Night Owl Cards

  I feel like my position on the NFL is stuck between two prevailing opinions of football, with few sharing my perspective.   On one end are the people who are madly devoted to the league, they tailgate, leap on tables, hold Super Bowl parties, place bets, play in five fantasy leagues and collect the hell out of the star players. On the other end are the people who have dropped football from their lives -- It's barbaric, it shortens lives, it worships only money and some of its participants are some of the worst humans in sport.   I am neither of those perspectives (though I share traits from both). I like the NFL season -- far more than college football, which I can't wait to ignore forever. I am excited when the NFL starts, I appreciate it when there's no more MLB season, I enjoy the community that encircles the Bills and it is one of the few connections to my favorite city and the time I lived there.   I can't give it up. But it wears on me. too.   When was t...

  I often think that I like too many card things and I need to rein it in. But here's a list of items often sold at card shows that will make me ignore your table: -- Unopened, sealed product -- Pokemon, Magic the Gathering or any fantasy or modern movie cards -- Basketball cards -- Non-vintage football or hockey cards -- Anything slabbed, especially rows and rows and rows of slabbed cards -- Big displays of relic cards or autographed cards or patch cards -- Discount boxes that contain mostly cards from the '90s -- Bowman anything -- Card supplies (unless I am specifically in the need for something)   Presented that way there are actually many more card things that I don't like.   What I just listed was probably 80-90 percent of inventory at the monthly card show that I attended yesterday. It's getting to be a pattern and I've mentioned it a few times in past posts. And it's not just this show, this show is a microcosm of the current hobby and card show scene. ...

    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...