Night Owl Cards

  I'm sure some set-collectors can relate this: I purposely avoid collecting certain sets that I like, even love.   It's mostly a means to keep myself in check -- I have only so much money, so much time and space, and an increasingly confused brain.   So it is with 1959 Topps, a set that I think is one of the greatest of the 1950s, a set I'm on record as really enjoying , but almost always avoid any time I come across a readily available '59 card.   Why is that, specifically? Let's explore (this is more a "me" exercise, sorry):   1. I know my lack of willpower. If I add a certain number of cards from a set -- not really sure how many, let's say 30 or 40 -- I'm going to automatically want to collect it. If I find it appealing, all those cards together are going to break down whatever walls I put up.   2. I need a break. I'm one card away from finishing 1969 Topps. I've been aware since I was probably 100 cards away from finishing that set ...

  Happy Canada Day to my north-of-the-border readers! It's tradition around here to try to acknowledge this day -- since I practically live in Canada according to some downstaters. I've been running out of topics the past few years, but fortunately this year the most recent set I've completed happens to be Canadian! Charlie Hough was the last card I needed to finish the 1979 O-Pee-Chee Dodgers set. It arrived Monday, just in time for Canada Day festivities. (Someone who actually lives in Canada will have to fill me in on what those are). Here is the card with a wider crop so you can see the trademark ragged edges. This is the third '70s Dodgers OPC set I've completed after 1977 and 1978. But '79 is a landmark OPC baseball set as it's the first one that tells you on every single card front -- not just the ones where a player has recently changed teams -- that the card is O-Pee-Chee and not Topps. Of course, the most fun part of OPC, and the reason I look out ...

  I have been pursuing a collecting milestone in the most lazy way possible, and in perfect lazy fashion, I let someone else get me to that milestone. I mentioned a couple of months ago that I had come within one card of having signed cards for 200 different Dodgers players. Bob of the best bubble helped me to the doorstep of that achievement by getting me to 199. Well, Bob's at it again. In a recent envelope, he sent three cards signed by Dodgers. One of them was the Charlie Hough '79 Topps card. I have a couple of Hough-signed cards already, but getting one signed on a '70s cards makes me think of how glorious it would be to have every '70s Dodgers card signed, not that this will happen ever. But the other two signed cards were from players that I did not have in signed form in my collection until I opened the envelope. That means ...   🎉🎈🎇200!!! 💙💙💙   That is some kind of feat for someone who never actively seeks an autograph. Not only do I not stand in line ...

I am not one of those people who receives a gift card for his birthday and then six months later discovers "Whoops! (hee. hee). Here's that 50 dollars I forgot all about!" Nope, I lie in wait for my chance to get what I want. When the chance arrives, it's cashed in before it knows what hit it. And I have what I want. Instantly. There is no, "oh, what should I get? Hmmmm. Gee whiz. Maybe that ... no, no, maybe this .... no, uh, how about this? ... well, there's always this. ... Oh, I just don't know." JUST BUY SOMETHING ALREADY!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, the year is jam-packed with days in which I can not afford to buy an 85-cent bag of Doritos in the vending machine. So the potential arrival of birthday money is charted, plotted, circled and underlined thricely on the calendar. In the "Me Want" folder are lists and graphs and drawings, updated weekly. Yet, here it is, a month-and-a-half after my birthday, and I'm showing more birt...

I try not to get into the vintage vs. high-end debate. I admit, my allegiance lies with vintage, and I do wince when I hear the astronomical amount someone paid for a pack of five high-end cards. But I prefer not to get into the reasons why I have the feelings that I do. It leads to messiness, and really, I turn to cards to get away from messy. Truthfully, I can appreciate cards from all ends of the spectrum. Old cards. Shiny cards. Kid-oriented cards, 8-inch thick cards. I want them all equally. I also find that collectors who don't deal exclusively in vintage or modern/high-end, collectors who can find beauty in all of it, are the collectors that interest me the most. I can relate to those folks the best. One of those folks is the Wicked Ortega down in Florida. He seems to deal in all kinds of cards. I see vintage cards on his blog, My Past Time ... I Love It , and I see super intense fancy ones, too. He also seems to enjoy both the old-timers and the current players, judging by...

I totally goofed a couple of weeks ago when I posted some Albuquerque Isotopes cards that I received from a couple of great New Mexico bloggers . I diligently scanned cards of several of the better known players from both sets. I even scanned a card of the trainer and the mascot. But I skipped pitcher Charlie Haeger . He did not get the scanning treatment. I snubbed him both times. There's Charlie! I meant to scan your card, Charlie. When I was looking up the various Isotopes, I did notice that you were enjoying a rather good year in Albuquerque. But, still that wasn't enough, I guess. Now, I'm taking notice (and looking a bit sheepish) after your performance for the Dodgers against the Cubs yesterday. Seven innings. Seven strikeouts. Three hits. Knuckleballs aflutter everywhere. Awesome. There is nothing like a knuckleball to make a batter look foolish, and you made a whole lot of Cubs look foolish. Kosuke and Aramis , especially. I hope Torre gives you the ball...