Night Owl Cards

  Often over the years I've read blog posts or, more likely, those on social media that invite a discussion on graded cards.   My standard response -- if I do respond -- is I don't believe in graded cards in almost all cases and that I have very few graded cards in my collection. Then I feel like I have to explain that -- if I don't believe in graded cards, why do I have some in my collection? And how many do I have? I've never known that part.   So this post is about figuring that out, getting to know my graded cards and why they have the gall to exist in my collection when 99.999998% of the cards in the collection are frolicking free in the breeze as is their constitutional right.   For starters, I have nine graded cards ... well, eight cards and one coin, as you can see here. Any other graded card that has come into my possession, I have broken out. All but two of the cards/coin were sent to me by others, because I have never specifically attempted to buy a graded...

  On Saturday I got up knowing that the monthly card show was taking place on the other side of town. I looked out the window. It had snowed steadily the day before, very lightly but with the wind the inch or two stuck to everything and it had grown colder, too. It was maybe 10 degrees out and the cars were coated. It was my day off. Ugh, I don't know if I want to go across town. This is a terrible attitude for someone who was once willing to drive through less-than-ideal weather for more than an hour to get to one of two shows a year. So I showered, got dressed and had a bite to eat while the car warmed up. The plows had been through a few times, most of the roads should be fairly clear. I stopped at the ATM for some cash and wondered when all dealers would take nothing but cards or a cash app and then drove the rest of the way to the show. The parking lot was pretty full. I walked down the hallway and to the check-in table and paid my five bucks (still too much). I knew what I wa...

When I was in high school, there was this nun who controlled the library. I don't remember any other teachers or workers in the library. Just her. She almost never said a word and I barely recall her leaving her desk station at the front of the room. She was older than dirt, moved very slowly and wore a perpetual lemon-sucking expression on her face. As you entered the library, she'd give you the once over like "here's another one." She looked like Anne Ramsey in "Throw Momma From The Train," with gray hair and a nun's habit. I don't remember her name but I'll always remember the one expression I did hear her say several times over. High school kids have been known to act up, and the worst place for that to happen is in a library with a lemon-sucking nun at the helm. When it would occur, Sister Anne Ramsey would bellow in a very unlibrary-like voice: "GET OUT!!!" The offending student or students would trudge out the doo...

Note to Night Owl: Introspective posts don't work when everyone is off at a cookout. OK, on with today's rambling. Even though I've been pretty busy with my job this Memorial Day weekend, I have managed to squeeze in some card things here and there. So let's see what I've been up to. (I've addressed most of this on Twitter, so if you've seen it there already, you can go play frisbee, or whatever people are doing outside now). I am in the middle of updating my Dodger binders again. This is something I do maybe three times a year. Some might consider it monotonous, but I like doing it -- a lot. What I don't enjoy doing is discovering in the middle of updating that I've forgotten some key cards, which happens ALL THE TIME. It happens a lot to me because I pull cards for blog posts and then forget I've pulled them. I pulled a bunch for that face percentage post and totally blanked that there were Dodgers cards for that post, and then upda...

ACT ONE INTRO. HOBBY SHOP. Sunday afternoon. Winter time. It's slow. The walk-in traffic is mostly men. They shuffle in and out without buying a thing. Forty-five minutes pass between customers. TIGHT SHOT on shop owner. Michael Kaminsky, 58. He goes by "Mick." Tall man, maybe 6-3. Balding except for overgrown curls in the back. Large paunch. Horned-rim glasses. He talks loudly. Vaguely resembles a sturdier more sober version of Harry Caray. A woman and a 10-year-old boy walk in. Mick bellows hello. MICK Looking for anything in particular?!?!?!? WOMAN Um ... sort of. My son collects cards and he likes (woman pauses like she's about to say something embarrassing) ... old cards . The boy glares at her disapprovingly. MICK Old cards?!?!?!?!? You mean "vintage"?!?!?!?!?!? The woman shrugs with an apologetic grin. But the boy knows. Mick knows he's seeing a child wise beyond his years. He leans over the counter and bumps h...

Even with all of the acquisitions that the Dodgers have made in the last six months, everyone knows -- or should know -- that the core of the team is Kemp and Kershaw. The last two years have established that the Dodgers don't do a damn thing if those two don't do a damn thing. This is the main reason that I collect cards of both players. The other reason is I think they're decent folks. I don't take player collecting as seriously as I do set collecting or team collecting. But I do pay attention to how many cards I have of both of these players. In particular, I am interested in the Kershaw total. It is my goal to have more Kershaw cards than I have cards for any other player. I'm well on my way to doing that. Just last week I passed 250 unique Kershaw cards, which I think is pretty good for a guy who lists "player collecting" as priority three. Kershaw has appeared regularly on cards only since 2008. Outside of Hideo Nomo, Orel Hershiser, Mike ...