Night Owl Cards

  It's the ol' birthday again, which is why I was pleased to pull the Shoeless Joe Jackson card in my box of Diamond Kings the other day as he's probably the most notable sports person born on my birthday. I've done all that "born the same day as me" stuff already in past posts and I've done a lot of "how the Dodgers did on my birthday" stuff, too. I don't have a lot of creativity left for this day -- maybe I'll think of something for 365 days from now. But I do have some cards to show that I like. I'm calling it a birthday gift and since they're from Rod of Padrographs , it's possible they actually are. He's a good guy and he's sent stuff my way for my birthday before. You all remember that birthday card signed by Ron Cey, right ? There were more signatures in this package, a whole bunch of them, in fact. Just about all of them were Dodgers, because I'm not collecting scribbles from some inferior team. He sent som...

As you can imagine, it took me almost no time to dispatch those Giants autographs that I opened on Christmas morning. The average time for me sending out cards in response to cards I've received is verging on between one and two months these days (March is a particular brutal month for this). But I was shipping out those Giants uggos within a week. I found the perfect victim ... er, recipient in Adam . I sent him almost all of the signed cards I received, with the noted exception of the Bobby Thomson. Despite his history against my team, I can't part with it, although I could be convinced. Adam then passed on some of the signatures to mr. haverkamp, and now you know the only two Giants card collectors that I know in the world. Then, both of them, sent me some Dodgers autographed cards in return! Boy, I think this blogging thing is going to turn out all right. I received seven autographed cards of seven different Dodgers. These days, I'm looking for autographe...

As I've mentioned a few times, I don't go out of my way to collect autographs. I do like them, and I get a thrill when I pull them . And I do have a separate binder for the Dodgers autos. But I consider that binder as that thing I have on standby for when someone who doesn't know a lot about cards wants to be impressed. Autographs are the best way to go. Sadly, your average civilian just doesn't understand how cool a 1976 Topps Mike Hegan is. Recently, fellow supertrader Brett of Cooperstown Exit 3:16 sent me another bout of autographed Dodgers. I believe they're TTMs, but maybe he got them in person, I don't know. The Ron Cey autograph is far and away the highlight, even though I own plenty of Cey autographed cards. In fact, this 1980 Topps item is my 15th different autographed Cey card. And it has caused me to consider something I've considered before: Should I try to get a signed Cey card for each of his Topps Dodgers issues? It wouldn't b...

I haven't seen Max around much lately. I know he's got a busy life and all, and that's cool. I certainly understand busy. It's just that I really like receiving card packages from him. I like them because he gets it. He gets how I collect. He knows how I collect. He knows what I like. A little while ago he dropped off a package of goodies, in what I interpreted as an "I'm still here" gesture. It was filled with stuff that I like. Let me show you: Dodgers. No question. I like the Dodgers. They've won two in a row, you know. I like that. Shiny. Yes, I like shiny quite a bit. Even, dullish mid-90s Bowman shiny. ... OK, that's not fair. Shiny can never be dull. Let me go back to "I like shiny." I'll end it right there. Colorful shiny. Now we're talking. Yes, color shiny I definitely like. 1994 Finest I definitely like. The carnival midway set is one of my most favorite versions of Finest. There is a lot ...

Out of all the manufacturers of the trillions of sets issued during the 1990s, the one I find the most elusive is Pacific. I don't particularly care. I've never been fond of Pacific's cards. But as a team collector, I have this unhealthy interest in accumulating everything , and you don't know how distracting it is (or maybe you do, since you're reading this) to see all of those cards that I don't yet own under the name "Pacific." I am convinced that if I ever become lucky enough to complete everything on my want lists, that the last card I will need will be from a Pacific set. Fortunately, I feel a little bit better about Pacific's avoidance of me after receiving a package from Metallattorney, who is a Red Sox Fan in Nebraska . I'm assuming that's a bit unique. I don't know the typical baseball rooting interest of a fan in Nebraska. Royals? Twins? Rockies? Red Sox seems like a smart choice to me. Whatever the case, I wouldn...

Although the Fan Favorites sets are fantastic in a wide variety of ways, it's easy to spot the cards that are a little bit off. Topps is basically a victim of its success here. It has created sets and designs that are so familiar that collectors notice immediately when something is not quite right. One of the most significant issues is with the 2003 Fan Favorites Monte Irvin card. Irvin is on the 1952 design, but his signature is missing in the box. There is another version with the autograph. But I won't be pursuing the other version. But there are other examples of some "not quite right" cards that weren't corrected. In many cases they are small things, but I notice this stuff, as I'm sure other collectors do, too. The Fan Favorites cards with the 1985 design always looked a little off to me, but I thought it was only because the letters in the team box were too small. I guess they are a little smaller than the letters on the actual 1985 ...