Night Owl Cards

  The 2022 Topps Heritage checklist released today. Box breakers are drumming up business for their Heritage breaks. And I just got my first 2022 Topps Series 1 cards in the mail. I may not be relevant, but at least I'm not driving myself crazy trying to keep up. This is the latest date on the calendar that I've shown The First New Cards Of The Season since I began the blog. Here are the dates those first cards appeared each year: 2009: Feb. 7 2010: Jan. 26 2011: Feb. 4 2012: Feb. 3 2013: Jan. 30 2014: Jan. 31 2015: Feb. 6 2016: Feb. 4 2017: Feb. 1 2018: Feb. 2 2019: Feb. 2 2020: Feb. 7 2021: Feb. 26 2022: March 7 Thank you very much pandemic and flippers. (Also, consider 2022 Topps wasn't even released until Feb. 16 this year). But that also shows how eager I am these days to find Series 1. I haven't tried to complete the flagship set in seven years. I simply don't need it. But I do like it. The base Dodgers from Series 1 arrived today. That's really what I...

   My approach on 2021 Topps, after seeing the cards, empty shelves and the tales of inflated prices, was that I could last the entire year without buying any.   The effort wasn't worth it. I'll just take my Dodgers and go home.   I went to Target once after the release date a couple weeks ago, I don't really remember what day I went, and saw empty shelves and shrugged.   So, move forward two weeks and it's birthday season. Those who have read this blog for awhile know I have a lot of birthdays in my family in March and it's the primary shopping time of the year, besides Christmas. I went to Target yesterday for a few items and I made sure to check the card aisle, just in case. I didn't expect to find anything, but I think you know me by now, I have to buy my first packs of the season if I have the opportunity. It's worth a look. The shelves seemed fairly empty as I approached. But they weren't. When I got there, I saw maybe six or seven 2021 Topps baseb...