Night Owl Cards

    One of my "unwritten" vows to myself in writing this blog is to try to make each post relatively original. I know not all of them are. I have specific blog series so each of those have a theme. And anything that is a "look at the new cards I got" can be lumped together as the same idea. But I try to make those trade posts and "got cards" posts as creative as I can. I've been trying to do that for years. I don't know why I'm so hell-bent on this -- other bloggers repeat stuff all the time -- but the thought of repeating a subject without knowing I'm repeating it, which I'm sure I've done, has been one of my worst blogging fears. Well, welcome to my nightmare. I made the same post within a year back in March and I'm just realizing it now.   It dawned on me that I wrote about the same topic two different times in remarkably the same way when I was writing the latest edition of the 1975 Topps worst to best countdown. As I often ...

I opened the back door into the kitchen where my wife was peering into the food pantry. She looked at me, confused, and said: "What?" "Forgot my money," I said and hurried upstairs. That was clue No. 1. And I hadn't even started on my journey. From there, the signs of advancing age and senility were all over Sunday's card show adventure. Looking back on it now, I know that this hobby of ours is not a young man's pursuit. Sure, there were kids at the card show. There always are. But, what I heard, over and over on Sunday, was the sound of cranky old men. It began with this cranky, old man setting out, filling up his gas tank and then realizing in mid-pump that he left his cash back home. But I drove an hour without any further absentmindedness and made it to the show. The Syracuse card show takes place at the state fairgrounds and there are always other activities going on as I make my way to the building that houses the show. This time, I ha...