Night Owl Cards

For the longest time, I associated the word "zapped!" with the R-rated teen comedy whose only objective was to see how many times it could show Heather Thomas' clothes popping off. As a teenager at the time of this movie's release, I had no problem with this. And the lousy movie gets entirely too much credit just because it showed up when I was 16. But while my teen years are now filed under "ancient history," and movies like this are no longer viewed as acceptable behavior, a new definition for "zapped" has emerged. And I would mourn the loss of my youth over this, except that this new definition involves receiving free baseball cards. Sorry Scott Baio and Willie Aames, you never existed. Once again, I am on the receiving end of a zippy zapping! Heather who? This is just one of the many fine cardboard pieces I received from Zippy Zappy, who runs Torren' Up Cards . ZZ's packages tend toward prospects, Asian cards and long-...

Until a couple of weeks ago, this green-tinted parallel of Dodgers prospect Zach Lee was the only card I had from the debut set of Topps Heritage Minors in 2011. Although I enjoy minor league sets, it's more for their kitsch value. The old cards, the wacky poses, the ball girls and trainers, spotting some well-known major leaguer just starting out in the bowels of professional baseball. But Heritage Minors I'll probably never understand and definitely never purchase. The cards come at a bit of a premium because they're on Heritage card stock, yet they're still a bunch of nobodies. They don't deserve that fancy stock. That's for major league players. Along with that, I'm being asked to spend my hard-earned money on a bunch of guys who will probably never amount to anything on an MLB level. Yeah, I know, prospecting is about finding that needle in a haystack, but I'm much too poor for that nonsense. So, all I've got then are guys who played ba...

I was involved in Cardboard Heaven's Rose Bowl draft a few weeks ago. It my first card draft and a lot of fun. I quickly figured out that the objective, after finding a few cards you want, was to get cards that could be used in future trades. And that's what I did. Some of the cards are already in packages waiting for All Work And No Play to get his dull ass to the post office. Some of the other cards you'll see here are posted in a pathetic effort to jump-start some trades -- not that I have any time for that. The Prince Fielder bat card was obtained to work out a deal with a Brewers fan. Heh. That worked out spectacularly. Fielder will be making his imprint in Detroit for the next nine years. I don't even know if a Tigers fan wants a relic card of a guy in a Brewer uniform. I know, personally, I wouldn't. It's not like I'm clamoring for Angels cards of Juan Rivera. ... OK, bad example. But you know what I mean. So, Prince may or may not stay with...

A few months ago, my financial situation wasn't the greatest. It still isn't now, but at least I'm able to buy a rack pack of cards without the guilt police trailing my vehicle. During that cash-strained period, group breaks popped up everywhere. I had to go into shutdown mode and pass up I don't know how many of them. But there was one break I really wanted to join, and that was the case break at A Cardboard Problem for 2011 Topps. I moped around for awhile trying to figure out what I should do. Marie of ACP waited me out, suggested I might actually have a good time, and, bam, I was in. In the end, the cash didn't kill me, and when the break went off last week, I found out it was probably the best card decision I've made in a long time. The cards I received are already in hand, and there is some great stuff. There was also some unexpected, super generous stuff, too, which I'll show at the end. First I want to address the leather nameplate ...