Night Owl Cards

I am joining trade post forces today. I know I said I'd do less of this, but these trades are perfect for a combined trade post. There aren't a lot of cards I need to show for any of them, and yet everyone deserves their turn. Besides, it's the weekend. Time to relax the rules. So let's smush all these trade packages together and see what we get. Up first is a giveaway package from Grand Cards . He had lots and lots of junk wax/current cards to give away, including Dodgers. I thought a long time about this before I took the plunge and said I wanted the cards. I have enough junk wax Dodgers to keep a fire going until the next time the Cubs win the World Series. But I went ahead and told the delivery truck that "yes, this IS the correct address." And boy did I get a bunch of Dodger goodness. Unfortunately, I've seen just about all of it before right in my very own home. Strangely, the only cards that I did not have had a Russell Martin theme. Th...

Since the start of this blog, I have entered a fair number of card contests. Shockingly, I have won several of them. This is stunning because prior to blogging, I never won contests. I may have mentioned that before. But it's the reason why I cling to the memory of the honorable mention ribbon I received in my seventh grade science fair, and the two circus tickets I won on a radio call-in show as a kid. Because those are the only documented cases of me winning anything that didn't include cards. But thanks to my recent winning streak, all that is ancient history. I have a whole lot of cards that I won from contests. I couldn't tell you how many. But the boxes that house them could, and I'll get to that in a minute. The most recent victory came in the contest held by Grand Cards . Dan received about 12 boxes of cards as a gift and couldn't possibly keep them all. So he gave most of them away. I came the closest to guessing how many cards he kept, so I won all the Dod...

I am coming up on the one-year anniversary of two happenings that have developed into an everyday fact in my life. The first is becoming a dog owner. The second is the discovery of sports card blogs. You may not think dogs and cards have much in common. In fact, I've documented more than a couple of times that the two are pretty much mortal enemies. But the past week has emphasized how useful they are in my life. I experienced probably the most heartbreaking week on the job I have ever endured. I won't go into it here, because I don't feel like rehashing and I'm sure many readers don't care. But what helped me avoid coming home and plopping on the couch in a depressed lump was a dog that greets me ecstatically each day and an army of card bloggers to take my mind away. Oh yes, and there are new cards to take the edge off, too. It took the experiences of this past week to finally succumb to buying the blaster of Upper Deck Timeline that I have been staring at for mo...

These are the Topps throwback Dodgers that I received the other day from Dan of Grand Cards . He recently held a 3-throwback blaster break, and I landed seven Dodgers cards (I'm not showing the duplicate Matt Kemp card). Through the kindness of bloggers and the purchase of one throwback blaster, I should have all of the Dodgers from Series 1 by the end of the week, except for two. I'm still looking for Greg Maddux and Mark Sweeney. That's pretty good, considering the throwback cards haven't been out for more than a couple of weeks. In fact, with all the variations out these days, I'm doing quite well collecting one particular Dodger -- Matt Kemp. So far, I have: 1. REGULAR. The plain, old Topps 2009 Series I card. At one point I thought this was the only Topps Kemp card of the year. And I was pretty happy about that. I was such a fool. 2. GOLD. I initially forgot about the gold card, which I now have. I think Topps has run the gold cards into the ground. It's...

Seriously, look at this card. Doesn't it look like Topps put together a whole set of "night cards"? These Topps "Black" cards, or whatever they're calling them, sure do fit the whole night theme. I swear I had no input into this decision at all. I wasn't in on any board meetings. Topps didn't call for advice. Topps hasn't visited my blog to my knowledge (although I'm sure it's possible), and I'm sure that even if they did, they wouldn't take any of my suggestions seriously (although I wish they would). What I'm saying is, even though I didn't like the underhanded way Topps had planned to foist these black cards on the collecting public, I kind of like them. This is the first time I've seen these in person, because not only do my local big box stores not have the specific blasters that carry these black variations, they don't HAVE ANY BLASTERS AT ALL. Two weeks of this crap I've been going through. But tomorrow...

Short post here. I'm having a heck of a time getting through to comment on some people's blogs. The word verification thingy just sits on "loading ..." until I run out of patience and give up. Anyone else having this issue? Anyone else having this issue commenting on my blog? So, I'm just going to put my comments here, and hope the bloggers find them. To 1972 Topps Baseball : I'm pretty sure that's Horace Clarke in the photo. And thanks for the rundown on Tommy Davis. I never had a handle on why he bounced from team to team, other than the injury. I kind of wish I was around for the '62 season, that must've been something to see. But then I would have had to suffer through Stan Williams. So, I guess it's best that I wasn't around. To Grand Cards : I've never been in that situation before. But if I was, I'd probably have to consider how much "older" the other cards were. If the cards were only 5 years old and not particula...

Do you remember those "Dan and Dave" Reebok commercials about U.S. Olympic decathletes Dan O'Brien and Dave Johnson? Those TV ads were everywhere. You couldn't avoid them. I think they might've even killed the Olympics. I mean, the Olympic Games don't seem to be as well-liked here in the U.S. as they once were. In 1984, I couldn't get enough of the Games. I watched every single day, every last hour. But now, if you ask someone under 30 about the Olympics, chances are you're going to get this for an answer: "I hate the Olympics." I suppose there are lots of reasons for the downturn. I know the reason for me is baseball getting the boot from the Games. I am not pleased about that. Anyway, the reason I bring up "Dan and Dave" is I received two card packages in the mail this afternoon from Dan in Baltimore and David in Brooklyn. They provided lots of goodies to go through, and as usual, I must offer up the highlights. I'll start wi...