Night Owl Cards

   Among the large cities in Upstate New York, Syracuse is the one that I drive through the most. But it's not a destination city like Buffalo or Albany. It's a place where I brave the traffic on the way to somewhere else.   The only two exceptions are to watch minor league baseball or go to a card show. It's the closest large city to me so it does have its perks. But I don't know it very well. So when I realized there was a show coming up and that it was corresponding with a major highway renovation project in central Syracuse, I was concerned.   The normal route to the show at the fairgrounds would take me directly into detours, one-lane traffic and potential gridlock and confusion. I had to find an alternate route, in a city I don't know. Through years of self-navigation, in cities much larger than this, I've never relied on GPS. I thought this might be the time I'd need it. I activated it but never turned it on. In fact, I think I might have found a new ...

Although attending The National is not an annual tradition in this collector's journey, receiving cards from The National often is. I've been fortunate in that way, that's what blogging does, it connects you to collectors everywhere and some of them are lucky enough that The National sets up a short drive from where they live. I was the recipient of what I believe are two different sets of packages that came from the recent National in Chicago. I've separated them into two different blog posts, just because each are so wonderful. The first one that I know for a fact is from The National (because he mentioned it in a note in the package) is from Nick of Dime Boxes . He's sent me National cards in the past, a few times, because they keep staging that thing in his backyard. Nick and I have been around long enough to know what each other likes. We are somewhat the same kind of collector, although I'm a lot more preoccupied with sets than ...

I am currently cataloging the cards from the dime box that I bought at my last card show in April. So it's appropriate that I would receive a surprise package over the weekend from reader Dave with a note that said he was inspired enough by that post about buying an entire dime box to purchase one of his own. Then he said, "All of these cards came from that box. And what a box it was!" After reviewing the contents, I agree. That was some dime box. Far, far, far, far, FAR better than the dime box that I bought. I mean I'm going through card after card of busts from 2014 Bowman in my dime box. But I'm a natural skeptic and it's difficult for me to believe that all of this great stuff from Dave was reduced down to a dime apiece. I'm going to show you the cards and give my own opinion on whether I think they actually came from a dime box and you can play along, too. I'll start with some cards that I'd be surprised if they didn't come...