Night Owl Cards

After failing to send out a card package for longer than probably since I started blogging almost five years ago, I finally got a few packages out the door last weekend. This weekend, a few more will head out. After that, who knows, but I'm feeling a little more confident. I'm working out the kinks in my packaging arm, rediscovering my taping skills and reacquainting myself with the fine art of labeling. This can mean only one thing. Yes, I think I am ready to combine multiple packages that I received into one post! No moaning. I haven't done this in a long, long time. Besides, it's good news for you. It means I'm clearing off space on the card desk so it can fit more outgoing packages. So let's see some cards from multiple people. I thought I'd frame it in terms of the brawl between the Dodgers and Diamondbacks last night, since that's all that's on the mind of every Dodgers fan. "Mama Said Knock You Out" has been going through...

One of the best ways to endear yourself to an Upstate New Yorker like me is upon hearing that I am from New York say things like: "How can you stand the traffic?" Yeah, that's the best. Or ask me if I've watched any Broadway shows, or how much Yankees/Mets tickets go for, or if you can still visit the Statue of Liberty. The fact is I live in a place where traffic is almost never an issue (except for exceptionally slow drivers), and where I have as much access to the Yankees or the Statue of Liberty as someone who lives in Virginia. Upstate New York is very different from the perception. It covers a large area. It has some cities, but there are places I can go to in Upstate NY that look very much like you're in the middle of Wyoming. In fact, there is a county in the state named "Wyoming." Still the vast majority of out-of-state people hear "New York City" when I say that I live in New York. So one might assume then that all of us...

This is the time of the year when the card collecting world is at its craziest. If I was a player collector, I'd never survive. All of those brand new 1/1 of listings and other rare cards of your favorite player suddenly popping up everywhere would drain my will to live. I'm already exhausted as it is and I have plenty of collecting outlets -- new cards, old cards, Dodgers, every player under the sun, and under the moon. Sets, subsets, inserts sets, you name it. My collecting success isn't decided by a single guy. But I'm truly swamped right now. Buying a blaster of 2013 Topps might not have been the smartest idea, because I've created like 8 more trades for myself, and I should have known that was going to happen. So this is more for me than is for you. This is the itinerary for my card packaging. I'll try to stick to it. This weekend Pack and mail cards to: David (Pirates fan), mr. haverkamp, 2 by 3 Heroes, Phungo, Plain Gray Swatch and Twitter...

I may not blog quite as frequently as I did a year or two ago, but there are still a lot of things about blogging that I like. One of those things is the feeling of camaraderie, that club-membership vibe, that I don't feel in other social-media settings, like Twitter or forums. Blogging is much more intimate and conversational than those other outlets, meaning you get to know about your fellow fanatics a little more than through other avenues. So when one of your fellow members stops blogging for awhile and then returns, that always brings a smile to my face. The more cynical person might say I'm smiling because the blogger's return validates my reason for blogging -- or I just want another trade partner. Maybe. But I'd like to think that I simply like having another viewpoint in the hobby to read. And another trade partner. Yeah, that thing, too. Recently, Roy-Z from Plain Gray Swatch came back to the blogs. It turns out he was away -- psssshh -- getting ...