Night Owl Cards

Yesterday was my only real day off during this two-week period in mid-March that is the very epicenter of March Madness. I tried to enjoy the day because I knew I wasn't going to get another one for awhile. But, of course, Daylight Savings Time cut into it and given that I had to work very late Saturday night, I woke up at 1:05 p.m. to start my "day off." Already my day was running out! I could sense that I needed to open some baseball cards to relieve some stress. This is the only time that I wish I could be one of those collectors with stockpiles of random unopened packs. But I have no unopened packs in the house so I had to get some. The thought of going to Walmart or Target on a Sunday is extremely unappealing (anytime you read about me buying cards at a big box store the purchase did NOT happen on the weekend). That left the various chain drugstores, Walgreen's, Rite-Aid. But they didn't have anything. So, I headed for the other side of town and the ...

Although I bought a lot of cards during the late 1980s and early 1990s, I did not go as crazy as many collectors during that period. I confined most of my binging to 1989 Topps and ignored quite a few brands that were everywhere at the time. One of those ignored brands was Donruss. By the time the late '80s arrived, I had restricted myself to Topps -- because I didn't have time for anything else. College was in full swing and after that I was trying to carve out a career. Donruss was easy to ignore because I rarely took it seriously. To my way of thinking then, Donruss cards were for little kids, meant to be thrown in the toy box at the end of the day. In recent years, I've come to appreciate certain Donruss sets from that period. It's nothing for me to go down to the dollar store and grab some '88 or '89 Donruss for a little pick-me-up. And when you do buy those packs, you get the inevitable puzzle pieces. As I've said before, I didn't know wh...

This is a pack of 1988 Donruss. Note the sticker. All of my life, when looking back at cards from 25 years ago, I was looking back at the unattainable, mystical and legendary. When I first started collecting cards, in 1975, 25 years ago was 1950. The only significant cards around at that time were Bowman. I didn't even know what Bowman was in 1975. But it sure was unattainable at age 9. In 1980, the prime of my first collecting period, 25 years ago was 1955. The cards from that period are magic. Bowman wood framed TV sets and the first horizontal Topps cards. They seemed so ancient to me that I might as well have been hunting for them in a cave somewhere in Greece. There was no way I'd be able to get my hands on them. In 1990, 25 years ago was 1965. I had maybe 100 cards from the '60s in 1990. Each of them was difficult to get and not all that easy to find. All of them had an unattainable quality. In 2000, 25 years ago was 1975, the first year I collected cards. ...

Before I go back in time, here is the 2015 Topps Series 1 checklist , which was released today. My quick reaction to it is: Lot of the same stuff we've seen in recent years. ... Kershaw has to stop hogging awards so I can stop collecting those league leaders things with guys I don't care about. ... Oh, look, Derek Jeter is card No. 1 in the set, that will cause people to flip out -- oops, they already did. ... The inserts have card numbers (instead of letters) on them again --- weeeeee! ... The first-pitch insert is interesting in a D-list celebrity kind of way. But real reaction will have to come when the cards hit store shelves near me. Right now, today's excitement came in the haul that arrived at my doorstep this afternoon. I made it a mission to clear out as many junk wax-era Dodgers sets as I could. I have no desire to continue chasing cards from this time period. It's not particularly memorable for me and the cards are far too plentiful for me to still n...

I thought it was interesting that when I listed the sets that I have completed , it instantly drew unsolicited offers for me to complete certain junk wax sets. Everyone has so many cards from between 1987-93 that they're just dying to dump their extras on fellow collectors. The collector doesn't even have to say that they're interested in collecting those sets. All the junk wax owners have to hear is that the collector is thinking of finishing any old random set totally unrelated to junk wax, and they sense an opportunity. Well, here I am, giving you another opportunity. But really I am not. I will stress several times throughout this post that I don't actually want to complete any junk wax set in the near or distant future. I know that some of you just omitted the word "don't" when you read that last sentence and are already addressing a mammoth box of 1990 Fleer to the night owl residence. Please put the pen down. And return your '90 Fl...

I was up early this morning to do a little Christmas shopping. I like to get out there before regular, everyday people start doing insane things that make me never want to interact with humanity again. It worked very well. I only got into two AAAs (almost auto accidents), both totally related to the stupidity of the other party. And there was only one person-leaning-on-their-cart-and-steering-while-totally-oblivious-to-anyone-else that I wanted to tip over. But while in Target (yes, I am high-class when it comes to gift-giving) I felt the need for a little "me time," and I stopped by the card section. It's quite the disaster these days, eh? First, there's way too much non-baseball. Stop it. Secondly, you can't get me to buy yet another Bowman product. We all know they're practically the same cards that were in Bowman in June. Thirdly, unless I want to engage my inner shiny, everything else is dull, dull, dull. That is when I looked to the anonymous base...