Night Owl Cards

  As an adult with a home, bills, family and job, there is nothing quite like the feeling of no commitments.   I'm never totally free of every commitment. There's always a bill or some hovering work thing, but I happen to be in a period in life in which a couple of problems that I have fretted over since adulthood began are no longer an issue. That's a tremendous feeling. It's like a Saturday afternoon in the summer with no responsibilities and the sun shining away.   But I'm a responsible person, who feels responsible, so there is always something I Must Do, even in the hobby.   Usually that hobby commitment is sending return envelopes to those who have sent me cards. I don't get in a yank about that as much as I once did. You should have seen me in 2008: "What? He's sending me cards for nothing? Oh the guilt . MUST RECIPROCATE. MUST RECIPROCATE."   I don't do that anymore. But I do like to be nice and respond when I get a card from someone. S...

  Everyone knows that mail can be a source of distress. Tax bills, overdue notices, the jury duty summons, there is lots of unwelcome news in that mailbox. Card collecting has alleviated any delivered angst somewhat for me. Ever since I started this blog, most days I'm thrilled to go to the mailbox. It's usually overflowing with joy and excitement. Lately, though, I don't know what's going on. I've been ordering quite a bit on ebay the last couple of months. It's been clicking along well and I've added several cool items recently, which I need to show off here. But just in the last few days, I've hit a rough stretch. I have had to contact three separate sellers this week because of something wrong with the order. Sometimes it was the seller's fault, sometimes it was out of their control, but in every case I wasn't happy after picking up the mail. Mail distress! That's not supposed to happen anymore! Today was a doozy. I mean, it was really ba...

  (Special note to View From The Skybox : Never fear. I'm OK now. My soul was possessed by college basketball for a few too many stressful hours, but I conducted an exorcism and I'm back! Here is the post that was meant to appear on Sunday night):   I go on quite a bit about the modern hobby's neglect of the base card. It's pretty infuriating for someone who knew almost nothing except base cards for the first decade of his collecting life. But there is one time -- and it's repeated over and over -- when I dismiss the base card, too. It happens when I open trade packages. Often, but not all the time mind you because there is that period in time when a set first hits the shelves, the base cards that fall out are mere dupes. Just something to shuffle through before you get to the good stuff. It's at that time that I feel like a case breaker. And, if I think about it too much, I almost feel guilt and that I am a hypocrite. For example, there is...

A few minutes ago I finished researching a topic for a blog post. I was going to publish it this morning and it was going to be pretty good. I scanned all the appropriate cards and looked into the facts about each card and the individual pictured on each one. Then I did one final bit of research ... and the post fell apart. The premise to my post was false. It turns out the player that I thought was dead is actually alive . Oops. So here I sit, with a modest amount of work wasted and nothing to post. Fortunately, I have lots and lots of cards that people sent me, right? Cards From The Quarry operator hiflew sent me yet another package recently. In that package were these two needs: 1999 Skybox Thunder is such a terrific set because you can make fun of it all day. Unlike my aborted post, the good folks at Skybox didn't realize the error of their ways and actually went ahead and published their wrongness for everyone to read. So, let's read: On the...

I have lots of post ideas. You would not believe how many. Lists. I have lists of post ideas. As you know, I have no time for these ideas. So there they sit, waiting for me to look at them and actually go out there and EXECUTE, as the football coaches say. What I need is a short-and-sweet post. But I'm not really good at that kind of post. So I'll try the quick-and-dirty post. "Quick and dirty" is a phrase used frequently by my 12th grade math teacher. He was an odd bird with all kinds of odd phrases. "Quick and dirty" was his way of teaching some simplified formula around whatever godforsaken, booby-trapped calculus problem that he was proposing. I was amused by the "dirty" part. I'd never heard "dirty" used before to mean "simplified but effective." I only knew dirty as "playing in mud puddles" or, um ... you know, that other thing. But I'm going to try the "quick and dirty" now. I...

One of the card accomplishments that I'd like to finish off before I'm senile is to complete trifectas of my all-time, top-five favorite Dodgers. I already have finished trifectas -- rookie card, relic card and autograph card -- for two of them. Ron Cey  and Clayton Kershaw are done. Finito. Fait Accompli. And they look fabulous. That leaves Hideo Nomo, Sandy Koufax and Orel Hershiser. All I need is a relic card for Koufax. There don't seem to be too many out there, but they DO exist. I need an autograph card for Nomo. That could be tough as well. But more distressing is my painfully slow quest for a Hershiser trifecta. Until last week, I had only his rookie card. And that's not all that difficult to obtain. I acquired it in 1985 when I purchased the entire '85 set. Since then, about 4 or 5 other versions have worked their way into my collection. But relic cards and autograph cards of Orel seem more difficult. Unusually difficult. So difficult tha...

First, a message for Shelly. Shelly, darling, thanks for the invitation. I'm glad that you like my blog. But I bet you tell that to all the blogs. In fact, I've been looking around, and you DO tell that to all the blogs. I'm not interested in your free collectors zone, whatever that is. I'm not good in groups and I don't like people advertising on my blog. So I will keep deleting your come-ons all day (and all night) long. And, finally, learn how to spell "website." OK, up above is a '75 Lineage mini from Cardboard Catastrophes . It's a card for the crazy cause of collecting all the '75 Lineage minis. I have a handful more on the way, but even with those I probably need like 85 more. That's OK. This is a long-term project. Because I'm not collecting 2012 Heritage and 2012 Gypsy Queen and whatever else, I'll be slowly adding '75 Lineage minis. It's been a lot of fun so far. I love seeing that mini stack grow and ...

I received this card in the mail on Monday. It came from hiflew who runs Cards From the Quarry . It's the 349th card that I have obtained in the 350-card 2011 Allen & Ginter set. Ever since I declared my frustration with the set, that I have had a more difficult time completing the set than in past years and that I didn't know whether I would try to complete it for a fifth straight year when 2012 A&G came out, I have received what can only be described as an outpouring of assistance in helping me finish off the 2011 set. Most of the credit can go to Brian at Play at the Plate . In one quickly sent package, he knocked off 17 of my needs from the set. There's the first group of them. I have a new scanner and there are infinite things that I don't know about it, including how to get nine cards on a scanner bed. So you're going to have to live with things like borders being cut off. There's the other group. Whoops ... that card on the b...

Not really. There's maybe an inch on the ground, if that much. But it's the first significant snow that we've had here this season. Considering that I've seen snow in Northern New York before Halloween, that's pretty notable. Some people are actually bent out of shape (re: my daughter) that we haven't been hit with a blizzard yet. I've driven and walked through my share of Christmas rain the last three weeks, so I'm happy to see some snow, too. And it gives me an excuse to stay home and catch up on card filing, posting and mailing. I mean, I can't do anything else! I'm snowed in! So, here I am inside and featuring some cards I received from hiflew at Cards From the Quarry . After this, I'm going to work on some card packages. After that, I might pretend I'm from South Carolina and run outside screaming because there's this weird white stuff on the ground. But first, cards from the '90s: Here is Hideo Nomo card No...