Night Owl Cards

I bought my first card on ebay in three years a couple of days ago. I've pretty much ignored ebay during the life of this blog. Money and anonymity are a terrible combination, and I was sick of the hassle. Also, my will power wasn't as strong then as it is now. You'll see that rare ebay purchase at some point soon. But tonight I'm covering what has become an acceptable alternative for me, Listia. After a rocky start, I've added some semi-decent cards for my collection. Listia doesn't have a lot of high-end, "hit" cards that you'd find on ebay -- in fact it has more than its share of junk -- but there is enough out there that interests me. The best part is the cards are free. ... Well, sort of. If you want to obtain cards, you have to accumulate credits (Listia's "currency" is credits or points). The best way to accumulate credits is to "sell" your own cards on Listia. When you do "sell" them, you have to...

I brought home my first packs of 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes yesterday, even though I'm pretty sure that somewhere, either on this blog, or in a comment elsewhere, or in a rant at work, or talking in my sleep (I actually don't do that), I mentioned that I'm thoroughly unimpressed with this product. So I can't explain why I bought these. I guess I just wanted something different. In opening the packs, I struck upon the reason why the Heroes cards work. It's a reason that I'm sure has been addressed many other times elsewhere, but I confess I often go into shutdown mode when certain card subjects come up (sheepish grin), so I might have missed it. The reason why they work and that some people still collect these things is that the base card actually ... ... is the most god awful boring piece of cardboard I've seen on a current set (OK, there are a couple others -- UD SP Authentic isn't keeping me awake either). Using the background of what appears to...

I know the Dodgers are 17 hours away from their biggest game in 20 years, but I'm still in a Cardinals frame of mind. Which may lead you to ask why one of Cardinals fans' LEAST favorite moments is being displayed in this post. Wasn't this the Chavez catch off of Scott Rolen in the sixth inning of Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS? Didn't Chavez then convert the catch into an inning-ending double play? Well, yes and yes. But, admit it, it's one of the best catches you will ever see in a postseason game. I'm not going to dive off the deep end like some New Yorkers and proclaim it the greatest catch ever, but it's in rare company. And, secondly, Cardinals fans, you know what happened three innings later. Things turned out pretty well, didn't they, Yadier? 2007 Upper Deck featured several cards from the all-night playoff series between the Mets and Cardinals. It'd be cool if there was more of that in future sets (I've seen very little of Upper Deck's base ...