Night Owl Cards

  I wrapped up the Dodgers team set for 1961 Nu-Card Baseball Scoops with the arrival last week of the Johnny Podres card.   There are 11 Dodgers-themed cards in the set, which is a lot for an 80-card set but not as much as the Yankees, who are featured 16 times. I acquired most of the cards from card shows, oddly enough -- they just don't seem appealing enough for collectors to have them on hand like some other sets from around the same time.   But I love them, for obvious reasons, and I made a renewed effort to finish off the set over the last month or so. Fortunately, the cards aren't particularly expensive. I guess you'll pay a bit for the big-time stars, but I was lucky enough to get the Jackie Robinson early (and if I had to guess I'm thinking someone sent it to me -- sorry no time to look through every blog post). The most I can recall paying recently is $12 for the Roy Campanella at the latest card show.   The '61 Baseball Scoops set is the second one from N...

My purchase of the 1957 Topps Sandy Koufax card in my recent COMC order was probably the most I ever spent on a single card. I rarely go above 100 bucks when buying a card. I can count the amount of times I've done so on one hand. But this card was special. Not only did it get me within one of having all of Topps Koufax cards issued during his playing days, but it was the last card I needed to complete the Dodgers team set for 1957 Topps. This is a big deal, as it is for any team set I complete from before I was born. I didn't show up on earth for the first time in the middle of the '80s, you know. I've been around for a bit. So, when I say I've completed a set from before I was born, this ain't 1983 Donruss. This is the last set issued of players in their Brooklyn Dodgers uniforms. (The '58 Topps set shows the Dodgers in their Brooklyn uniforms, too, but they're painted crudely into L.A. caps). The '57 season would be the Dodgers' fin...

What would you say is the greatest Dodgers team set? There are a few that you could name. The 1952 Topps Dodgers set is the Boys Of Summer, a very desirable and almost impossible-to-complete team set. The 1953 Topps Dodgers set also commemorates the Boys Of Summer but in painted form. The 1955 Topps and Bowman Dodgers team sets came out the year of "Next Year," when the Dodgers finally won the World Series. But neither set is all that it could be because each card company had exclusives with their own players. The 1964 Topps set shows the Dodgers who swept the Yankees in the Series and also features a tremendous World Series subset to underline the fact. The 1975 Topps set colorfully marks the Dodgers' return to prominence as a World Series team. The 1978 Topps set is the one I associate with those back-to-back Dodgers World Series teams, the first teams I watched on television. And the 1982 Topps, Donruss and Fleer sets recall the Fernandomania year. But I t...