Night Owl Cards

(Happy National Bird Day! On this day, I think someone like me should have the day off. And I do! Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 347th in a series):     The 1978 Topps Manny Mota wasn't the first Mota card I ever saw -- that would be the '71 Topps Mota that I spotted in the street -- but the '78 was pretty prominent during my younger collecting days. That Mota card was one of the double-prints in the 1978 set. Topps graduated to 726 cards in '78 and that caused some of them to be printed more often (I don't know the printing math behind this but every year that Topps totaled 726 cards -- 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981 -- some of the cards were double-printed). So since I was pursuing Dodgers, the Mota was easy to find. So were the Mike Garman, Steve Yeager and Tom Lasorda cards -- all double-prints. But Mota showed up most (though not quite as much as Jose Baez and Barry Bonnell). Multiple versions of the same card was still a novelty for someone who couldn...

So, some cards arrived from Zach of Autographed Cards just the other day. He told me he had a few of the 2003 Fan Favorites cards on my list and shipped them off. The Kent Tekulve is the highlight, of course. Believe me, fellow Teke fans who may not have been old enough to see him at his height, we were baffled that this guy was actually getting real major leaguers out. Here are the rest that Zach sent. These five get me down to six to complete the set, and then I would have all three Fan Favorites sets finished off. That would be a nice point of pride in my collection, something that the current Archives product could never hope to match. Zach sent two other cards that I didn't expect. It seems he got suckered into buying the 65th anniversary Archives product at Walmart, too. And he unearthed two Dodgers in his box. One was a Koufax rookie replica. How weird is it to see a 1975 Topps back on the reverse of a 1955 Topps card? The other card is another one ...

Weekend festivities have really blown a hole in blog posting. I had in mind what I thought was a somewhat creative 4th Of July post slated for yesterday. But I didn't even see the beer and frivolity coming and now you're all going to have to wait a year for that one. Today I had a different post in mind, but home renovations are preventing me from getting to most of my cards. So, welcome to option No. 3 of the weekend. This is a "card" that I received from Zach at Autographed Cards . I believe he pulled it from a Series 2 blaster/value box, and wondered whether I wanted it. I admit, I waffled and worried over whether I wanted it for far too long. These manu-cards, as you know, are not my speed. It's a little too craft-fair for me, even when they're working in a manly medium like wood. Sometimes I read certain collectors fawning over items like this and I don't get it. It's an imitation bat knob. I barely know what to do with a real bat knob....

I still get emails from people periodically asking me for advice on how to run a blog. No, not Hope Solo , although she could learn a thing or two from me, but from regular card-collecting people. Some want to know how to get started, or how to get trades going, or how to get some interaction. My advice is simple and nothing no one else hasn't said already: you just have to be yourself, write about what you like, and maybe most of all: get out there. How does one "get out there"? Well, like I said, you have to be yourself and write what you like. Don't write things on your blog that you don't believe or don't interest you. There is a temptation to do that if all you're looking for are readers or comments. But it won't end well. Write often. Yes, that takes time and none of us have time. But like anything in life, you get what you put in. Writing often not only attracts readers and keeps you in their very active and busy lives, but it makes y...

Since I am just a few cards away from finishing off the 1975 Topps minis and the 1972 Topps set must wait until I have cash to throw at high numbers, I need a set-collecting project that I can pursue at a leisurely pace, that won't strain the budget, and that fellow collectors are willing/able to send. That's why I'm chasing down the 1981 Donruss set. This is endlessly amusing to my 15-year-old self, because when the first Donruss set came out that year, it was as if I was buying homemade cards. I can hear myself snorting all the way from 1981. By '81, I had collected Topps and basically nothing but Topps for seven years. Topps was as professional as you could be when it came to card collecting. They knew what they were doing. And their product -- for its time -- was high quality. A large set with adequate photographs, complete stats and an attractive design. No one could do what they did. So when Donruss and Fleer offered sets in 1981, we opened our very fir...