Night Owl Cards

I have been collecting cards for a long time, but I don't think I know all that much about them. For example, when I first started blogging, the card blogs were dominated -- at least in terms of frequency and zeal -- by collectors who grew up with cards from 1990s. The most prolific of those blogs was Wax Heaven, and I learned quite a bit about what went down in the '90s from Mario. It's a very confusing period for someone who didn't collect at that time, and I imagine it is confusing even for those who did. But I started to get a handle on the difference between Pacific and Pinnacle, the rise of the relic and autograph cards, and something called "dufex" thanks to reading that blog. Then Wax Heaven went silent. And so did many of the blogs from other '90s collectors. I still had much to learn, but there weren't many bloggers willing to dive into the depths of '90s cards. One -- the Junior Junkie -- does an excellent job, but he's pull...

I have lots of post ideas. You would not believe how many. Lists. I have lists of post ideas. As you know, I have no time for these ideas. So there they sit, waiting for me to look at them and actually go out there and EXECUTE, as the football coaches say. What I need is a short-and-sweet post. But I'm not really good at that kind of post. So I'll try the quick-and-dirty post. "Quick and dirty" is a phrase used frequently by my 12th grade math teacher. He was an odd bird with all kinds of odd phrases. "Quick and dirty" was his way of teaching some simplified formula around whatever godforsaken, booby-trapped calculus problem that he was proposing. I was amused by the "dirty" part. I'd never heard "dirty" used before to mean "simplified but effective." I only knew dirty as "playing in mud puddles" or, um ... you know, that other thing. But I'm going to try the "quick and dirty" now. I...

Way back in the winter of 2008 when Stale Gum and Wax Heaven were first revealing this gimmick card to the collecting public, I simply stared in wonder at what our collecting hobby had become. I was still getting back into collecting. I didn't have a blog in the winter of 2008. In fact, I wasn't even looking at card blogs then. But when I started reading, in June of 2008, I went back through several bloggers' files (none more so than the defunct Baseball Card Blog) and read some interesting stories, including the Uzuki story. Now, Ben's Baseball Card Blog is retired, as is Dave's Fielder's Choice. Chris still posts on Stale Gum but not like he once did. And Mario has announced the end of Wax Heaven. I admit, I received all my card news from Wax Heaven, and maybe a random post at Cardboard Junkie, Sports Cards Uncensored, Trader Crack's, or one of the other news-based card blogs. I receive none of it from Beckett's. I just can't deal with the site...

I did my darndest to prevent myself from receiving free Clayton Kershaw cards. But in the end, Mario of Wax Heaven could not be stopped. He was going to get those Kershaws to me no matter how many obstacles I put in his way. So, despite forgetting to send postage the first time, it wasn't held against me. This week, Mario sent five wonderful Kershaw cards to me from 2009 sets. The first is the Upper Deck SPx base card from this year. SPx is definitely not for me. X, in all its Upper Deck forms, has got to go. I don't even like the X Games. And I don't like weird position designations going down the left-hand side of my card. But it's Kershaw . It's a Dodger. So it must be mine. Here is the Upper Deck base Kershaw for the year. A nice use of the horizontal photo. I'm still not crazy about the gold bar, but it doesn't bother me as much as when I first saw the cards. Kershaw on the 2009 Bowman. The black border is OK with me. I know it chips and all ...

So, I was talking to Clayton Kershaw the other day. I was telling him how I had signed up with the Wax Heaven directory as the designated Clayton Kershaw collector. Any Kershaw card that Mario pulled would go to me. "Great," Kershaw said. "How's that turning out?" Well, I said, it's nice and all, very generous of Mario, but it's getting off to a rough start. Clayton gave me the eye. "How's that?" he said. Well, the first card I received in the mail was damaged, I said. It was a relic and it came out of the envelope with a crease. "That sucks!" Clayton said. Yeah, it does, but I've written about that already . It was kind of my fault. I sent down a plain, white envelope as the return envelope, and you really shouldn't do that with cards. The post office apparently makes paper airplanes out of those things. "But things are better now, right?" Clayton said. Um, not really, I said. What's great ...

Isn't that a sad sight? There is a big, freakin' crease/wrinkle through the middle of my 2009 UD Spectrum Clayton Kershaw relic card. The card wasn't like that when I saw it on Wax Heaven's review of this year's Spectrum release (Spectrum is such a hideous-looking product, by the way). When I saw the card featured, I was thrilled. Since I am down as the Kershaw collector in the Wax Heaven directory, I knew I'd be getting the card. Mario is cool like that. But somewhere along the mailing route, the card was damaged. The SASE that arrived in my mailbox Saturday was not in good shape. It looked like it had been knocked around quite a bit, and a corner of the envelope was bent. Still, I have received card-containing envelopes in worse shape than that and the cards have always been perfect. In fact, this is my first experience with receiving a card damaged in the mail. I certainly don't blame Wax Heaven for this. Mario has been nothing but generous with ...

In my Internet wanderings before I started Night Owl Cards, I saw a handful of card blogs before I came across Wax Heaven . I even liked some of them. But when I saw Wax Heaven, I knew this blog was one of the originals. As a journalist, I admire Wax Heaven for its ability to break card news, for accurate, no-punches-pulled commentary, and for doing all of that with a heart. Mario has a nose for news, but he also has a love for the hobby, a concern for his fellow bloggers and seems as sincere as they come. Mario, congratulations on one year of Wax Heaven. Your blog needs to be around for many more. Here's to many more posts, hits, readers, videos, etc. Keep doing what you're doing. You are living, breathing proof that something good can come out of rooting for Jose Canseco ;)