash (unless First Edition blasters are going for $7 a box. Are they?). So tonight I bought my first two First Edition packs of 2009. You'll probably see a few more of these on future Fridays. I'm calling them First Edition Fridays. A little bit of fiscally responsible fun to kick off the weekend. Almost everyone has seen this year's ...