Night Owl Cards

A couple of people have weighed in on the recent Topps announcement that it is extending the 2015 base set by 20 cards per series. Instead of 330 cards, as has been the case since 2006, I believe, Series 1 and Series 2 will be 350 cards. Of course, there is a lot of speculation about what Topps will do with those extra 20 cards. I don't really care what Topps does with them because I don't collect the base set anymore. If Topps surprises me and produces a 20-card "turn back the clock" subset, then you will hear some giddy noises from me. But throwing in 20 extra relief pitchers isn't going to bring back Topps Total. And expanding so there can be a fourth card of Mike Trout or a 20-card Derek Jeter tribute is merely what everyone expects. Where my "concern" -- and I use that word lightly -- lies is in what Topps does with the Update set. Will that set, which also has been 330 cards the last few years, be 350 cards, too? Because that thing is alrea...

I was a little bit relieved that the Dodgers reached an agreement with Brian Wilson yesterday. It's not because I particularly care whether he's on the team or not. It's because I wanted there to be at least someone listed with the Dodgers in the Topps Update set who was STILL WITH THE DODGERS by the time I completed the team set. Topps Update is a tricky thing and it's another one of the reasons why I look at the set with a sideways glance. It comes out at a time of year when teams are wheeling and dealing. So here you are, supposedly getting the latest and greatest players in their latest and greatest (*gasp*) new uniforms , and they aren't in those uniforms anymore. What the hell? But I was able to thwart all of these conspirators recently by completing the entire Dodgers base set in Update before every player had left. These are the last three players I needed: Shockingly, they are all still with the Dodgers. Each of these cards -- including em...

I'm back, baseball cards I've missed you these last four days Four days without viewing a single one of you In person or online I missed my baseball cards It amazes me how empty life is without you Simple pieces of cardboard with pictures Silly, really There is longing and craving Over disposable items Because I miss my baseball cards Life went on While you were so many miles away The conversation turned To more mundane matters But I missed my baseball cards The turkey wasn't as tasty as I remembered Although stuffing hit the spot Marshmallowed-sweet potatoes were controversial Pie for breakfast wonderful But I missed my baseball cards I busied myself with diversions Day-glo bowling balls and a free piece of pizza My niece's fingernails painted to resemble Pac-Man characters Mocking pre-Black Friday shoppers But I still missed my baseball cards The high school reunion almost did the trick My collecting buddy in school ha...

I recently mentioned that it was only five short months ago that I was desperate for a Yasiel Puig card. There just weren't any to be found and if you wanted a card, you had to pay a hefty price for something from Bowman or ... bleah ... Panini. But in this consumer-driven world of ours, scarcity can turn into an embarrassment of riches in the time it takes to make that old-fashioned cash register dollar sign sound . Topps saw a void and filled it until it is now a 15-story high pile of dirt. There are Puigs cards in virtually every pack, and there will be many more to come I am certain (I am not one of those who thinks he is a one-year wonder). There is no place where this is more evident than in Topps Update. It took me a long time to get a handle on the number of Puigs in the base set of Update, but I think I've figured it out. I also think that I've completed my trifecta of base Puigs. The above card is from Zippy Zappy and he started me on my way to triple...

November is a terrible time for buying cards. It's even worse than December because in December you've either already purchased all your holiday gifts and are ready to treat yourself with the leftover final pennies, or you've given up hope and are waving the credit card at every checkout clerk who even glances your way. But in November, there is A Plan. You're going to focus on buying for other people. You have lists and a budget and are a Very Careful Shopper. This is important for someone like me with a job like mine. Cards enter my head only fleetingly and then are dismissed as sinful. Be gone, card thoughts! I'm shopping for OTHERS. This is also the time that I stop looking on ebay or COMC or anywhere else for cards. Collecting goals are on hold until the day after December 25th. When I do pick up some cards, it's always from a retail store, it's always during a trip when I'm Christmas shopping, and it's always something cheap. Thus, t...

Back before the playoffs started, when every moment was filled with possibility and baseball occupied my daily planner, I entered a World Series contest. It was called the " 3rd Annual Almost Easiest World Series Contest On The Web ," and it's a good thing it was because I don't really enter anything willingly anymore unless some derivation of the word "easy" is in the title somewhere. Even a contest, where I can win free CARDS, isn't incentive enough for me. I've actually read about contests to win free cards in which all I have to do is enter my name, and I click off the post and do not enter. I don't know why I do that. Sometimes I just can't be bothered with someone saying they're going to give me free cards. The nerve of that person. So, Collector's Crack put up his Almost All-Time Easiest Postseason contest and I made the most feeble entry attempt in recorded contest history. Entrants were supposed to guess which two te...