Night Owl Cards

On my last post, I wondered why Topps has ignored the 30th anniversary of its 1988 design one year after throwing the biggest card nostalgia party in the history of time for the 30th anniversary of its 1987 design. Last year, it issued an insert set devoted entirely to its 1987 design, along with special shiny hobby pack cards also based on the '87 design. But this year, in a rather suspicious move, it decided to skip 1988 and instead honor the 35th anniversary of the 1983 design, with the exact same treatment it gave '87 last year, an insert set with a 1983 theme and those shiny hobby things that still look weird. Meanwhile, the 1988 design has also been left out of the annual Archives brand over the past six years, while the 1980 design and the 1982 design have been used twice each. Why no love for 1988? I seem to be one of the few collectors who likes the 1988 design quite a bit. It's clean, quirky, bright and classy. I didn't pay much attention to bas...

If you grew up in the 1970s, you know this card. You probably own it. If you were born later, you've at least heard of it. If you've ever read Ben Henry's retired Baseball Card Blog, you've come across Kurt Bevacqua's crowning achievement a time or two. This is card No. 564 of the 660-card 1976 Topps set, and it is the introduction to my third blog bat around post, in which I have been asked to address what I liked/disliked about the 2008 card offerings and what I'd like to see in 2009. You may be asking yourself, what does this 33-year-old card have to do with what's going on today? And I'll answer your question with another question (which everybody hates, by the way) and say, "if this card came out today, what do you think the card companies would do with it?" And I'll answer my own question for you (which people also hate). At the very least, the card would be a short-print. More likely it would be an insert. Or they would turn i...