Night Owl Cards

The recent news that Chad Billingsley is finished for the season because of sore elbow is not going to help the Dodgers' playoff chances any. It's very disappointing because I've always been a fan of Billingsley, through all of his infuriating struggles and his endless habit of playing head games with himself. The fact that he was struck down in the middle of one of the greatest success streaks of his career -- possibly the "ah ha!" moment of his career -- is even more heartbreaking. But I'm not ready to write him off, even though it's possible that he may need Tommy John surgery. If you're someone from my generation, TJ surgery is the "Uh Oh" announcement of baseball medical procedures. The sign that a player may never be right again. This goes back to the fact that I remember the news of John recuperating from the surgery and all of the "experts" who said how dicey it was. Even though John recovered in spectacular fashion t...

Now that I've completed the 2009 O-Pee-Chee set, I could explore the other possibilities with this set. I could try for the master set. I could get really insane and collect all the black borders. But I am neither that devoted nor that insane. So until I am that will be it for me. Especially since recently I also finished off the black-border Dodgers team set. The last card came from Robert of $30 A Week Habit . It was the O-Dog card pictured here. No doubt he is fielding a weak pop-up from a San Diego Padre. The black border cards are one of the best things about '09 OPC. Hell, they were one of the best things about 2009, period. Name something else. And if you mention a certain something about the Yankees, we're not on speaking terms. Anyway, I  am very happy to show all of the Dodgers right here. Twenty-two cards is certain easier to handle than the 600 cards I scanned the other day. Here you go: Thank goodness I finished it off be...

Card collectors know that at one point or another they are going to reach the inevitable: there will exist one, elusive card that they must obtain to complete the set. Perhaps this is a bit too old-school for some of you. I keep reading about people who just buy an entire set. No need to chase one final card with that method. Others buy a case, or a couple of boxes, and try to finish off the set in a flurry of binge wrapper-opening. Some never get to that one final card because they buy a lot on ebay and take care of the final 50 that they needed in one, tidy swoop. All fiscally responsible choices. But dare I say, not as fun. I like my packs and blasters, and if I'm completing a set, I'll go that route. Throw in the trading that I do with the fine bloggers and readers across the country, and I feel that is fiscally responsible enough. And it's still wildly interesting enough for my tastes. But on to the point of the post. If you're completing an entire b...

A little piece of advice: If you have a card blog, and you are interested in trading, and you want to add specific cards to your collection, then you must, immediately, as in this instant , get a "most wanted" list on your blog. You can put it on your sidebar, or do one of those fancy tab things at the top of the blog (please, someone tell me how to do that, I haven't figured it out yet). You can even put the "most wanted" list up in your header if you want to be all ugly about it. Just get it done. Because it's quite effective. I first saw this on Saints of the Cheap Seats . Then I saw it on garveyceyrusselllopes . I thought it was a great idea. Little did I know how great. People are always checking out my "most wanted" list, which I call "the Nebulous 9." It's an easy tool for potential traders. If they don't feel like wading through a giant want list, they can just check out the abbreviated list. As a result, I...

I took dayf up on his offer and traded my treasured 1987 Kevin Bass card for a 2001 Wendell Magee Jr. card on the Topps Million Card Giveaway site. I didn't particularly want the Magee card. Who does? But after dayf's vitrolic harangue against one of the most idiotic public relations statements in history, regarding the Upper Deck settlement with MLB, it was the least I could do. What's dayf going to do with a Kevin Bass card? I don't know. I'm sure it'll be interesting. I hope it doesn't involve quite as much cursing as his post last night. Anyway, I've already made the Magee card work for me. After completing three trades on the Giveaway site, all between bloggers, I offered a number of my lame cards up for trade for anyone, just to see what happened. Almost all of the offers are still pending and I don't have a lot of confidence in any of them, but one trade went through. It was the Magee card. Somebody agreed to the deal. In exchange,...