Night Owl Cards

A 2026 Topps fat pack tale.   I visited the Target card aisle again Monday as I was there to do some birthday shopping, too.    GOOD NEWS   The shelves were fully restocked (again) and this time filled with 2025 Stadium Club, too, along with 2026 Topps and 2025 Update. (Not my photo, I forgot to take one).   BAD NEWS   The hanger boxes had disappeared. So I grabbed a couple fat packs against my better judgement (they are are a dupes machine).   GOOD NEWS    I found the Ohtani card.     BAD NEWS    A bunch of cards in the first pack were miscut.     GOOD NEWS   None of the Dodgers were miscut and I needed all of them!     GOOD NEWS   The Stars of MLB card was a Paul Skenes.   BAD NEWS   The 1991 insert was:   a) A Rockie b) A player I don't know c) Featuring a city connect uniform I don't like     GOOD NEWS   Leaps at the wall! (Who needs Stadium Club?)   ...

    Although I recently lamented the former card bloggers who have disappeared from the virtual card world -- couldn't tell you what they're doing or even if they're alive -- there are still plenty of former bloggers that I see on other social media sites. That's one of the reasons I have not been solely a blogger since the rise of other social media forms.   While blogging is easily my preferred platform for cards, communicating with old blogging friends in more informal ways, whether Twitter or Blue Sky or wherever, is a bit easier, casual-like and a little more fun (sometimes). It's random card thoughts and and conversations in easy bites. Another plus -- trades spring out of nowhere. You start the day with no intention of exchanging cards and 20 minutes later I'm swapping cards.   Recently I sent a few current Tigers cards to ex-blogger/ex-twitterer Boobie Maine , who now is in the card (and music) conversation on Blue Sky. I know too many Tigers fans lately...

Those of you who frequent the card aisle at the two main big box stores that sell cards probably know about the bottom shelf. At both stores, the bottom shelf is usually reserved for things like binders and pages or sometimes big boxes of cards (complete sets, for instance). This is also where you can find discounted cards, which almost always are filled with nothing but football or basketball unless you get really lucky. With the exception of an impulse search of the discount area, I usually ignore the bottom shelf. Merchants aren't going to put anything that I want down there anyway. They especially aren't going to put loose packs down there -- where little kids can get their grubby hands on them -- and that's what I was looking for this afternoon. I was actually at Target to get a few decorative items for the card room. I'm still waiting on some drawers to house my card packaging materials, which will officially complete my room. So in the meantime, I look...

I'm trying to wrap up any last thoughts on 2014 Topps here and then drop it until Series 2 comes around. I'll probably fail miserably on this and start babbling about something I saw on the back of Cody Asche's 2014 card on the next post, but that is the plan. Let's face it. People have moved on. Heritage is coming out and some folks are actually buying Panini Donruss. So 2014 Topps is history. But first a few things: 1. A number of collectors, including myself, have mentioned how closely cropped the photo images are this year. It's been a general trend the last few years, but it seems especially noticeable this year. After going through the 2014 cards I have -- I have accumulated 164, I have no idea how -- I noticed that there is an absence of advertising in the background of this year's cards. Out of the 164 cards, I couldn't make out a full advertising image that was not blurred in 163 of the cards. That's the only one that advertised ...

I have my ways of knowning that some of you haven't checked out my new 1971 Topps and 1985 Topps blogs. So get over there, take a peek, and please, please add it to your blog rolls. If you need another reason to visit those blogs, how about this? It might help you in some blog research some day. Don't laugh. I do research for my blog all the time. Without it, my blog would be: Look. Card. Like. Done. I try to make things a tad more interesting. So here is my example of how one of those set blogs can help your own personal blog: I received some great 1975 Topps cards from Steve at The Greatest 21 Days . Most of them were minis, which are the best cards ever and which I'll show some other time. But he also threw in some terrific miscut cards, like the Cubs team card that you see above. It's funny how great miscut cards are from vintage sets, but if we see one in a current set we start dialing the president of Topps and THEN The President Of The Un...