Night Owl Cards

  2025 Topps is scheduled for released this week. Apparently some people are somehow already opening it on video. I have stopped watching card videos because I can't take the beating to my IQ. I'm also no longer on Twitter (same reason), which was absolutely saturated with new cards during flagship release time.   I don't know what my local card aisles will look like when I venture out (it won't be on release date, which is a Wednesday and also the day of the week my job practically kills me). The local spots have been pretty grim lately -- my theory is the popularity of the monthly card show has something to do with that. But last year, my Target was decked out with 2024 Topps in February. I've heard Fanatics has upped the card count for this year (don't panic, it's still not a junk wax levels), so I hope that means I can find some this month.   But mostly it doesn't matter for my collection. I have enough card projects. I'm constantly forgetting ab...

  I admittedly have a tough time updating my want lists these days. Early on, my want list was just for myself. Written in a notebook or later on a spreadsheet, I was the only one who saw them. It didn't matter if they were updated, though I certainly got a thrill over crossing out a previous need in ballpoint pen. But if I skipped the process occasionally, it didn't matter. Then I started a blog and people noticed and they started sending me cards and I added a want list to my own blog that was Very Important. People from far away consulted it and tried to keep it as up to date as possible. If I didn't, folks would send me dupes -- not their fault -- but I already had plenty of those. Then TCDB came along, which was a much more efficient way to create and maintain want lists. I created one over there and now it is more accurate than the want lists on my blog. But I've kept the want lists on my blog because I think people still check them sometimes and also it's a l...

  I knew this would happen this year. I even sent out a warning early in the year, saying that topics would be very 1975 Topps-centric in 2024. To review, Heritage is covering the 1975 Topps set and there are original '75 buybacks in the set that I am pursuing along with the main set. Also I'm running a countdown review of the original set and I just put up the latest edition the other day. That's a lot of two-tone cards, many of which are from almost 50 years ago , and there's not really an end in sight, and I feel a little bit sheepish about that as I know some collectors don't care about this set (WHY?), so I should probably mix things up a little more.   But also this is MY BLOG so never mind what I just said. I've got MOAR '75 TOPPSY TO SHOW!!!   I recently received an envelope from Greg of The Collective Mind . Both Greg and collecting buddy Stuart opened a case of 2024 Heritage (I'm so jealous) and I'm looking forward to those posts. (Stuart h...

(I am vacationing this week, which usually means more time for blog posts. But all that extra time makes me feel like avoiding blog posts. Why is that? It's time for Cardboard Appreciation, but it's going to be a short one. This is the 338th in a series): I received a two-card envelope from The Collective Mind a short time ago. Both cards were Dodgers of the vintage type, both former want list material. I did own the 1961 Post Maury Wills card already but this one is unmarked, whereas the other one I received 12 years ago had some updates. At the time of receiving the "updated" card, I mentioned that I appreciated this kind of an update. Wills had an exceptional 1962 season and whoever owned this card absolutely had to get that season down in writing and where better than on the man's own card. It's all there in ballpoint pen -- games played, at-bats, hits, home runs, RBIs and batting average -- from the fabled 1962 season (nothing about his then-record 104 s...

I was in Target a couple of days ago, as I often am at this time of year, not to hunt out baseball cards but because this is The Birthday Month in the house. I did step over to the card section, of course, and grab a few 2024 Topps packs. I was actually hoping to pull a particular card, but I didn't. The card is the one above of the Royals' Michael Massey. I thought it would be a nice card on the occasion of my daughter's birthday. Michael Massey turns 26 today. So does my daughter. Massey is the only player to share the exact same birth date as my daughter. I have just one card of Massey but at least it's his rookie card, right? Even though my daughter is not much of a sports fan, she has a connection to baseball that I don't have. There is no MLB player who was born the exact day that I was (only in other sports). And I like that I know this Massey factoid because it keeps me young, even though my daughter being more than halfway through her 20s makes me feel old....

  I hope you know that I'm never going to stop writing about '70s and '80s cards on here. To me, that's the greatest era for cards and the most appealing cards. It's the most appealing time period, too, for ... well, just about everything. Then we hit the '90s and pretended everything was the same but knew it wasn't and now we're in the 21st century and nobody knows what a radio is anymore. The beauty of cards is I can collect the same period over and over without anyone getting on me for living in the past (well, some people still might, but that would be rude of them).   I once worried that I was running out of cards to collect from this time but I now know that's absolutely not true and won't be for as long as I'm dragging myself around.   One of the best sources for '70s and '80s cards continues to be Dime Box Nick , which is a bit strange as I'm pretty sure he never set foot in either decade. He certainly understands the glor...

  I feel myself finally succumbing to trading on TCDB. It'll probably happen. Sometime in 2023. The thought of recording all my trade bait/dupes on there is not appealing and is keeping me stalling, but if that doesn't become an impossible obstacle, I'll get with the times. I still like the idea of blog-to-blog trades better. And I'll still try to continue to make those happen until there's no one on the other end. I just completed one small one and am in the middle of another one. The completed deal -- and keep in mind this is a very casual "I'll send you some cards sometime, you send me some another time" deal that is very much the hallmark of the card blogs -- was between my blog and The Collective Mind .   These cards carry all kinds of old-fashioned blog trade "tells" with them. For example, consulting my blog want lists, I don't know how much they're checked these days. This card comes off my 1995 Topps Archives want list. The ...