Night Owl Cards

  An immediately apparent observation since starting my chase of the late '80s/early '90s Pacific Legends and Swell Greats sets is how available they are. I shouldn't have been surprised -- they came from the late '80s/early '90s -- but as someone who collected fairly frequently at that time, I never saw these cards for sale. Pacific Legends cards were issued mostly as part of "Collectors boxed sets," which were popular at the time. I'm guessing a little bit here as I was a little too old for that stuff at the time (or believed I was). Swell cards, I don't know how they were issued. I started coming across these cards in my early blogging days, from blogger swaps and through repack boxes. The sets are delightful, especially the Swell cards, mostly due to the set checklist, which runs the gamut. You could pull a Honus Wagner, you could pull an Eric Soderholm. Anyway, these cards have been traveling a constant flow to my home from everywhere. TCDB tr...

It's been several days since the Dodgers played their last game of the season and I'm just getting around to putting my personally customized bow on their year. It's not because I'm in denial or anything. It's just a time thing. It's always a time thing. The Dodgers of 2012 exceeded any expectations that I had. At the start of the year, I figured we were looking at a third place team, right around .500. Then the team surprised the heck out of me with its fast start and continued to baffle me right through mid-June. If it wasn't for an injury to Matt Kemp and a horrific mid-season schedule that included annoying interleague matchups and a series of playoff-contending teams, the Dodgers might actually be in the postseason. And I would never have imagined that in April of this year. This offseason will be quite a bit different from last year's offseason. No relentless stories about ownership. No talk of financial issues or struggles in acquiring de...

OK, that's probably a lie already. I am certain that a relic card or two is going to find its way onto this blog even after I've sworn them off. But at the moment I have no desire to buy any relic card for the first time since I returned to collecting modern cards in 2006. The fake jersey news stinks so high that giraffes on Mars can smell it. So I am treating the following cards as the last relics I will conceivably purchase. Future me will just have to prove me wrong. These cards were obtained immediately before the fakes hit the fan. I feel bad for them because I look at them differently now. No longer do the cards see a gooey-eyed collector, with hearts swirling around his head, looking back at them. Instead they see a critical, cynical, pissed-off malcontent who is practically boring a hole through the card because he's trying to figure out what that jersey REALLY is, mister. But let's try to have fun with these cards anyway. First up, an Allen & Ginter...

AP If you're a Dodger fan and you're still trying to absorb this weekend's trade and what it all means, then, welcome to my little club. I call it "The Ghost of George Steinbrenner Has Possessed My Team." I have never witnessed such a gambling acquisition of star players since Steinbrenner was in power with the Yankees. It's a fantasy league trade. It's a trade dreamed up in comic books. It's crazy. It's bizarre. I'd almost say it's ridiculous, but I'm hoping that somebody in upper Dodger management knows what he's doing. I don't know how to feel because I've spent virtually my entire baseball-rooting career bagging on a certain team for buying players. It feels kind of good, but it feels kind of bad. And it all feels kind of unsettled. Throw in the fact that when Fox owned the Dodgers, it tried to do something like this on a slightly less grand scale and it exploded in every Dodger fan's face. I'm not ...

A couple of relative newbies to the group-break hosting experience are teaming up to offer a two-for deal. Join Fantastic Catch's group break , and get a buck off of joining Crackin' Wax's group break . Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. And I know what you're saying. So how come you're not joining then? Well, nosy Nelly, not that's it's any of your business, but I'm reserving my card money for very specific card wants at the moment. I can't say more than that. It will all become clear in the weeks to come. But right now, I just don't have any extra cash for group breaks. What? You have another question? When am I going to host a group break? Ho-ho! What a question! I don't ever plan to host a group break. I have too many expectations and demands on me as it is. Ain't no way I'm going to be responsible for people's card gambling habits. Plus, you have never seen "please join my group break" begging n...

OK, so when I wrote about how 1984 Donruss was the only Donruss set that mattered, you were all just humoring me? I know some of you like the set. I read the comments on that post . As for overrated sets, I consider well-loved sets like 1953 Topps, 1989 Upper Deck and 2011-12 Gypsy Queen absolutely overhyped. But I'm going to soften my inner crank (why do you think I abandoned Twitter?) and go with something more pleasant. Someone shopped for me at a card show! OK, he went directly to the discount boxes, but I wouldn't expect anyone to do anything else. Besides, carlsonjok from Cardboard Catastrophes sure knows how to pick the right cards out of those boxes. A 1962 Tommy Davis out of a discount box? Do you know what Tommy Davis did in 1962? He only accumulated 230 hits and set a Dodger record that still stands with 153 RBIs. This card is indisputable greatness. Al Ferrara seems mighty disturbed that John Purdin is not a real person, but (*gasp*) a PAINTING. ...

It occurred to me that I haven't done one of those giant trade posts that everyone loves so much in quite awhile. It also occurred to me that I am on vacation this week. Why on earth have I not realized that vacation is the perfect time for a giant trade post? Well, other than the fact that Mother's Day is approaching and wrapping presents takes me about two days, the lawn mower is busted and I'm trying to get a new one operational, the cable is acting zooey and tech support even zooier, I've got a half dozen home projects that aren't getting done because I don't have the cash/know-how, my diet/exercise program eats up a tremendous amount of free time ... other than that, I guess I just never thought about it before. So, let me squeeze in an epic trade post. It'll take my mind of the fact that the guy next door is beautifying his lawn for the second time this week while I'm walking through knee-high grass. The first cards are from Nathan at Cana...