Night Owl Cards

(Greetings on National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. There are no chocolate chip cookies in the house, nor do I see one for me on the horizon today -- certainly not buying the package in the downstairs vending machine at work. I shall distract myself with Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 355th in a series):   Continuing my recent trend toward devoting Cardboard Appreciation to oddball sets , here's another item -- that I didn't know existed until last week.   I mentioned a few posts ago that I was asked to assess a collection that was given to a church thrift shop. The collection was once owned by a boy who is now 25 and includes mostly cards from the early 2000s to the mid 2010s.   I also mentioned that the co-worker who asked me to look it over gave me permission to pick out some cards for my own collection. I added a handful -- no more than 15. A lot of it was familiar stuff that I either already own, don't like much or don't collect (football and basketball mostly)....

I have collected cards for most of my life, more than 40 years, with a few breaks in between. Collecting is a way of life for me and is ingrained in my thoughts and actions. It is such a part of me that I don't even realize how big of a card nerd I have become. I am not the most knowledgeable collector around, far from it, but I do know a lot about cards. And because I've never been someone to give myself the benefit of the doubt, I just assume that everyone else knows about cards, at least a little. And if someone asks me about cards more than once, then, yeah, I'm assuming they know something about cards. But I was reminded yesterday that civilians -- yes, I'm calling non-collectors "civilians," that's how immersed I am -- don't know squat about cards. In the middle of a brutally long work day, I stopped at the post office to send off some card packages. I plopped six small mailers on the counter and the worker who is almost always there sta...

I went out shopping for a Generation Z eater yesterday. If you have kids in the house, you might know what that means. I don't think we have a full handle on the "Generation Z" generation yet, but I believe when it all shakes out, one of its main defining characteristics -- other than their insistence on using social media and technology that no one over the age of 25 uses -- is their habit of binging on everything. Show-binging is the most famous one. My daughter does that. But she also "binges" on types of food. This has nothing to do with any kind of eating disorder. She simply decides she likes a certain snack food a lot, must have it , then eats it for like six months, and then never wants it again. I was setting out to get one of those must-have snacks, when I realized I needed a few other items. I didn't have the energy to go to multiple stores, and I knew that Walmart would have everything I needed, so I dutifully drove to Walmart. So I coul...

It's not often that I receive an offer that I can't refuse. Sure, there are plenty of "do this or else ..." moments in my life. But I'm talking about something in which both ends of the equation are "oh, boy, where do I sign up?!" A couple of weeks ago, Kenny "Zippy Zappy" contacted me about another deal. He said he had a handful of cards for me and all he wanted in exchange were some cards of Alex Rodriguez. I stared at the email blankly. "Hmmmm, that's strange," I thought. "I know Kenny. I've traded with him before. I've seen him trade with others. But goodness this sounds like spam." A-Rod cards. He wants A-Rod cards? I read the email again. "I'd love to trade for any A-Rods (I know this will shock you but Alex Rodriguez is one of my favorite players)." Yeah, that's got to be spam. But just because I'm a nice guy, I sent a reply to Kenny -- if that is his real name -- a...

Last week, I grabbed a repack box at Target. I did it mostly because I wanted the mini in the pack of Allen & Ginter showing in one of the box's display windows (it turned out to be a Giant, of course). The box was the usual fare, pleasing but not intoxicating. However, I didn't expect a box of 1994 Flair Series 2 to fall out of it. Flair was Fleer's real entrance into the premium card market. It's thick, shiny and features enough gloss for all of the lips in California. But that's about all I know about Flair. In 1994, I was on my way out of cards for a needed decade-long break. Other people look at cards from this era with knowledge and nostalgia. I look at them with a "whazziz?" once-over stare. So I did a little research. 1994 Flair is the second year of Flair. Some people don't like it as much as the '93 debut, but I disagree (I'll get to that later). It was a 450-card set released in two series. The second series has 200 car...

I think it's time that the Texas Rangers start dressing the part again. How can you call yourself a Ranger and not have long hair and a stache? For me, the 1970s Texas Rangers are the real Rangers. The true Rangers. None of this finely groomed stuff you see today. All those tattoos and necklaces and haircuts that took too much thought. Yeeech. It's time to start looking like outlaws again, boys. But there is one thing that will make me forgive the Rangers from straying from their roots: beating the Yankees in the ALCS. Today is the big day. After three days of doing absolutely NOTHING, there's a game to watch. And in light of the occasion, I am presenting the Rangers next in the team colors series. It's another feeble attempt to send some good luck the Rangers' way. Before even conducting this examination, I knew red and blue would be the easy winners for the Rangers. Texas has always used one color the other, even though sometimes it doesn't know wheth...

Yankees fans sometimes guess why fans of other teams hate the Yankees. Most of the time they guess that it's because other fans are jealous of the Yankees' success, the team's talent, and the amount of money they have to spend. There's truth to that, but using that reason is too easy. When Yankees fans say that, they're really complimenting their own team and absolving the Yankees from all blame at the same time. And that's because many of them can't stop turning the conversation into "all Yankees greatness all the time." No introspection. No admissions. So charming. And that is probably what irritates me the most about the Yankees and many of their fans. Not only do they care too much about their own team -- like it's the only team on the planet -- but they do it so much that they're utterly clueless about the other teams in baseball. That's what makes Michael Kay, the leading play-by-play announcer for the Yankees' supersta...