Night Owl Cards

(Hello on "Water a Flower Day," subtitled, "Things I Would Do If I Didn't Blog About Baseball Cards". It's time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 270th in a series): The other day I came across a couple of Dodgers cards from 1988 that I didn't have or even knew existed. I am always amazed when I find cards from the '80s that are brand new to me. The cards from that decade are so plentiful, so present, even to this day, that it seems I would have each set and card documented and numbered in my brain. But, no, many years into this, I keep turning up stuff. Like the P.R.E. Pete Rose set from 1985. This was a set that the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards guesses was produced by something called Pete Rose Enterprises (the volume puts a question mark after "Enterprises"). It was distributed by the famed NYC dealer Renata Galasso, which is why it's referred to by her name in online listings. Those listings also mention Top...

If you've ever bought a repack, whether in box or pack form, you have probably pulled what is referred to as a Hygrade card. For whatever reason, the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards is reluctant to call these cards that. Under "Hygrade," it refers you back to a set called "Baseball's All-Time Greats," which is the title that runs at the top of every card. But Hygrade is the company that issued this set. The Hygrade Sports Card Company put out its own price guides and also this set of legendary players. The set was issued as part of a "beginner's baseball card kit," along with an album, in 1987. Those 50 cards are found more frequently than the second half of the set. That's right, there's a first half and a second half. The second half of 50-plus cards (I think it's 51, although I get conflicting reports) was issued an undetermined number of years later. And although nobody calls cards from the second half of the set ...