Night Owl Cards

  Knowing full well that I was getting very close to completing the 1956 Topps set, I began to obsess about how I would present the news on this blog once it was finished.   I've completed a number of sets in my blogging day, including some of the great card accomplishments of my life, stuff like the '72 Topps set and the '75 Topps minis. But this was 1956 Topps, the first major set that I had completed that was produced before I was born.   Considering that I think it is the greatest baseball card set ever made-- many do -- and my long interest in the set going back decades, this was another blog post altogether.   But what? And how?   OK, I'll get to that later.   I'll first explain how I reached the end of the set.   When I last updated my progress , I had just landed the Mickey Mantle card and there were three cards to go. It was all but definite that I was going to complete the set, which was a feeling totally out of sync with what I thought for l...

Team cards are an often overlooked source of an entertainment when it comes to collecting. I am referring to the team cards in which the whole squad (and the traveling secretary!) poses on bleachers for a few snapshots, not the ubiquitous on-field celebrations that pass for team cards today. These staples of my childhood appeared on Topps cards in different stages over the years: 1956-1968, 1970-81 and 2001-07 (and Heritage until 2012). I've written about them many times and pointed out several different aspects. They're really quite fun and you never know what you're going to find. Elephants roaming in the background (1980 Padres), Burt Hooton with his head down , players with missing body parts . The possibilities are endless. I mean check out this phenomenal assemblage. The Phillies are posing in front of a baseball sculpture that once stood at the podium level of old Veterans Stadium. The sculpture first appeared in 1976, which means the Phillies were stil...

I did warn you. Cory Snyder is my witness. I said I had a bunch of card packages to post. And it is time to do the dirty deed. Isn't that right, Cory? Cory says, "hell, yeah." I'll be combining two packages into one post. These cards are from Chris of On Card Autos and from Rhubarb_Runner of e rayhahn , rayhahn (no, I don't know what that means). It's a delightful mix of the newer cards and the older cards. So, let's get to it. First, Chris threatened to send me every Dodger card he owned. And I responded in the only proper way to respond to a threat. I said, "OK!" Here is a review of just some of the cards that found holes in my Dodger collection. Edwin Jackson, 2005 Donruss Team Heroes: I'm hoping that if I post enough cards of Edwin Jackson, that the Tigers will trade him to the Dodgers, for, like, Juan Castro. Orel Hershiser , 1992 Leaf gold. Weeeeeee ! A Hershiser I don't have. Between the black borders and the gold foil, I exp...