Night Owl Cards

  Rod of Padrographs is sending out cards again and I received one of the envelopes last week. A nice surprise.   The package contained a mix of then and now and I couldn't help but see the passage of time in the card contents, what/who was supposedly a big deal then and what/who is supposedly a big deal now.   Take this pack of 1991 Stadium Club that was part of the send. This was the first Stadium Club set and something I totally missed out on in 1991 (Most of my focus was on Topps flagship, Score and here-and-there purchases of Fleer and Upper Deck). My introduction to Stadium Club took place the following year.   But I certainly heard about the brand at the time. "Premium" sets were a big deal. The cards were "upscale" for the time. And Stadium Club hit it home on the wrapper by mentioning that Kodak was involved and displaying the Kodak label. For anyone who grew up in the mid-20th century, Kodak was synonymous with film and photography. My very first chea...

  Isn't it the best when you get sick on the weekend? I'm way under the weather with what I think is a bad cold and it killed all my weekend catch-up plans. I'm pretty much in a zombie state, waiting for my next round of meds.   I'm a little more capable of sitting upright today so I can get a post out for you to read. A little under a week ago, when I was operating properly, I received another surprise package from CardBoredom. I really like his thoughtful posts and am always interested in people's cardboard origination stories, which the most recent post tackled.   CardBoredom had taken notice of my recent 1983 Donruss chase and sent me a "lightly sealed" pack of '83 Donruss. This is pretty cool. I've mentioned before that I bought just three packs of Donruss that year, so not even the pack wrapper is familiar to me.   Let's open up this pack, but not before consulting the few remaining cards I need in the set:   277 - Ryne Sandberg 530 - Wh...

  Today was the first chance I had to look for some 2025 Topps. The weather has been ridiculous the past seven days between a big fat snowstorm, ungodly wind for days and now sub-zero temperatures. Even the times I could get away from work, all I wanted to do was stay inside somewhere.   So, a week after release, I've got 2025 Topps to show. I'm not even going to say I'm late. Running out in mid-February for the new cards seems much more pointless than when I started this blog. And I just couldn't fired up to order any online.   I knew it would be this way though. 2024 Topps is tough to top, unless you're going to go back to real cardboard and the designs of the '70s. I've seen the 2025 cards online and they're OK. Like 2022 Topps OK. Nothing bad ... or so I thought.   I went to Target to do some birthday things and headed back to the card aisle. It's the week all the kids have off so the place was mobbed and I couldn't wait to get out, but I did...

  I don't think I need to explain where I am at with Allen & Ginter for regular readers. But I've got some new followers on BlueSky today (my Twitter account is not long for this world) so a brief recap: Started a blog in 2008 and one of my early posts was about my complete-and-total adoration of Allen & Ginter, particularly that year's edition. The years go on and I plunge into Gint-a-Cuffs, an annual blog-wide salute to the A&G product, and make it my mission to complete the set each year. I do so until 2015 when I don't like the set look and am growing skeptical of Topps' checklist selections. I stop trying to complete the set as the checklist turns to reality stars and other blatant pandering, but still try to buy a blaster or two for tradition's sake. You're caught up. And this is where we are now: Four packs. You see them right up there. That's probably all I'm getting, outside of gathering the Dodgers. This an astounding decision ...

  I don't have very much time for cards today, nor tomorrow. But a Very Important Package arrived at my home last night and it's got to be addressed in some sort of fashion here.   Yes, this is the start of approximately 158 posts about 2024 Heritage on this blog this year. You're welcome!   I went ahead and pre-ordered a box of Heritage over the weekend. I chose Dave & Adam's for one very strategic reason: I live less than four hours away from the place and I knew I'd get it fast. I did not expect it to show up the day before release date. For the first time in my life, I had it in my hands on release date (which is today, FYI).   That's appropriate since I have been waiting for this set since I knew what Heritage was, which was around 2006. So, 18 years I've been waiting for Topps to fully invest in the 1975 set and design.   Now, in those 18 years a lot has happened. Heritage used to faithfully create each set based on the year it was featuring. It lo...