Night Owl Cards

  I began collecting cards 45 years ago, and it's been on my mind a lot lately because I've been guesting on a few podcasts and the story of "how I started in collecting" always comes up.   Last night, I was on the About The Cards podcast with the three hosts of the show, three guys I've also traded with, by the way.     There I am discussing my hobby past or something in my past, no doubt. That's me in my current state, for better or worse, still in love with collecting.   This is me during the very first year I collected in 1975:    Yeah, I know. What happened?   Well, life happened that's what. This is what collecting does to you. ... OK, I'm kidding but, yeah, I've always been more of a lifetime guy than a moment-in-time guy.   By that, I mean, I like being involved in things for the long haul. I appreciate how people or things change and grow over time and I like seeing that growth. My favorite shows or movies are always character-drive...

If you were to send me at random a card from the '90s, or really any card from the last 30 years, there is a good chance it may not survive in my collection.   Setting aside those cards that pertain to the Dodgers or are associated with sets I'm collecting, I don't have a lot of respect for cards put out over the last 30 years. And much of it, when I think about it, comes down to the card stock.   I am still a "real cardboard" snob. Topps hasn't printed its cards on the stock it used from the early 1950s to the early 1990s for a long time. But for a lot of us, it's still what makes a baseball card. We still need that significance in our cardboard. I don't know the why and how behind the gray cardboard stock that was a staple of trading cards for 40 years -- perhaps it was an energy saving measure as so much was during my childhood -- but, dammit, it worked.   To this day, I have respect for "real cardboard" cards.   So while who knows what wo...

One thing that boggles my mind repeatedly in my various blog readings across our hobby is how readily available cards are in other parts of the country. I often lament my lack of a decent card shop and the relative lateness at which new product arrives in my area. There are many sets that I never see in person because of where I live. But I thought I was doing pretty good as far as card shows. No, there isn't one a week or one a month like there is in several places, but the few that I do get to go to are good-sized shows with a large variety of cards. You'd have to be awfully picky not to find something you like at shows like that. Still, even with all that bounty before me, there is one thing I've never seen at those shows in more than five years of going. '75 minis. Once in awhile I'll discover one in a discount box. But I can count those times on the paw of a three-toed sloth. And I have never, ever, ever seen a box or a binder full or even half ful...