Night Owl Cards

  All these years doing this blog thing and the hobby still hasn't figured out how to work around my schedule.   I've got a couple of items to catch up to because I was too busy earlier in the week (doesn't Topps know I'm running a giveaway contest ?).   First, NOC was named "Favorite Blog" during TCDB's site awards Sunday.   It's the sixth straight year at the top for NOC and the seventh time in eight years. Maybe it's time to retire me out of the category? But I won't say no to continued winnings. I'm still a sucker for awards.   Second, Topps revealed the design for 2026 flagship on Monday.     I wasn't going to mention anything on the blog about it until it was time to open packs, mostly because it's not that inspiring to me. But I've pondered it a little more and I think this is a design that will look better in hand.   That was somewhat the case with 2025 Topps but I think this one will fare better. Let's go quickly t...

  This is Night Owl Cards at 17.   On this date in 2008, I started a card blog when it was about the coolest thing you could do in the hobby outside of pulling a card of Kosuke Fukudome. Today, it's not a very cool thing at all and whatever happened to Fukudome, Nick Blackburn and Callix Crabbe?   But this is still me. None of those other hobby outlets have suited me as much. I'm not immune to chasing the bright new thing, but I still keep coming back here. Writing about the hobby in a detailed way will always appeal to me most.   That doesn't mean I'm not cutting back on the hobby in other ways: not in words but in more physical aspects. You will see examples of this in Year 18 of NOC but for now, let's look back, using something I have collected for as long as I have written this blog and now their time is ending in my collection.   Wrappers!!!   I have tried to set aside a wrapper for any card product that I have opened -- but just one per set, I'm not t...

    Just a short post, really just noting a milestone that I can't believe I missed.   The Dodgers won the World Series last week and I was really excited. I have been a fan for a long time and I have experienced all the heartaches and disappointments. I can recite the years: 1977, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1985, 1992, 1995, 2006, 2008, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022, there are probably others.   I also know the really fun ones: 1981, 1988, 2020, 2024.   I know all these, some intimately, because as of this very year, I have been a fan for 50 years. How I didn't realize that on January 1, I don't have a clue. This also means that I have been a fan of the Dodgers for 50 years. And on the 50th year -- to commemorate my achievement as a fan -- the Dodgers won me a World Series title.   Cool.   There are not a lot of things that I have been devoted to for 50 years. I can't even say I have been collecting baseball cards for 50 years, because although I acquired my fi...

  I used to get writer's block when I was a young sportswriter. This was maybe 30 years ago, every once in awhile I would struggle with how to start a story, whether it was after coming back from a game or beginning a feature. It was the worst. I'd stare, get up and walk around the office, type out a few sentences and then delete them. And I was on deadline a lot of those times, too, so the stakes were a little high. That doesn't happen to me anymore. Hasn't for years. Just yesterday, I had to pound out a feature story the afternoon before I went to work -- I had just done interviews the day before. So within 24 hours, I did the interview, transcribed the notes and wrote the story, this while doing my other job -- and life -- duties, too. I had zero trouble coming up with a lead, I knew how I was going to start as I was driving away after the interview. The story just flowed the next afternoon. And that night, looking it over, I caught just one typo (although there'...

  Fifteen years ago today, really early in the morning, so early that I almost never stay up that late anymore, I wrote the first post on this blog. Night Owl Cards has been around for so long that it's outlived its usefulness for a lot of people. Many once read but they don't anymore. Many once blogged but they don't anymore. A whole host of card collectors active on social media have no idea what NOC is nor that card blogs once ruled the world, or even have the patience or ability to read more than four paragraphs in a row.   But that's a them problem, not a me problem.   NOC has served me very well. My collection is abundantly more impressive than it was 15 years ago, than it would be if I never started a blog. I have completed sets and obtained cards that I never dreamed of owning before 2008. I have received kind words of thanks from throughout the country and the world for writing this blog. Correspondence from The Netherlands, Australia, China, you name it. I...