Night Owl Cards

  In my continuing quest to plug the gaps as far as any baseball card set issued during my youth, I recently landed the 1980 Burger King Pitch, Hit & Run set.   Like the Burger King team sets of the late 1970s/1980, this set's design was produced by Topps and used the flagship design from the year of issue. As a youngster, I was well-aware of the Burger King team sets, but I don't recall knowing about the Pitch, Hit & Run set. It's possible that I had outgrown the advertising used for this set (I was 14) and it passed me by. I know I was too old to participate in Pitch, Hit & Run activities.   Still, this was a huge oversight on my part, this set is 100% filled with the players from my youth and it also features one of my all-time favorite aspects of cards from this time -- updates and variations -- spin-offs from the flagship set, whether related to changing teams or for no good reason at all.   My favorite aspect of sets like O-Pee-Chee is alterations f...

 (Hello on National Cheesesteak Day. There are certain foods when you get older and health becomes a larger priority, that you just cross off the list and never think about them again. Cheesesteak is a good example. I used to eat them. But I can't remember the last time I had one now. I'm sure if I lived in Philadelphia, I probably still would be eating them, and getting stern looks from my doctor. Time for Cardboard Appreciation: This is the 336th in a series): I never give my brain enough credit when it comes to hunting down cards. This happens most often during card show visits. I'll shuffle through a bunch of cards in a discount bin or look through a binder and pull cards along the way. During the process, my brain will pipe up, almost imperceptibly, singing " you haaaaaavve that one. " Often I'll ignore it, or not even hear it. I know better, I know what's in my collection. I need that card. And, no, I don't have to check a want list. Then I'l...

I can tell it's March because this has been a rough week. Fortunately I've had some material to work with that has provided easy and simple blog posts. Yup, I have another pack opening for you. This comes courtesy of reader and friend of the blog, Rich. I've been parceling out his sends over the last few days and the most notable item he sent was this pack of 1980 Topps! The '80 Topps set is a big deal for me. I opened a lot of it that year, more cards from one set than I had opened ever before. The 1980, 1989 and 2006 Topps sets are the trifecta of You're Opening Too Much Of This Stuff sets for me. In '80, I was actively trying to complete the entire set for the first time. I still didn't have a job at this point so I don't know where I was getting the money to buy these packs. But, safe to say, I've seen many of the cards in this pack over and over. The set has long been complete, so let's see if we can pull a Rickey! Or at least a couple of ca...