Night Owl Cards

  I stopped at the monthly card show Saturday. It was the second straight weekend card show I had attended. This would have been crazy talk in the first 10 years of my blog, but it's something that could easily happen two or three times a year now -- and if I wanted to do a little more traveling around the state, I might be able to go to a show nearly every week over the next six months.   I'm not quite that obsessed. Two in two weeks is quite amazing enough for me.   So you may remember in the show write-up last week that I said I actually finished the show with cash left over. That means I carried that cash into Saturday's show. I padded it just a little, but I budgeted about half the amount for this show that I did for last week's.   It turned out to be plenty because I left this show with money left over, too!  I'd like to blame the expanding number of tables selling Pokemon and such -- it's getting so pervasive that I'm starting to see a world where the...

I am a bit embarrassed to admit that although I live about a half hour from Canada, it has been years since I have visited. That's what happens when a busier lifestyle, combined with less money and more aggressive border regulations conspire. During the '90s and early 2000s, I traveled north of the border quite a bit, both for business and pleasure. And I can recall good times in Montreal, Kingston, Niagara Falls, Ottawa and Toronto. A number of years ago, I spent one Canada Day -- which Canadians are celebrating today -- in that nation's capital. But I've addressed Canadian thoughts before . What I'm doing here is digging out my favorite baseball cards of Canadians and putting them on a team together. This is a slightly more difficult task than if these were hockey cards. But an increasing number of Canadians have reached the majors in the last few decades and I can fill out a basic squad with not too much trouble. So here they are. These are not necessa...

I don't know what happened with me and Topps Update. Update used to be the most fascinating product outside of the first cards pulled from Topps flagship. But that was back when it was called Topps "Traded" and I don't think there's any going back. This is probably more about me than the actual product, but let's review why Update and I have had a falling out: a) I don't find it interesting anymore. b) I don't know who these people are anymore c) It seems to be more about new players, rookies and all-stars than what it once was: guys traded to new teams d) so much extra crap in the set that doesn't need to be there. But I've written about that before . Still we'll address each in painful detail: A) Years ago, like during the first few sets of Update/Traded in the 1980s, the Update cards were the most mind-blowing cards ever. I've also written about this before, but here's an example of a card from the glory years o...

(Help! I've been kidnapped by the Olympics! And college basketball! And local high school playoffs! And Derek Jeter announcing he's retiring! I hope to have thoughtful blog posts when this is all over! ... In April! Time again for Cardboard Appreciation -- didn't I just do this? -- this is the 199th in a series): I haven't made a lot of headway on compiling a list of the 100 greatest cards from the 1970s . It's a bad time of year for time-consuming projects and we all know how much time research consumes. But I've made progress in one area of the countdown. I have at least landed one card that I know will be on that list. It's the 1973 Pat Corrales card you see here. Mark H. sent it to me, and I think I'll finally get out from underneath a bunch of stuff long enough to send some Red Sox his way this week. Plenty has been written about this card and it's been determined several times that the man who bowled over Corrales is none other than...

Paul of Wrigley Wax recently sent me four cards from the 1971 Topps set off my want list, including one extremely key item. It's the Aqua Velva Man himself. With the addition of Petey, I'm really down to only Clemente and Mays as the cards that may take some doing in order to complete the set. Of course, there are always some of the high numbers, but those don't worry me too much. Also, with the addition of four more cards, I now have 695 from the set, which is 92.4 percent complete. That statistic makes me very giddy. I feel like I should say more about the Rose card, but I've just completed two exhausting, mind-boggling days at work and my ability to think coherently is severely impaired. But I really should show the other cards. So here they are: This is a card that Wrigley Wax should know well. I'm wondering if he can tell me what the heck Fergie is wearing under his jersey. It looks like some sort of cut-off warm-up jacket that features an ...