Night Owl Cards

Times are tough for player collectors. Brian McCann's in the AL. Matt Kemp rumors are in the air. Jacoby Ellsbury is heading to the enemy. I really feel for guys like Jack Plumstead . What are you going to do with all your Ellsburys, John? True, not all player collectors are committed to that player's team. Those collectors will follow the player from team to team and scoop up his cards along the way. But I also know that a lot of player collectors are fans of the player because they play for their favorite team. And when you're a Red Sox fan and your guy goes to ... the Yankees? ... what do you do with your collection? Do you sell it? Do you burn it? Do you keep what you got and pretend the last year he played in his career was 2012? Or do you sell your soul and say, "eh, it's just laundry, I'll still collect him."? I can't handle decisions like that in my hobby, and that's why I just want to shut out the world when I hear Kemp-to-...

A few weeks ago, I participated in a card draft put on by Scott Crawford on Cards . I love card drafts. If I wasn't so broke, I'd try to get in as many as I could. But to date, I think I've participated in maybe three. I'll have to work on that. What made this draft so cool was the wide, wide, wide array of cards available. All sports. And nonsports, too. And if baseball is your thing, there was vintage, current cards, parallels and hit mojo booyah, too. Another cool part was that it was held in a Google + live chat room thing so you could talk about cards while you're drafting them. Unfortunately, the draft was held at the same time as one of the busier Sundays in my work world, so I couldn't be there to talk or even pick. Scott acted as my proxy selector. And he did a damn fine job of it. The draft was 20 rounds. But good guy that he is, Scott added on a few more rounds. And then when he sent out the cards, he tacked on a few more rounds, too. So I co...

(Did he really just rip the front off of a blaster like it was some early '60s Post card? What's wrong with him?) Yes, I did rip up a blaster. Only because my scanner detests three dimensions and I wanted to scan the front but had no patience for scissors. I often keep one empty blaster box of each year of Allen & Ginter (I do this only for A&G). But I have a birthday coming up, so there are blasters in my future. By the way, have you noticed that the packs inside the A&G blasters aren't secured in some sort of cardboard maze like they usually are? They are just sitting there inside an empty box. Someone could pick up the box and throw it across the store and the packs would be bouncing around everywhere. I wonder if they're all like this? I guess that's why I have to buy more blasters. Anyway, yes, I bought a blaster today. There was a pile of them in Walmart. And I noticed something different in A&G's presentation, which I'm sure h...