Night Owl Cards

  I said a few weeks ago that I don't think I want every Dodger card anymore and I stand by that, but this is going to be a gradual process. I still have trouble saying no to inferior products/products that just don't speak to me anymore when it comes to my team. It's a process, I'll get there. Soon I'll be muttering in a corner about "Topps flagship ONLY," and there will be a sign taped to my mailbox with that exact same message to the mailman. But until then, weee , somebody sent me Shiny and Unlicensed!   That somebody was Marc, who is getting back on the blogging horse despite having youngsters running amok. Somehow he is finding time to buy some of this stuff that I almost never see where I live, and don't even think to order online.   Glad he's doing it though ... um, I mean, I can't be accepting cards like this anymore!    This envelope was heavy on distracting shiny -- takes your eye off the blank hats and unis, you know -- with all ki...

  I've mentioned a few times that I'm trying to collect the Fleer flagship sets from the 1980s. I've also mentioned how I've been fighting disinterest in trying to wrap up the last few -- specifically 1985 and 1986. And I haven't even started on 1987. So it would be foolishness, borderline dumbery to start another set pursuit very similar to those above, from a baseball card brand I have even less interest in than Fleer. Yet, here I am, accepting 1989 Donruss cards. What is wrong with me? I knew this day would come. Although I've always joked about how I like these cards but I'm not collecting them , I've considered '89 Donruss an underrated set in a sea of junk wax mediocrity. Donruss wasn't exactly putting out classics during this time and immediately after '89 it would fall into a three-year funk. But '89 is something different. At least to me.   I like the rainbow treatment at the top and bottom, the color spectrum theme is totally un...

Look back on my blog six or seven years ago and you'll see a couple of posts wondering what the point is of Panini cards.   The cards contained no team logos nor words on the uniforms. The designs were primitive, ugly even. The photos lacked imagination and looked the same from one to the next. I berated Panini for robbing collectors of their money. I look back on those Panini cards in my collection and they still suck. And I still have some of the same feelings about Panini's baseball cards. The inability to show MLB logos creates boring, unappealing cards. Panini's card backs remain unreadable and useless. Yet, Panini's baseball sets continue to this day and remain popular in some collector circles. What's more is I am more accepting of those cards in my collection. I also seem to get more Panini cards from other collectors than I did a few years ago. I came up with a few reasons why the change: 1. Panini continues to be the only "other" option: Ever sin...

The ultimate reward for a miscut card is that I treat it as its own distinct card. This doesn't always happen. I'm not a collector of miscuts, so often the card will end up in the dupes pile or (*gasp* *how could you?*) in the trash. For a miscut card to avoid that fate, it needs to provide something interesting outside of it being a mere cutting mistake. Enter this 1982 Topps card of Fernando Valenzuela sent to me by Bru .    It looks nice and normal on the front, a familiar shot of the first solo base card of Valenzuela that Topps had produced. Perhaps that alone would disqualify the card from being a distinct miscut. There is nothing about the front that tells you that there's something different. Oh, but the back: That is two separate players on the back of that card, and neither one of them is Valenzuela! In fact, there's more about Hal McRae and Reggie Jackson on the back of this card than Fernando. Even better (or worse) is that Valenzuela is carting around on th...

I still get excited about modern stuff. I know I'm not supposed to do that. I'm supposed to be a bitter, old man. I'm supposed to hate all the new rules they're installing in baseball. I'm supposed to dislike all the new baseball card sets. I'm supposed to complain about it all, while sitting in my rocker from afar. There are people who do this. I know them. There is one person, who is my age, who refuses to watch the baseball season happening right now (is it still happening?). And he'll tell anyone proudly that he's not watching. There are people, who every time I criticize a modern baseball set, virtually stand up and applaud, saying, "now you're one of us, night owl!!" But actually all I am is a thoroughly modern guy. It's 2020 and I still like baseball and collecting cards, and my question for those who have "opted out" of watching baseball and collecting current cards is: Do you like baseball? Do you like coll...