Night Owl Cards

A couple of people have weighed in on the recent Topps announcement that it is extending the 2015 base set by 20 cards per series. Instead of 330 cards, as has been the case since 2006, I believe, Series 1 and Series 2 will be 350 cards. Of course, there is a lot of speculation about what Topps will do with those extra 20 cards. I don't really care what Topps does with them because I don't collect the base set anymore. If Topps surprises me and produces a 20-card "turn back the clock" subset, then you will hear some giddy noises from me. But throwing in 20 extra relief pitchers isn't going to bring back Topps Total. And expanding so there can be a fourth card of Mike Trout or a 20-card Derek Jeter tribute is merely what everyone expects. Where my "concern" -- and I use that word lightly -- lies is in what Topps does with the Update set. Will that set, which also has been 330 cards the last few years, be 350 cards, too? Because that thing is alrea...

I never announced it on the blog, but I told myself this year that I wouldn't buy any brand of cards that didn't interest me. In the past, I thought I owed it to myself -- and somewhat to my readers -- to open whatever baseball card product I could easily get my hands on in order to get the general flavor of the collecting season. But I'm kind of beyond that now. My interest level in today's cards is still a lot higher than it was from 1996-2005, when I barely wasted a thought on cards, but I'd also say it's as low as it's been since the calendar changed from 2005 to 2006. I told myself that this year, I would buy some flagship, some Heritage, some Allen & Ginter, maybe a little Update and that would be it. Because those are the only sets, really, that interest me. What's the point of buying Gypsy Queen when all I'm going to do is trash it and wish the cards were out of my house immediately? Well, I've kind of failed on that promis...