Night Owl Cards

A record was set here at the Night Owl residence on Monday. Here is the record: 7 - most card packages received from one person in a single day. It's good to know I can still make history in year five of Night Owl Cards, but I really can't take credit for any of it. Wes of Jaybarkerfan's Junk went on one of his PWE binges again and conducted an envelope drop on my home. Here is one flurry: And here is another: But they all came together, wrapped in a rubber band. It's mail behavior like this that draws the attention of my postal carrier. Frankly, I don't want his attention because he's a little creepish (I know stories). But there are certain sacrifices we must make if we want to be dive-bombed by cardboard. As you may know, all of Wes' PWE presentations are very random, which is the best kind of presentation. The PWEs are both random in kind and in amount. I thought I'd show the best card out of each envelope with a breakdown ...

Among my favorite kinds of night cards are the ones in which a card company was forced to use a photo from a night game because the game was one of the only chances it had to feature that player in his new uniform. This often happened with late-season acquisitions, and it often happened in the early '90s when it was important to feature a player in his new uniform, avoiding airbrushing at all costs, but also when taking pictures during daylight hours was still ritual. Alejandro Pena was acquired from the Mets in late August of 1991, leaving Donruss just a month of the regular season to get a photo of him in a Braves uniform. Fortunately for Donruss, the Braves reached the World Series that year, so they had the whole postseason, too. And, so, unlike several other 1992 Donruss cards, the picture on the card matches the team listing on the card. A game at night saves the day. This card also serves as a nifty lead-in for the final results of the Biggest Improvement and Bi...

I'm thinking I probably won't have much time to devote to cards today, so I should find something interesting to put on here in the event that I don't get back to the blog until the wee hours of Tuesday. A recent card package should do the trick. A couple of weeks ago, I went to the front door and pulled four yellow envelopes that were jammed in the mailbox. It's been awhile since that many have arrived all at once, and the old thrill that I experienced when I first started trading through the blog a few years ago came back again. I believe I have blogged about most of the packages finally, but there is one that remains, and it dwarfed all of the others in size. On the front, in BIG, black letters, the package proclaimed that it was from the Troll!!! Well, didn't that put a smile on my face. It's been awhile. Troll reassured me that he was still collecting feverishly, but there wasn't much time to blog (fortunately, he's found some time  lately)...

The only time I worry about whether I am running out of room for all my cards is when I turn my focus toward set-collecting. There is something about concentrating on a particular set that sets off alarms and makes me think, "Man, where am I going to put this ?" I think it's because unlike collecting cards of players, or even a team, it is readily apparent that you are going to need a binder to display your set. I know team collectors use plenty of binders, too -- I have enough of them for my Dodgers -- but it just seems more obvious with a set. And then the thought process turns to -- I'm running out of room! There's no more room for another binder! We're going to have to move! My wife is going to laugh when she hears why we have to move! But this is serious business! Most of my cards are in a single room. It's not even really a room; it's more of a side room. There's not a lot of space for my growing stable of binders. As it is, I have to store...

That's "merry" as in "Merry Ol' England," not "Merry Christmas." But no matter, since I could use a whole lot of "merry" after the night I had. My wife got sick and it was about as unpleasant as it gets. She's recuperating now, but I'm on zero sleep, and I could use a pick-me-up. Fortunately, John A., of Pursuit of 80s(ness), sent yet another package of Dodgers all the way from the U.K. earlier this week and I'm just getting to them. Let's see some of the goodies he sent: Dioner Navarro, 2005 Donruss Team Heroes. You don't see a lot of cards featuring Navarro's face. Or at least I haven't. He always seems to be wearing a catcher's mask, or way off in the distance or something. Mike Piazza, 1993 Pinnacle. John found a way to send me a Piazza I don't have. Which is getting increasingly difficult. Ismael Valdes, 1999 Upper Deck, Foreign Focus subset. This card comes complete with a map on the b...