Night Owl Cards

There was a story out of Oklahoma City yesterday that the Dodgers are moving their Triple A affiliate from Albuquerque to Oklahoma City for next season. The Dodgers have been affiliated with Albuquerque for the last six seasons, and before that, the city and the Dodgers were together from 1972-2000. I grew up thinking that Albuquerque had been the top affiliate for the Dodgers for forever (although most of those great '70s Dodgers actually played Triple A games in Spokane, which was L.A.'s top affiliate throughout the '60s through 1971). Even though I've never been to Albuquerque, I don't like that the team is moving from there. The word is that Dodger management wants a better place to evaluate talent. Albuquerque, with its high altitude ways, has always been known for inflated batting stats, and that often doesn't translate to the majors. Of course that was an issue the first time the Dodgers were in Albuquerque (see Greg Brock/Mike Marshall), which ...

2008. The year that I started this blog. The year in which I was buying modern cards at a semi-ravenous rate. The year in which I still had money. I was a happy owl then. All you have to do is read those early blog posts with all the exclamation points to know that. Sure, I'll never be confused for the bubble-headed bleach blonde who comes on at five, but I was less of a cranker in those days. What 2008 night owl and 2013 night owl have in common though is neither one has a respectable hobby shop. So a hobby pack of these 2008 Trading Card History cards is something new for both of us. Actually, 2013 night owl knows that the cards aren't new -- he also knows he's probably seen a number of these already, might have a few in his collection, and probably can't give away the ones he pulls. But let's not spoil it for 2008 night owl. This was very nicely sent by reader Stewart, who also sent me some Dodgers, which you'll see some other time. Right now I w...

This post features the last of the cards that I received from Too Many Verlanders . I hate to drag it out through three posts, but there were so many distinct cards. And I want to address one of the many collecting conflicts that I go through. As you know, Dennis was offering a bunch of team sets for basically nothing. He just wanted to get them out of his house. I gladly accepted the Buffalo Bills so I could actually have some cards of my favorite team. Then, I grudgingly accepted the Dodgers, too. Why would I be grudging about the Dodgers? Well, this is the conflict, and I'm sure I've mentioned this before: I have a lot of Dodgers cards. And if someone offers up a big stack of Dodgers, chances are I'm going to have a lot of them already. This is why I'm usually a no-show in group breaks and contests these days. I just can't take on any more dupes. But then there is that tiny, nagging voice in my head that implores, "but what if --  what if --  th...

About a year ago or more, I learned of the collecting term "trifecta." I don't know who came up with that, but I first read about it at Drew's Cards . I thought it was a great little collecting category. The best part of tracking down a rookie card, auto card and relic card of a single player is it's a little bit of a challenge. Going through my collection, I found lots of examples of completing two of the three categories. But coming up with all three was more difficult. Finding a rookie card and relic card of Manny Ramirez was easy. Finding an autograph card, not so easy. Same with Shawn Green. Finding a rookie card and an auto card of Sandy Koufax was doable. But I don't know if I've ever seen a relic card of Koufax. Finding an auto card and relic card of Duke Snider was achievable. But it takes big cash to land the rookie card. In the end, I found 15 Dodgers for which I have the rookie card, autograph card and a relic card. That's much m...