Night Owl Cards

  OK, I have another weird card number thing for you.   Like I mentioned the other day, my recent sportlots order included me chasing down the final couple cards to finish several team sets.   One of the planned team sets to finish was the 2001 Topps Archives set. But I didn't get to finish it. I was distracted by some weirdness in that set and then all completion was lost.   Did you know there are two Ralph Branca cards replicating the 1952 Topps design in that set??? I sure didn't.   Before placing my sportlots order, I was looking at what I still needed for the Dodgers in '01 Archives. Oh, hey, I need the '52 Branca card, let me add that one to my cart.   Then I realized I already had it. OK, let me remove that from my cart. Then I realized there are TWO of them with TWO different numbers. Whaaaa?     There is this one and if you look at the small print along the left side, you see it's card No. 227. (Yes, having two different card numbers on ...

  All right, picking up after a work day that caused me to question life's existence, it's time to show off the second package that arrived from the National ... I think.   The note attached didn't mention any trip to the National, but I'm making a guess based on the timing, the card selection and the location of the sender. Or it may just be that he had these cards sitting around the home. I don't give reader Dave the "Dave sends great cards" moniker for nothing.   This selection of cards was across the board of my interests and then a few things thrown in that, yeah, I'm that kind of collector but I didn't really think of grabbing those.   Let's start with these:   I love seeing those all together, but almost all of my non-Dodger Fleer stickers sit in a where-do-these-go stack (yeah, I know, STICK THEM) on my card table.  I never have a clear idea of which Fleer stickers go with what, except for some early '80s ones and the wonderful ...

I just finished producing the annual high school football special section for the newspaper. It's always a month-long project capped by a day-long finale that's sure to drain from you any will to be productive for the next 48 hours. I have the energy left to show just two cards. Fortunately, when I came home, there was a plain, white envelope sitting on the dining room table that contained -- unbelievable -- just two cards. The cards arrived from Joe , who has sent me many nice cards in the past. It's been awhile since I've heard from him, but I'm glad to learn that he's still collecting. It's some very fancy stuff, by the way. And speaking of fancy, if you're going to send two cards, then this is the way to do it. Here is the first one: This is my first "book" card. It's two mini cards, so that makes it a mini book. But I'm not complaining. What I will complain about is how card companies never see the problem with p...

  A co-worker friend of mine passed away earlier this week. I won't say he was a close friend, but he was a good guy and a diehard Dodger fan. Dodger fans are difficult to find in these parts, and we would talk about our team out in the work parking lot for far too long. The saddest part for me is he was able to enjoy his retirement for just three years, probably less than that because he spent two of those years battling cancer. I cannot get over that. It's not a happy time. I had a post cued up and ready to go that reflected my mood, a kind of "face the music" post that would likely bring the room right down. But I need to start becoming more aware of the days of the week. It's Friday. People want to read and hear and feel happy things on Fridays. I need to learn that. So what do I do to make myself happy? There are a few things: 1. Send out some card packages ✔ I forced myself out in the rain and did that earlier this afternoon. 2. Listen to th...

On this day -- the penultimate day of 2014 -- I am keenly aware of the appeal of a new year. It's yet another chance for renewal. An excuse to forget the past. A dream of becoming a better person. A new year also offers promise for better card sets. Unfortunately in our current world, where we need to see what's next NOW, we already know what 2015 Topps looks like. We know what 2015 Heritage looks like, too. And 2015 Allen & Ginter. And 2015 Archives. And 2015 Stadium Club. Topps has shown us the future, because we demand it. In past years, this wasn't the case. There were no bulletins months ahead of time. No advertisements -- at least none that we ever saw. We found out what that year's cards looked like the moment we broke the wax seal on our first purchased pack that January, February or March. Little did the kids in the new year of 1952 know that a much larger, full-color baseball card set with detailed statistics on the back would be available in th...

I'm considered a rational, level-headed sort both here and in everyday life. That's good to know, because there are many times when I don't feel rational or level-headed. In fact, I've been known to "go off" periodically. If I see something I don't like or something gets me frustrated, I won't hold back. While that's probably healthy, it can cause trouble, and it did a couple of days ago. I was reading a post late at night from Cardboard Junkie in which he spelled out his mission statement on collecting Heritage. I enjoyed the posts and could relate to them because I have a love-hate thing going on with Heritage. But when I read the first post, I began to feel aggravation with Heritage and Topps and what they had done to this poor set-collector who loved the brand so much but couldn't collect it in the traditional way because of the stupid tinkering that Topps does with the set. Although his post wasn't bashing Heritage for this, it...