Night Owl Cards

  One of the most significant cards in my collecting history arrived at my door today. The 1956 Topps Willie Mays card ties my formative collecting days to my current collecting existence, confirms what I believe in in this hobby, and realizes dreams from long ago I never thought possible. It also sets a couple of personal records. It is the most I've ever spent on a single card. Yet it didn't hurt my wallet nor cause any regret. In terms of a cardboard acquisition it is about as perfect as it gets. No guilt. All power and beauty. It removes a considerable road block in my quest to complete the 1956 Topps set. It was one of the Big Three that I fretted over for years. "How would I ever obtain that card?" And now it's here. I don't have to remind you that baseball legends from the 1950s (and '60s and '70s) are departing at a rapid pace. That wasn't a top consideration in landing this card. But with Willie's age (he will be 90 in May) and the way...

I've mentioned a few times that as an East Coast Dodgers fan as a kid, I resorted to the U.S. mail for my Dodgers memorabilia. I would order the Dodger yearbook each year during the late 1970s and early 1980s and consume every page of my distant Boys in Blue from the comfort of my bedroom. In the back of the yearbook, usually the last or second-to-last page, the Dodgers listed "souvenirs" that were available for purchase through mail. Here is what that list looked like, with one particular item I underlined in red: My funds were limited and my interests narrow back in those days (kind of like they are now). So there were just a couple of items that caught my attention. The Dodger autographed photo set for a buck seemed like my kind of deal (the packet that I scanned at the top is from several years earlier when the cost was just 50 cents). I'm sure I didn't know or care what "autographed" meant at the time and it's a good thing, since non...