Night Owl Cards

You're scared. You think I'm going to start talking about math, aren't you? Come out from under that table. No, silly, I'm not talking about THAT kind of parallelogram. I'm talking about "parallel-o-grams!" Parallels that come in the mail! Cards like this: I'm sure folks have noticed how easy it is to accumulate parallels in 2013 Topps. I have managed to land these three Kershaws not even a month into the set's release, and I still don't have the Walmart or Target parallel of Kershaw's 2012 Topps card. I'm sure the reason for this is that there are more parallels per pack this year than previous years. I suppose this is "bad" for the market-watchers, people who sell cards or care about "scarcity" and all that yaaawwwwwwwnnnnn! But all I know is I have been scrambling around trying to get as many Dodger parallels as I can and it's been great fun! If Topps is going to up the count on its p...

False alarm. The card show was moved to next week. Good thing I didn't drive all that way through dicey conditions for nothing, right? Heh. Anyway, let's concentrate on the fact that I still have a card show to go to and turn our attention to the next awesome night card for display. It's a great one, but only in the way that it turns that old card blogging cliche "the scan doesn't do it justice" on its head. This scan, in fact, does the card too much justice. It doesn't deserve so much justice! It's ill-gotten justice!! I received this card in a trade with Twitter compadre @teddyballgamebb . It's one of those shiny parallels from last year's Topps Archives. It's the first one I've ever come across because I dropped Archives like a scalding spud when I saw what it looked like. These chromey things are actually shiny gold in color in person, but I've seen them scan greenish on various blogs. My scanner, for some reason, ...

During busy months like these -- during what is literally the busiest week of the year -- I appreciate small card packages. Yes, small. As in, a lesser amount of cards. As in few. Tiny. Micro. The least amount possible. Bite-size, if you will. But not "fun size." Because that just pissed us off as kids. Something that I can open quickly, admire, and then be off to whatever godforsaken task that awaits me. Fortunately, I've received several such small packages lately. None were smaller than the envelope I encountered unexpectedly from JayBee a few days ago. I had no idea what card could be inside. It turns out it was the James Loney gold-glazed card (what are we calling these things?). I, unfortunately, had come across this card just a couple days prior. But, as you know, there are a number of Dodger bloggers with an insatiable thirst for cards like this. It will find a happy destination. This card is a former Nebulous 9 need. It sat on my list for a goo...

Apparently, the Dodgers still believe they're in this thing. I don't necessarily agree, although I applaud their optimism and Ned Colletti's enthusiasm, which was demonstrated in his shocking willingness to cough up once-and-possibly-still key prospects in order to land a relief pitcher. The biggest deal was getting Ted Lilly and Ryan Theriot from the Cubs for Blake DeWitt and a couple of minor leaguers. I don't like the swap at second base of DeWitt for Theriot -- the Dodgers are weaker at that position now. But Lilly I've always liked and wished the Dodgers never gave him up in the Mark Grudzielanek trade way back in 1998. But while every other fan's brain focuses on a mid-season deal in terms of "how will this affect my team now?" I think of it another way. I am always intrigued by the relationships that teams have with each other when it comes time to trading. Most teams go to the same trade partners over and over. The thing that interests...