Night Owl Cards

  I've been listening to a lot of pop music from 1984 lately. Forty years ago, you know. I know I've said this before but every time I think about the number of people who didn't experience epic years like 1983 and 1984, I know why they're still searching for joy in their lives. I am so happy I was around for years like that. We all know -- those of us who were around then -- that in '84, pop music wasn't trash. Some of it was, of course, but not all of it, like how it's been for just about the last 20 years or more (referring only to Billboard charts pop music/most streamed songs on Spotify, etc. I listen to plenty of current music that is tremendous). When I hear 1984 pop songs like The Warrior, Round and Round, Lights Out, Rock You Like a Hurricane, Purple Rain, Dance Hall Days, Sister Christian, White Horse, The Politics of Dancing, Runner, What's Love Got to Do With It, 10-9-8, Jump, Cruel Summer, We're Not Gonna Take It and on and on, it takes ...

  I feel like I need just one more 1985 Fleer-related post before moving on to other hobby matters. Between this and the '85 Fleer Traded set, it's the only major set-completing I've done this year. It deserves at least two posts. The 1985 Fleer set -- I think -- marks the end of a three-year Fleer experiment with cojoined cards. The very well-known and appreciated Super Star Specials that filled out the back of most '80s Fleer sets included cards that continued onto the next card in 1983, 1984 and 1985. (Maybe there are other later examples but my Fleer knowledge starts to fade after the '80s). 1985 contains the final two examples of these cards, starting with card numbers 635 and 636. These are a whole lot of fun. But you need both cards in order to put them together like a puzzle and appreciate what you have in your collection. One card isn't going to do it. By itself, it looks like an off-center card -- drastically off-center with no left border.    I would ...

  This is another post inspired by a Twitter prompt. I guess I can never delete Twitter from my phone -- as I've often threatened to do -- because it's pretty clear that half my blog ideas come from there now. I don't know what that says about me. But anyway, the Twitter account Wax Pack Gods shot out a general question the other day, one of those things that always gets a response: what's your favorite Fleer design from the 1980s?   I could have sworn I ranked those sets ages ago on the blog, but the best I could come up with is this (probably should update that one). So I guess I haven't done it before. And I sure don't feel like doing it now. The short version is 1984 Fleer is my favorite of those '80s Fleer designs. It was back in 2010, it is now, it's always been -- except between 1981 and 1983, of course. But there is another '80s Fleer set that's been creeping upward over the years, particularly the last few, probably because I'm col...

I'm offering another apology to 1981 Topps. I've promised twice now that the next set that I would profile in this Team MVPs series would be 1981 Topps. But I'm delaying that yet again, because I keep completing sets! Since my last '81 Topps promise I have completed 1984 Fleer. Since I'm going back in time with this series I can't continue to go back to the past without taking care of more recent sets! This is my first chance to determine the best card for each team in a Fleer set. I've noticed a benefit to Fleer right away. The cards are numbered by team, so each team's cards are grouped together. That allows me to review each team all at once instead of the piece-by-piece process I go through with Topps sets. It's also a lot of fun to determine the "best" card in a mid-1980s Fleer set as many of the photos have so much character. However, you'd be surprised how many photos are also boring as all get-out. Entire teams are b...

Believe it or not, I have never completed a Fleer flagship set during my 40-plus years of collecting. Much of the reason for that is growing up during the time of the Topps monopoly. I didn't know Fleer existed until I was 15 years old. Even after the arrival of Fleer and Donruss, I kept a bias toward Topps. Topps got my money. However, since the early 1980s, I have managed to complete sets of the other "upstarts." I've completed 1984 Donruss and 1988 Score and 1993 Upper Deck. Yet, still, nothing from Fleer. Today that changed. Awhile ago I said I was open to receiving Fleer cards from the 1980s. Nothing from 1989, mind you, but everything else was fair game. And I announced that I would specifically try to complete Fleer sets from 1981, 1984 and 1988. You just saw a stack of 1981 Fleer that I received from ARPSmith's Sportscard Obsession. Hopefully I'll get a want list up for that next week. Meanwhile, the 1984 and 1988 bids are coming along ...

I was gifted with another loaded binder from Twitter friend Greg recently. I love how these arrive around Christmas with all the other large-shaped packages. It makes getting cards even more festive than it already is. People see them and say, "Oh! What did you get?" and I get to respond enthusiastically with "Cards!" and this would never be a conversation if this were to happen in, say, June. (June conversation: "What the hell is THAT?" Me, sheepishly: "Cards"). Greg has a knack for finding cards off my want list and, even more impressively, finding a card shop, wherever he happens to be, that has those cards. I marvel at this. The binder, as usual, was a gift in itself with plenty of empty pages for future storage needs. Inside was four filled pages of 1973 Topps needs: Lots of wonderful airbrushing there. I have no doubt I will complete this set in 2018. My next card mission is to obtain some of the star cards from this set so...