Night Owl Cards

Are you starting to feel like I don't have any time for you? Sorry about that. It's true. I don't have any time for you. But you've figured that out already. Perhaps it's me cutting down to posting four days a week (from a former twice-a-day poster). Perhaps it's no card packages from me for weeks. Perhaps it's the lack of in-depth content or unusually short posts, at least by customary NOC standards. As usual it's not me, it's the job. Work. Eat. Sleep. That's about all I've accomplished recently. I'm hoping to shake myself out of my stupor at least somewhat after this weekend, because, thank the sports gods, THIS IS THE LAST WEEKEND OF HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS UNTIL WHATEVER TOO EARLY TIME THEY DECIDE TO START THEM UP AGAIN!!!!! I know there will be a time when they decide it's an excellent idea to play high school sports around the calendar with absolutely no break at all. I see them inching closer toward that ridiculous bri...

I finally found a few minutes to watch a spring training game on television today. Spring training always coincides with the busiest time of the year for me. I'd love to do nothing but watch spring training games every day -- I'd love even more to travel to Florida or Arizona to do nothing but watch spring training games in person every day. But every year all I can do is catch a snippet here or there until the very end of March when I have just a little more time. Anyway, I was able to watch some of the Dodgers against the Brewers today. It was delightful, seeing the old familiar faces and a few new ones. The relaxed setting, the wonderful weather, the weird Dodger caps. It's nice to reacquaint myself with April Through October again. As I was watching, I began to think about the Dodger player that I looked forward to watching most this season. I always enjoy watching Clayton Kershaw, and now Corey Seager, too. But the one player that I want to see more of -- to...

I almost never show the cards I receive to people around me. What's the point? They don't care and they have no appreciation. Why waste everyone's time? But every once in awhile there is a card that makes me forget myself and I show it to real live human beings. The idea behind the card is just too cool, and I think even a noncollector would understand. One of those kinds of cards are the Bowman Asia black refractors. The cards by themselves wouldn't interest someone who thinks collecting cards is silly. They're shiny with a black border and that's nothing particularly interesting to a commoner. But the idea behind the Bowman Asia cards just might bridge the gap if only for a minute. We tend to take for granted how small our collector world is. We can obtain cards from anywhere thanks to the internet and our collecting network. Bowman Asia cards are created in the U.S., but then shipped to Asia and opened only in Asia. Group breakers actually travel t...

We're three weeks away from the end of the year and probably the biggest card news of all of 2016 has at long last ... finally ... arrived here at the night owl nest. Perhaps you've heard: I don't follow the trends. This card is my first Topps Now card. The first on-demand card set made its debut on April 3 and collectors everywhere plunked down $9.99 for a single card ... repeatedly. Others searched out deals to acquire the outrageously priced items much more cheaply. Me? I quietly pined for some of the Dodgers early on, then decided they were best ignored. At one point I spied a Topps Now card or two for $5, or some other price I could live with, and placed it in one of my online carts. There, it was either snatched out from under me or I found something else much more enjoyable and cheaper. And, so, the second week into December, I still didn't know what a Topps Now card felt like or truly looked like. Now, however, I have one. And my thoughts are ... ...

This post will be devoid of cards that I own. You'll know why in a second. If you've been following the 2016 Allen & Ginter hubbub -- today is the set's release date -- you probably know that there is some sneakiness involving card No. 120. The official Topps A&G checklist lists two Dodgers with that same number: But since people have started opening the product, they've discovered that the Kenta Maeda card is the actual base card set. Julio Urias -- get ready to groan Dodger fans -- is a super short-print. There is some speculation about whether there are different versions of that short-print, but so far I've only seen the one that box-breaker Brent Williams has shown: There is actually a nameplate under Urias' image but it's very faint. It's printed in white so it's difficult to see. As I am writing this, the Urias card is now the most difficult card in the entire A&G set to pull. As a Dodger fan, that is simply ...

Tonight, 19-year-old Julio Urias is making another start for the Dodgers. I really have no expectations on how he will do. He could pitch two innings and give up 6 runs, he could pitch six innings of no-hit ball. It's all possible for someone that age and with that kind of potential (well, not ALL possible, because they'll never let him pitch a full nine). But you get the feeling that not everyone thinks like that. There are always expectations with players like this. If Urias lasts three innings, as he did against the Mets, no one will come right out and say, "well he's a bust," but it is implied in so many ways. You see it from the usual dopey fan message boards and Twitter and sports-talk radio, the usual knee-jerk reaction outlets. But it's also implied in accounts of the game from writers who are supposed to know better. Managers and coaches respect the process. And they'll tell you that. But we don't believe them. We want to WIN and we wa...

When you sit and stare at a stack of cards, and then sit and stare at them again, and then sit and stare at them again , you eventually realize something about them. Some cards make me happy, some cards make me unhappy, and some cards, well, I just look at them and think "what's this supposed to be?" That's rather obvious, I guess, but I thought it was interesting that I could get all of that out of one stack of cards sent to me by Zippy Zappy Kenny from Cervin' Up Cards . I'll start with "happy" first because some people get through only the first few lines of a post and then are distracted by college football, or food, or going outside and actually living. Shallow people. Here is the happiest happy. It features the following happy elements: vintage, Brooklyn Dodger, card from the '50s, known baseball character, dude named "Preacher", card off my want list, and just the right amount of wear. Seven happy points for 1954...