Night Owl Cards

  That's a moment-in-time snapshot of my card table and surrounding other activities in my card room. There's a lot going on in there right now. Not only is it the central hub for cards coming in and cards going out, but there are two large boxes of cards coming in that I'm trying to get myself around. Also, TCDB offers have ramped up again. And, those card stacks off to the left will tell you I'm in the middle of another Dodgers dupes card sort. I try to do this once a year, around September or so. But I skipped it last year so there's even more to do. Also, life has somehow turned what was once a week-long activity into a two-month activity. I don't know how it did that, but it dood. More card stacks. More incoming. There is a lot to do, card-wise. And blog-wise. I have topics in mind that involve research. And little time to do it. When I'm in that kind of crunch, sometimes I dismiss incoming cards for blog posts, thinking that I just can't come up wi...

(Appointments, responsibilities, work, appointments, responsibilities, work, appointments, responsibilities, work ... oh, hi, here is a blog post that I fit in when life is a driver's seat and a desk  ... appointments, responsibilities, work ... It's time for Cardboard Appreciation, this is the 325th in a series): I have slowly been picking off O-Pee-Chee Dodgers needs the last few months. It's been very methodical, because there's not a lot of cash but there are a lot of cards that I want. So I leave the OPC quest and then come back to it again.   In going through the 1981s that I needed (this is the second straight Cardboard Appreciation on a 1981 card, I'll have to fix that next time), I was a little surprised to see Rick Monday in the set.   I shouldn't have been. Yes, OPC sets were smaller than the Topps version during this time, and, yes, OPC picked and chose what Expos and Blue Jays showed up in the set. But Monday was still a notable player, and, unlike ...

  I'm sure this happens to everyone, but when I'm shopping for other people, most of the time I'm also shopping for myself.   During the Christmas season, especially if I'm in a store that sells cards, I'll swing by the card aisle if there is any cash left after shopping for the significants.   And when I'm looking for cards online for someone, I find myself throwing a few things for myself in the cart, too.   Sometimes when you're shopping for someone else, you end up with a card just because! I think that's what happened with the Devin Mann Bowman Platinum autograph card up top. It arrived from The Diamond King .   I had snagged a couple of cards from his most recent Flash Freebie (it pays to look at people's vacation photos, you guys) to distribute in my 5,000-post giveaway and -- what's this? -- it's my second Devin Mann autograph card! (Devin Mann is in his second year of Double A in Tulsa, but I'll ignore that now).   These were all...

  The popular Twitter card question-and-answer feature, CardChat, put out a series of questions yesterday relating to buying cards, particularly in 2022. The last question was simple: show your favorite card purchase from this year.   I was stumped.   Any other year, it would've been the easiest question in the world to answer. But this year, so far, I have no answer.   Sure, I've bought cards I've liked, you've seen them on this blog for the last four months. But there's nothing that stands out as FAVORITE or something that other collectors would see and, say, "oh yeah, that's a great card."   A year ago at this time, I was buying 1956 Topps of superstars, any number of two dozen cards I purchased in the first four months of 2021 I could enter as my answer to my favorite card purchase and be sure about it.   But this year is different. Buying cards is different. If I want to buy vintage, I will more than likely have to pay something unreasonable, if I...

  I'm in one of those periods where life is conspiring against the hobby. Pretty typical for March. Let's review: 1. Prices on cards are still dumb. Thank goodness I don't care about football or basketball cards or rookies because I'd be out of the hobby and collecting bottle caps by now. But the up-charge on vintage is annoying and it's made me shift my focus (more on that in a bit). 2. I'm in danger of missing my second card show in as many months. The job is fixing to make me work on a usual weekend day off, the exact day of a one-day-only card show. I'm going to have to arrange some sort of bizarre schedule work-around if I want to make that show.   3. But the biggest plot against cards for the past week-and-a-half is our bathroom is being remodeled. The bathroom is directly across from the card room. For the past 8 days, workers have been arriving at 7 a.m. and creating a whole lot of noise. Do you know how much that upsets a night owl schedule? Also, t...

  How much do I love O-Pee-Chee? I love it this much: 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖 There are so many great sets for O-Pee-Chee variations and the 1981 one is one of the very best. Not only do the changing colors on the border frames make these cards as exciting as seeing an amusement park at night, but the set spelled out the position names on the front so you get to see the wonderfully wacky-to-us-Amuricans spellings. "Premier-But?" Like so: I can't believe how cheaply I landed this Eddie Murray. Sure, it's off-center, but who is picking up OPC cards looking for perfection? I also added some Dodger needs. There is still quite a ways to go on finishing the team set. But that's OK, I have a lot to do in the O-Pee-Chee area. And I'm looking forward to all of it. There is so much to love.