Night Owl Cards

It's no secret that Topps, and other card companies, employ all kinds of trickery to get collectors to buy their products. "Tricks of the trade" has a whole new meaning when every product features 12 different variation sets and the company doesn't announce any of them. If you're of a particular mind-set, you might think you're being taken for a fool. But fools, in reality, is probably what we are as collectors. We collect little picture cards of athletes, who are better than us only in a talent that quickly becomes irrelevant for 99 percent of the population by the time they're out of school. Is this what we really value in life? OK, but before I get too deep, I'll steer it back to one of the oldest tricks in Topps' trade. It's their annual April Fool's Day trick, and it continues throughout the year. I'm referring to the airbrushing and photoshopping that goes on to create alternate realities on those little pieces of cardboa...

So, I had the day off today and drove all the way to the other side of town to that Rite-Aid to grab my two half-price 2009 Topps Chrome packs that I had left behind for a rainy day. I'm glad that I was over there for a couple of reasons. First, apparently this is the day for all Canadians to migrate to my city. I tried to get gas today on my side of town. I almost got into three fender-benders in the mini-mart parking lot. All 12 of the pumps were busy. Seventy-five percent of the license plates were from Ontario. I was baffled. The check-out lady said it had been like that all day. I suppose it is holiday time. I don't know. Captain Canuck, help me out. Secondly, I found a very cool pack of cards. There was only one pack. Apparently someone sneakily grabbed what was rightfully mine. But that's OK, because they didn't get the good one. Here is what I pulled from the pack: An awesome red refractor. Yes, it's a freakin' Rockie again, just like my boy Jef...