Night Owl Cards

  Who am I kidding here? I can't evaluate the card year in 1995! There were 33 major releases in 1995. There were two sets with rounded corners! Two! Apparently card companies didn't hear that the World Series was canceled the year prior. But I did. I bought three packs of Topps in 1995. And then I exited, closed the door and didn't return to the hobby for a decade. My enthusiasm for this year in card collecting is very low. But it's not as low as for 1996 (foreshadowing). I'm incapable of an exhaustive breakdown of most of the sets from '95. I refuse to cover all 33. There were some suggestions to break it down in various ways, maybe cover the basic sets, and then a separate post for the premium sets and super premium ones. Yuck. I don't even like referring to sets as "premium" and "super premium." So this is the problem. I want to evaluate a year by old-collecting means that doesn't fit into those standards. In 1994, I tried to take...

Back in February, I received an email from Rod of Padrographs . We're both collecting the 1991 Pro Set MusiCards and I was inquiring about one of the cards he pulled, Patti LaBelle, as I needed that card. Rod said he'd send one if he got a dupe and then wrote, "by the way, when's your birthday?" I looked at it and thought that was an odd question from a fellow blogger. But it was nowhere near my birthday at the time and I sent him his answer and went on my way, never thinking about it again. Well, now today is my birthday and I know exactly why Rod sent that email. I have been digging out of a goodie package that he sent on the occasion of being one year older! Imagine that, a blogger sending me birthday gifts! You already saw one of the Padrograph gifts that arrived earlier. That gift was sent to me by Ron Cey himself. These presents were sent by Rod himself, but the contents inside were also very much about Ron Cey, too, my all-time favorite play...

1995. I can't say I remember a lot about that year. Hmmm, let's see what I can dig out of my brain: Well, there was the O.J. trial, of course. Michael Jordan came back to the NBA. We had a World Series for the first time in two years (and a former co-worker, whose big passion was sailing for crying out loud, scoffed as we watched the Braves play the Indians, saying "people still watch this stuff?" Yeah, buddy, they do. Go fall out of a boat). Blues Traveler was big. Toy Story, too, if you were a kid then. There was living in a gangsta's paradise. The Soup Nazi episode on Seinfeld. (Also another favorite: "Jimmy might have a compound fracture! Jimmy's going into shock!"). More stuff: The emergence of Donovan McNabb. Apollo 13. The world is a vampire. OK, I guess I do remember some things. As far as baseball cards, the hobby was almost dead. In my world and just about everywhere else. The strike had practically killed it. I bought three ...