Night Owl Cards

   Don't worry, not more on the 2025 Series, at least not now.   Today I "finished" the 1971 Fleer World Series set, what I like to call the "Fleer Laughlin World Series set" as it was illustrated by artist Robert Laughlin and he was the inspiration for the sets, which he kicked off in 1967, creating and issuing the sets out of his own home.   The 1935 World Series card was the last card that I needed, kind of a surprise that it was the final one to arrive at my door.      The 1956 card was the second-to-last arrival, more in line with my expectations.     I figured either the 1956 or 1919 or 1969 card would be the last one I needed. They were all among the final six or seven but nothing proved very difficult to find, which I appreciate, though part of me is a little miffed that these aren't adored by other collectors like they are by me. Still I should be careful what I wish for (see: my increasing difficulty in obtaining '70s Kellogg's and ...

  A number of years ago I received some cards cut off a cereal box from a set that I had never heard of prior to seeing the cards.   I showed off the cards and said they were from the 1997 Wheaties set. That's about all I knew about them, but noted the Topps logo on the front and figured that it was one of those Topps-food issue partnerships that I knew so well growing up in the '70s and '80s.   Well, this is a '90s set, so it's got to be more complicated than that.   A week or two ago I claimed some more '97 Wheaties cards from the operator of the Baseball Cards Fan blog, who was offering them up through the great trading card giveaway thread on Bluesky. I figured I had 12 of the 30 cards in the set, I should do something already about the rest of them.   I didn't notice right away a difference between these cards and the ones I had already. I'm often not very observant.   But once I started entering these cards into TCDB, I figured it out. A couple o...

 ( It's a little noisy around here! I live in a residential neighborhood. There are very few trees on what is a fairly long block. But get to my house and there are several tall and old oak -- or are they maple? -- trees, including two directly in front of my property. They were incredibly scenic at this time of year, but, sadly, this week, they are coming down as they were growing unhealthy and dangerous. I've known these trees for 28 years and it is bizarre seeing a front yard without a roof. The house feels totally exposed. Anyway, due to the noise and commotion, I'm very tired -- those 8:30 a.m. workers -- and my schedule is wrecked, including blogging. But it's still time for Cardboard Appreciation! This is the 343rd in a series):   I have a very good handle on TCMA sets of the 1970s. Those are the first TCMA sets I ever knew, the ones shown in the old TCMA Advertiser that used to come to my house, the first ones that I ever bought, ordering through that publicati...

  I was fortunate enough to grow up during an era where I didn't have to seek out a hobby shop for the best cards. I didn't even have to fight the enormous crowd and wander through the enormous aisles of a big box store. Cards were everywhere in the '70s. Our go-to as kids was the drug store smart enough to stock cards, there was one wherever we lived. But grocery stores also carried them, and the corner stores that you younger people only read about on blogs like this. I'd find them in hardware stores. They were in book stores, record stores, you name it. But I never experienced cards from a gas station when I was a kid. I've heard about them, probably some tale about singing gas service men, belting out a song while pumping your gas and handing cards to the kiddies while a puppy dog happily wagged its tail. It wasn't until years later that I discovered cards at a gas station. It was in 2001, in the spring or summer. I was visiting relatives in Buffalo and I st...

 The last two cards that I needed to complete the 1981 Coke sets (this will be disputed by a certain noted collector) arrived in the mail today. Although I've always loved those Coke issues from around this time, I didn't go all-in on them until this year, when other oddball issues from my favorite time period increased in price and availability. In the spring, I did a lot of damage to the Coke sets, but eased off over the following months. I resumed the chase a few weeks ago. Finally, about a week ago, the last two player cards showed up in the mail. This is the charm of the sets. Although there is a Nolan Ryan and Pete Rose and George Brett, they aren't necessarily more difficult to obtain than the other cards. That's because mojo hunters -- who only collect stars and rookies -- aren't interested in these much, and isn't it wonderful? It's so nice that something from my childhood hasn't been run roughshod by "investors" and the like.   Still,...

  The newest Beckett Vintage Collector magazine with my article in it arrived in my mailbox Monday. This is article No. 11 for BVC and 13th overall for Beckett and I'm already formulating some story topics for future issues. Hope to get those to the editor next week. This article is kind of a fun one, even though I dealt with a rare case of writer's block during the process. It covers the wide variety of cards -- "oddballs" to you and me -- that must be cut from a package, or sheet, or what have you, in order for it to become, you know, an actual card . The problem is that in many cases (not all), the moment the card is trimmed away, it decreases in value. That's what the article is about. Do you cut the thing to pieces or keep it pristine? I decided to find as many examples of these kinds of cards that I could and the Beckett art department really went the extra mile finding images. I try to send in images of what I'm writing about, but there is no way I had ...

Around the dawn of the 1980s, my mom began to make healthy meals and buy healthy groceries. We no longer saw Frankenberry or Chef Boyardee in our cupboards and dessert became a rare treat. Snacks suffered the most. Carrot sticks and raisins replaced anything with sugar. I believe Doritos made their neighborhood debut right around this time. They never appeared in my house. One of the "new snacks" to show up instead was something called "granola bars." Until this time, I had only known granola as that hard stuff you poured out of a cereal box and attempted to eat without ruining the inside of your mouth. The granola bars were just as hard, if not harder, and just as tasteless. The Nature Valley versions featured the most tolerable option, cinnamon, in red packaging; the kind that made you the most thirsty, peanut butter, in orange packaging; and the one that removed any taste or anything of interest whatsoever, oats n' honey, in the green packaging. If I...