Night Owl Cards

  A month into this blog, I featured my copy of the 1979 Sport Americana Baseball Card Price Guide, which is the first of the James Beckett/Dennis Eckes annual price guides that I purchased all through the mid-1980s. I don't remember when I bought the '79 copy. I'm guessing 1980. It's shown up a time or two on the blog since. It's a cool peek into the past, starting with the cover, which looks nothing like the price guides to come -- no photos, just drawings. (The book is the rarer white-cover version). As you can probably tell, I've handled this book a lot -- pages have been falling out for years. Probably most of the damage happened in the first year because, let me tell you, there was nothing cooler than someone assigning prices to cards. What a concept -- which ones were ones that I had? Answer: In 1979, almost none.   I brought up this book a couple days ago over on the House of Cardboard Discord site because the topic came up on "when did the concept ...

  This is a continuation from my Stadium Club blaster break post in which I noted how many rookie cards appeared in it.   I know I bash rookie cards a lot and I probably should just be quiet about it because they certainly divert a lot of collectors who would otherwise be competition for the good stuff. But it's an obsession in the industry and it's getting worse.   Didn't the hobby always care about rookie cards, night owl? Well, no. I didn't anyway. I spent five blissful years collecting without a clue that there was such a thing as a rookie card. Rookie cup? I knew those. But the first card of a particular player probably didn't make me take notice until Bob Welch's 1979 Topps card. After that, I remember the 1980 Rickey Henderson card being a little bit coveted. Then there was the 1982 Traded Cal Ripken Jr. card. I knew I had something when I ordered that complete Traded set. Then rookie cards began to pick up more momentum with the Boggs-Gwynn-Sandberg tri...

  Howie Kendrick announced his retirement the other day. I admit my first thought was "good." I am still having a problem digesting that 2019 postseason.   My second thought was his rookie card. Kendrick's rookie card is in the 2006 Topps Update set and anything having to do with that 2006 set, flagship or update, means a little extra to me. That was my return to collecting modern cards. That was the year I discovered they sold cards in Walmart down the street and responded by trying to complete everything Topps issued in flagship that year. Kendrick's retirement means that there are precious few rookie card players from that Update set that are still active. This kind of stuns me. Was 2006 that long ago? Yeah, turns out it was. All of the following notables with rookie cards in 2006 Update are no longer playing: Andre Ethier, Stephen Drew, Jered Weaver, Chad Billingsley, Mike Napoli, James Shields, Kendrys Morales, Ben Zobrist, Josh Johnson, Melky Cabrera, Carlos Que...

I've heard a mention or two of this past World Series being "one of the greatest ever." I'm not 100 percent sure where I heard such a sweeping statement but if I had to guess, it would be Twitter, that all-or-nothing social media outlet that I do enjoy but also shake my head over when I read the extreme reactions that occur daily there. It was not "one of the greatest ever." I'm not sure if I'd even call it "good." Keep in mind, I've been watching World Series for more than 40 years, so I've seen a few good ones and bad ones and have a little perspective. But I'd say about the only thing this World Series had going for it is that it lasted seven games and that the road team won every game. It was fine. If you like baseball it was fine. But that's about it. You know how I can tell? I didn't panic at work over a single game this Series. Usually, the most exciting World Series games -- the ones every fan root...

Tired of being swamped by the latest rookies in your baseball card product? OK, maybe it's just me. You wouldn't hear a peep out of me if Topps never made another card of Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger or Andrew Benintendi. Like an overplayed song, I'm ready for cards of those guys to cycle out of my rotation. Even if you don't collect modern sets, it's difficult to avoid the drumbeat of rookieness. The only thing that Topps has shown for its 2018 flagship product so far is rookies or recent rookies. It recently released an '18 flagship checklist ... of just rookies. Rookies overflow its Topps Now product. Topps releases special online exclusives that are either all rookies or focus mostly on rookies. Rookies are over-represented in insert sets and in almost all of Topps' spin-off sets, like Chrome, Allen and Ginter, you name it. All of this is while Topps has its own brand dedicated to rookies and prospects called Bowman. I've never seen overk...