Night Owl Cards

It's been a very slow week at the mailbox. Just a solitary card package at the start of the week and then your usual assortment of boredom. I'm entirely to blame for this. It's much too busy in life to be ordering, packaging or sending cards. My want list remains in disarray after its disappearance almost two months ago. So I'm not exactly making myself welcome for people thinking of sending me cards. Also, there is this: I have a lot of cards. I can't tell you how many. I haven't figured that out yet. Let's just say "too many." Blogging for almost a decade will do that. So it's a little difficult to find something from my incomplete want list. But I encourage you, dear trade partner, to keep trying. Because I know better than anyone that I definitely need many, many cards. You never know when something is going to slip through. Let's take the one card package to brave my mailbox this week, for example. It arrived from Tony at ...

I have not purchased so much as a pack of Gypsy Queen in four years. While I run around frantically trying to complete at least the team set for any card brand available in retail, I ignore Gypsy Queen. There are team set needs on my want list from GQ from 2014, 2015 and 2016 that I barely know exist. That's how undesirable this product is to me. But I had spotted images of this year's GQ and for once the design didn't look like dog crap that's sat out in the sun too long. Topps had toned down the ornateness that gives me the creepy crawlies and had actually incorporated some color into the set. It still isn't a set for me, but let's just say I noticed. Yesterday I was running errands and arrived at the usual big box stores. I needed to get some printer paper so I could surrender all of my financial records to various institutions of higher learning just for the shot at some measly cents off of their ransom ... er, tuition ... demands. I needed to buy...

I came across an interesting question yesterday on Robert's $30 a Week Habit blog. He was wondering how to file these buyback cards. For instance, is the card here a 1978 card or a 2015 card, like the stamp says? I had always considered it a 1978 card. It was made in 1978. It gets recorded and filed with 1978 cards. There was never a thought it could be anything else. But I was easily outnumbered in the comments. They filed their buybacks with the year it was stamped, considering it an insert from that particular year. I'm trying not to get riled up about this, but --- aaaarrrrrrrghhhhh, you're playing right into Topps hands!!!! This is not an insert -- and definitely not a hit -- no matter how Topps packages it! It is a regurgitated card ruined by a stamp! It is not a 2015 card, no matter what it says on the stupid stamp or how it was presented! It is a 1978 card, and nothing that a stamp says is going to change that for me! OK, really, you can file your cards ...

There have been times when I've wondered what it would be like for Night Owl Cards to go dormant for more than a week. It's not a "wouldn't it be nice" wondering, but more of a "what would I do" wondering. What would it be like to go back to 2007 and find myself with free time and not hop on the blog? That would be so weird . I might have to make eye contact. In the history of Night Owl Cards, my longest breaks have been four or five days, I think. It's possible I took a week in there somewhere, but that's the maximum. The reasons for that are: a) I don't have money to take exotic extended vacations 2) I don't travel much for my job 3) I neeeeed to do this Believe me, I'm plenty busy. My job is brutal with free time. It won't allow it. I am a parent and a husband and a home owner, all very demanding occupations. Yet, somehow, I find time to do this. And, yes, I don't know how I do that. It's got to be sheer wi...

If you think you've already seen this night card featured on Awesome Night Card, then you are very perceptive ... and probably need a life. The card that was featured then was the 2008 Upper Deck base card. This is the Jimmy Rollins card from '08 Upper Deck First Edition. I am showing this card because, of course, Rollins is now a Los Angeles Dodger. In a convoluted scheme involving the Phillies, Marlins, Padres and Angels, the Dodgers landed a new shortstop (Rollins), second baseman (Howie Kendrick), catcher (Yasmani Grandal) and assorted prospects that they either kept or distributed to other teams. The Dodgers also added some pitchers and a couple of other guys since the 2014 season ended. What I usually like to do during the offseason after my team's made new acquisitions is to see what cards I have of the Dodgers' new guys. Because I'm not a player collector, I don't pay much attention to a player's cards if they're not a Dodger. I accum...