Night Owl Cards

So, where have I been all week?   Fair question. It is March, but I'm usually more consistent than this. A week ago Thursday I was getting a workout in during the early afternoon when I heard an unbelievable crash out in the driveway. From the kitchen windows, I could see ice falling and I knew it wasn't good immediately.   A giant sheet of ice slid off the roof and dropped two stories onto my vehicle. Windshield shattered, tail light gone, huge dents everywhere and $3,300-plus in damage. God love ya, March. I've lived in this house close to 30 years and nothing even close to that has happened.   For the past week, every single day, I've been chatting up either the insurance company, body shops, the tow-truck operator or whoever else deals in vehicle mayhem. Also, I've been working on a story for my newspaper. Every time I do one of those in-person, multi-person interview stories, it eliminates any other kind of writing (i.e. blog writing) from my schedule. That...

True set collectors, whose mission is completing the set and only that, have no use for inserts and parallels.   I am a set collector, but I like too many other things so I will not turn down a pretty parallel. Still, I admit they can be a nuisance.   For example, I am trying to finish the 2025 Heritage set. I'm down to the final five cards. It's more difficult to finish than it has to be because, of course, there are 100 damn short-prints. But also because there are a chrome parallels and sometimes when you are shopping for that last short-print, you are not careful and the listing isn't as clear as it should be, and you buy a card you don't need, and the want list remains unchanged.   This is what happened today when the chrome version of card #461 showed up instead of the regular version. It's my fault really, the word "chrome" was in the item description though it was not in the listing. I'll add it to my stack of 2025 Chrome cards, which aren'...

  Back when I first returned to modern cards, I discovered a brand called Heritage in 2008. It appealed to me instantly and though I've had a love-hate relationship with the brand and its forced short-prints, it's always been one of my favorites.   I didn't need any of the parallels -- the regular set was enough -- but back then there weren't many. There were the chrome parallels and then you could find black-bordered chrome cards as Target exclusives, which were all the rage at the time. I did like those.   Then there were other parallels connected to store-issues -- red borders for Target and blue for Walmart -- that were fun and, again, manageable. Purple chrome hot box parallels, too.   Today, though, I can't even keep track of them all. 2025 Heritage has seen an explosion of parallel cards. While 2024 Heritage had a lot, too, I could ignore them because I love the '75 design so much I don't need a stinkin' parallel. But '25 has even more and I a...

  Why do I continue to show off recent "trade packages" when I know there's limited interest and the views will be low, perhaps lower than ever?   A few reasons:   1. Easy content. I'll admit, it's an easy post. Maybe that's why people don't read. They know I didn't open a vein.    2. It's the right thing to do. I'm pretty certain that most people who send me cards would like some public acknowledgement. I know from experience that it's cool to see others write about the cards I send them (and I always try to comment). And it's better than a thank you email, although that's welcome, too.   3. I'm still grateful. Not nearly as many collectors send me cards as they did 10 years ago. It could cause someone to walk away -- "it's just not worth it to me to write and write and the only cards that come my way are the ones I bought." Maybe I appreciate it more now when people do send me cards. But, truthfully I've alwa...