Night Owl Cards

  Yesterday I completed the 1969 Topps set. While home for dinner, I opened a couple of card orders and the last one contained card No. 500, Mickey Mantle.   It's the yellow-name variety, it's the last Mantle card issued during his career, and all that stuff. Most importantly for me, it's the final card.   I thought it would take me longer to get this card and finish the set. Once I had acquired the Nolan Ryan in September (and the Phil Regan, don't forget him!), I started looking at Mantle prices. I didn't like what I saw. But I didn't do a thorough search, so I figured there was something a bit more reasonable out there for when the time came.    Well, the time came a couple of weeks ago. Out of the blue, I received a reimbursement check from my health insurance that I wasn't expecting, and I immediately knew where some of that was going to go. I started searching again and it became apparent that I was going to have to spend $200 to get anything that was...

  I think I'm on record on my opinion of Panini as a baseball product. I've never had use for it, think its weak points are glaring and its strong points -- if there are any -- help convince only some collectors that it's worth buying. Panini's license with the MLB Players Association ran out at the end of 2022 and we all know it already doesn't have an MLB license. So Panini is out of the baseball card game and, well, let me take a moment to figure out how I still type while I'm standing and applauding. Panini's baseball cards were ugly, uninteresting, inept and inefficient. The only thing it did well, the 2013 Hometown Heroes product, disappeared after a year. The only other thing it did "well," Chronicles, is a mix of boring (see card above) and a whole lot of WTF. It's good WTF, for the most part, but it actively defies you to complete it, which is the opposite of what I'm trying to do here. Panini's baseball inserts got a lot of pr...

I went to the Syracuse Chiefs game yesterday. It was a "for old-time's-sake" type of game as my daughter came along and it's the last game she will go to before moving out and heading off for college. We've gone together to several Chiefs games over the last 10 years and for all 10 of those years, they have been the Triple A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. Next year, the Chiefs -- if they will even be called that -- will be the Mets' Triple A affiliate. The Mets bought the Syracuse franchise last year and announced it will play its Triple A home games in Syracuse next season. What happens after that is anyone's guess. I welcome the Mets connection. Although I'm not a Mets fan, there are some teams that have character and a history and are easy to follow. The Mets are one of those teams. Most of the teams that have been around for at least 50 or 60 years are one of those teams. The Nationals are not one of those teams. Although I lik...