Night Owl Cards

  Today would have been my mom's 84th birthday if she hadn't left us five years ago now. My mom was vigilant when it came to neatness. It was a big deal. Then God laughed and gave her three boys. She waged a mission against messiness daily, but it was often a losing battle.  Out of the three of us, I inherited the neatness gene. But it still wasn't good enough. Before I had my card room, I'd often sort cards in the living room and when my parents came to visit, there would be stacks of cards around the house. My mom would say to my wife, "they're right in the living room ," as if only certain things were allowed in the living room.   She'd be pretty pleased with the card room now. I admit I am, too. I gravitate toward items that make the hobby neater, although my mom probably would be happier with a collector who had just 10 items in their collection and a tiny little display. One of those neatness tools is binder pages. I love how binders and pages tu...

I think most card collectors -- most that I've come across anyway -- work on a variety of separate projects in their collection. I haven't come across many that collect just one thing and that's it. I'm not sure why that is. Do we bore easily? Do all of us have ADD? Are cards so interesting that we can't possibly restrict ourselves to one way of collecting? I'm going to go with that last one. That's what I think it is. Sure, I might spend a little less money if I confined myself a bit, but, damn, did you see how pretty that card is?!? I NEED that card! My eyes get bigger than my stomach at times. In terms of "various projects," I think I'm somewhere in the middle. I can't have 35 different missions. I'll lose track of what I'm doing. Life is confusing enough without the hobby hassling my brain. But I do like having multiple interests. I received a box of cards recently from Billy, formerly of the late great West Virgini...