Night Owl Cards

Well, a few people were a little disturbed by my encounter  with a co-worker this past weekend who cleaned out the Walmart Bowman display by dumping eight blasters into his cart. I'm not that bothered about it. That's what you find in the world of Bowman. It's a frenzied, every-collector-for-himself free-for-all. Add it to the many reasons why I don't collect Bowman. But I know what it's about -- I'm not going to act like it shouldn't happen. I could ponder the many Dodgers my co-worker pulled in his many blasters. But I won't. Because I did pretty well for myself in my meager Bowman rack pack selections. I already mentioned the three Dodgers pulled out of that one 22-card rack pack. I also bought one of those 3-packs-in-one-pack items and nabbed these Dodgers: One of those was the camo parallel -- what I think looks more like a green grass parallel -- of Dodger prospect Dennis Santana. Hold on to that name. So seven Dodger Bowmans out ...

A few weeks ago, I resolved to do something about my Bills collection. I have been a fan of the Buffalo Bills since the mid-1980s, back when the team was 2-14 and touted Vince Ferragamo as their starting quarterback. Even before that, I remember making trips to Buffalo and reading about Joe Ferguson, Jerry Butler, Joe Cribbs and Fred Smerlas. Later, during the late 1980s and the team's return to prominence, I covered the Bills as a sports reporter just starting out. The Bills have been my closest connection to professional sports for virtually my entire life, and I've basically ignored them when it comes to collecting cards. That ain't right. So I set out to acquire SOME Bills cards. I have no interest in full-blown football card collecting. I just want a modest amount so when the card police come to my door and say, "What's your favorite football team? May I see your cards, sir?", I will have something to show them. I was able to acquire some q...