Night Owl Cards

   Trading cards takes a lot of time. Also, sometimes it takes a lot of work.   Everyone collects differently and sometimes it's difficult to match up with another collector. That happens all the time. No big deal really. Then there are the fellow collectors that drag out trades for too damn long.   I never participated in collectors forums, but I've heard that trades were often like that there. I have no problem trading away nice cards, but I'm not going to send a couple dozen messages back and forth to come to an agreement on an exact accounting of precise compensation. I've dealt with this in the past with a couple bloggers. It's not fun. Trading is supposed to be fun.   That's why I gravitate to super simple trades. My favorite are: "I'll send you some cards whenever and you send some cards whenever." That's how most trades go on the blogs. It's about the only ones I make these days.   It's also why I participate in stuff like Diamo...

  A couple things before I start the big show: 1. I like to be a good commenter on the blogs and leave a comment when something sparks my interest. Lately I have been unable to comment on some blogs via my laptop. This is only from my laptop, not any other computer, like the one at work, so I know it's some sort of settings issue on my laptop. But it only comes into play on three blogs that I know of. Those are: Johnny's Trading Spot , Nine Pockets and Uncle Charlie's Shoebox . I know this is something I have to fix (like I have the time) but I'm mentioning the specific blogs just in case they've wondered where I was in the commenting section.   2. RIP, Mr. Baseball. Bob Uecker, who lived to age 90, is one of those baseball guys who lasted through multiple generations. First he was a player, then a broadcaster, then a pitchman and guest host, then an actor, then a movie star. Whether you knew him first as a ballplayer or his famed Lite Beer commercials or from Majo...

  It's getting down to the last few days of 2022. I've exhausted just about every card anniversary that has occurred in the past year. But one thing I've never done is acknowledge my complete 1962 Topps Dodgers team set. It's still the 60th anniversary of the original wood-bordered set for another 12 days. In fact, I don't even recall what the last card was that completed my team set for '62. I went back through the blog to see if I could pin down that triumphant day, because this blog is always about celebrating my card milestones. Still, I couldn't find it. Then I realized why I couldn't. It's because I haven't completed it. I may never complete it. Thanks to this guy: Bob Uecker is on one of those rookie prospects cards with Dodgers prospect Doug Camilli. I'm just not willing to pay 60 bucks or so for a tiny floating head, I don't care if Ueck did get me through a couple lonely Saturday nights watching Mr. Belvedere. So, this team set ...

    I don't have a lot of mini collections. I can't focus on that many hobby things these days anyway, but I've never been the mini-collection type. If I did venture outside of my set/team/player-sphere, one of the collections I would set up is cards of players who later became broadcasters when I was starting to learn baseball. They were my first baseball teachers. Yeah, sure there were youth league coaches and my dad and all that, but I wanted to know about Major Leaguers, not that "keep your eye on the ball" stuff. Fortunately there were guys on TV who told me all about major leaguers. Sure, there were people like Vin Scully and Keith Jackson and Lindsey Nelson and Frank Messer. But the ones who knew all the inside stuff were usually called "the color commentators" and they were usually former ballplayers. Ex-ballplayers like Joe Garagiola, Tony Kubek, Ralph Kiner and Don Drysdale were invaluable to me learning about professional ballplayers and what ...

I want to address two different card package arrivals that don't have much in common other than that one thing that every arriving card package has in common, which is: How will I store these? It comes down to three ways: binder, top loader or box. These means of packaging, storing and presenting are not the same. Ideally, every last card in my collection would be living in a binder. That's my favorite storage method. They're accessible. The cards are presented nicely within. They're very good for categorizing and we card collectors sure do love to categorize. They look good visually when entering the room and when opening the binder. But I don't have the room for a binder for every card. I can't even process what they would look like. Some edition of "Hoarders," I'm sure. So the cards that are not deemed "worthy" of a binder -- and, yes, I hate that we're prioritizing like this -- go in a box. Boxes are for sets that I...