Night Owl Cards

I'm not interested in graded cards or grading my cards. But I sometimes wonder whether I would be if I grew up collecting cards in the late 1980s or after that. There was a certain emphasis placed on card condition that began in the '80s and hasn't let up since then. Before that, collectors didn't care as much about condition. We loved those cards fresh out of a pack, sure, and we tried to keep our very favorites protected however we could in that pre-binder page, pre-top loader era. But, man, rubber bands were all over the place in our hobby back then. Still as a kid, in the back of my mind, I wanted my cards to look nice. I didn't put cards in my wheel spokes. I played "closest to the wall" (when you literally threw cards at the wall) with only commons or players I didn't like. I played with my cards, but not as vigorously as others and I wonder if that's what might've sucked me into grading if I grew up during the Investment Era. ...

During a rare, blissful moment of free time early this week, I took a peak at my PayPal account. It read "$3.68." "Great," I said to myself. "Let's see what 1956 card I can get for less than three dollars and 69 cents." I ventured on to ebay and started looking at 1956 Topps cards. I've never really conducted this particular search before and it was kind of an eye-opener for me, just because I've always assumed that people were selling '56 Topps cards -- all of them -- for outrageous prices online. But I guess I just had to get serious about chasing the set. Because what I found during that search is there are lots of cards in the set, maybe around 60 or more, that can be had for less than 5 bucks. And they're in pretty decent shape, too. That's what I was looking for: I wanted a '56 card that was in decent shape, something that fits into my collection. I wound up narrowing it down to three cards. One was a Billy Pier...

Hello, everyone. It's Night Owl. This incredible likeness of me, featured on my favorite card design, was created by Doc T of Baseball Card Recollections . Whoooo-boy, what a great card! It will be taking a spot on the sidebar soon, as all great works of art must. But first, I'd like you to harken back, back to the days when the Dodgers were good. Remember those days? Remember when the bullpen wasn't a misused disaster? Remember when the left fielder wasn't falling apart? Remember when the owner wasn't a narcissistic fool? I do. But what I am starting to forget is true Dodger greatness. World Series greatness. Championship greatness. Hell, I was still in college in 1988. You know what happened in 1988, right? The right team won. Won it all. Ever since then it's been the wrong team. There have been the usual suspects. And then there have been the Diamondbacks and the Angels and the Marlins (twice). That really makes a proud Dodger fan weary. So I tho...