Night Owl Cards

  I realized only a couple of days ago that Topps had released its Archives brand.   I don't know how anybody keeps track. Archives' arrival has come a week, maybe two, after Allen & Ginter arrived. And that came shortly after Topps Holiday debuted, which seemed to be released practically on top of Topps Update.   All of this showed up after months of virtually no new releases at all -- or none that your average plebe collector (that's me!) would notice.   This does not seem very consumer-friendly. I can't focus on four new products bunched up near the holidays when my money is tied up in finding gifts for others. But I'm sure Topps/Fanatics doesn't care. This release schedule is probably the best way to "maximize profits," which seems to be the only objective in business these days.   So, no, I haven't had any time to buy any Archives. Nor any Allen & Ginter. I decided to pass on Holiday and I took care of Update with one purchase of the D...

  The most recent Beckett Vintage Collector arrived in my mailbox Monday and with it my latest article for the magazine.   It's the 20th article I've written for the magazine as I'm coming up on six years since first joining the writing roster there. But it's also been a year since I've had a story published, mostly due to 1) Far less time to devote to magazine writing, thanks to my "real job" and 2) Plain running low on ideas.   But I'm glad I had enough to get me to 20. I'm fairly happy with the subject of this article. It's certainly something I can relate to considering my profession. It's about the many examples of name errors on sports cards.   I know the struggle well -- we publish sports names almost every day at my job. But it still was surprising how many name errors I came across while researching for this story (and how many more emerged once I announced my story had published).   I quickly realized I would not be able to includ...

  Three years ago, Topps put a card of Giants outfielder Mike Yastrzemski in its 2022 flagship set and spelled his name wrong.   "Yastrzemksi"   It was amusing and annoying -- I mean, how --  how could Topps misspell a name linked in baseball lore, a Hall of Fame name? Sure Mike Yastrzemski was just a kid, but his grandfather was an MVP and won the Triple Crown! He is legend among generations of Red Sox fans. What the hell?  I have a specific perspective when it comes to spelling names. My job is to publish the names of local athletes almost every day and to edit all sports names before they appear in the next day's newspaper. I have done this for decades and I have watched as players' names have grown more bizarre and more difficult to spell. Yet, every day, we try to get them right.   Sometimes they are wrong -- often this is because the coach doesn't care enough to spell it right on the roster. Sometimes, it's us, we confuse a player with his older gradu...

    It's no surprise that I would subscribe to that theory. Night owls wouldn't be caught dead spouting sayings about worms and early birds. Later has always worked for me, in dozens of scenarios. The latest one was the monthly card show this afternoon. The show doesn't start in the afternoon. Like most weekend shows, it's open bright and early, when I'm still sleeping. I'll get up early Saturday for a long road trip but otherwise, wake me up at 11.  That doesn't stop me from going into a mild panic that all the card goodies will be gone by the time I get there. So sometimes I roust myself up earlier than I want to. I did that last month, and when I got there, the place was so packed that I ended up not buying anything because I couldn't breathe. So this time I traveled through Saturday at my usual leisurely pace. I arrived at the show at around 1 (this is also the approximate time that I arrive at the big show at the state fairgrounds, and it's alwa...

(For the first time since March, readership numbers went up in July, breaking the year-long downward trend. But it's August now, a traditional low readership month, so might as well lean into it and restart one of my least read features! It's time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 313th in a series): Without realizing it, I've been doing well in adding Carl Yastrzemski cards to my collection. Nothing nuts or anything (heck, I already have his rookie card), but it's nice to officially have his 1970s Topps cards out of the way with this particular one. I nabbed this card in another Twitter sale from @Tec872 as I continue to chase the '70 set. It occurs to me that Yaz is one of those players who never competed for the Dodgers that I will absolutely hang on to his cards as if he did. I know this is probably a common thing for people more accustomed to player collecting or those who grew up in the '80s and had to have every Bo Jackson card, whether he played f...

  I said goodbye to an antique shop that sold cards yesterday, I said goodbye to a lot of things. My daughter is moving out of her apartment, out of the town where she went to college, and moving to a new city with a new job. She's been in the work force for almost a couple of years, but this is the first time the job will utilize that degree that she toiled over for four years. She's already happier. So this weekend is probably the last time I spent in her apartment, the last time eating at the restaurants in town, the last time driving past that college and in those familiar hotels. And it's the last time finding cards in that antique shop. You've read about my vintage card discoveries in "the card bowl," a couple of times . This was my last opportunity. We walked there, which is what we always do (parking in town is complex). But it was really hot and I'm at an age where walking is exercise and otherwise, how about we drive there? Fortunately, the anti...

  Last month I pulled this card after purchasing the first cards I had seen for sale in a full aisle display since the early days of the pandemic. It's stunning when you think of it, that out of all the chrome refractor parallels numbered to 673 -- hundreds of possibilities -- I would pick the Wander Franco card. It's just as stunning the price it went for after I put it up for sale. It sold for $258.07. That blows my mind. It also boggles my mind that there were 87 watchers and 463 page views. None of this makes sense. I would never pay that kind of money for a card unless I had invested a lot of time into that player (or that set) over a number of years -- not somebody who just burst onto the scene in the last year or two. But that's our hobby now and thank goodness in at least one way -- I got to spend almost $200 on cards I actually want! You're gonna see them. All told, I ended up with 65 cards for a single card. I won't show all of them, just the stuff that...