Night Owl Cards

   Among the large cities in Upstate New York, Syracuse is the one that I drive through the most. But it's not a destination city like Buffalo or Albany. It's a place where I brave the traffic on the way to somewhere else.   The only two exceptions are to watch minor league baseball or go to a card show. It's the closest large city to me so it does have its perks. But I don't know it very well. So when I realized there was a show coming up and that it was corresponding with a major highway renovation project in central Syracuse, I was concerned.   The normal route to the show at the fairgrounds would take me directly into detours, one-lane traffic and potential gridlock and confusion. I had to find an alternate route, in a city I don't know. Through years of self-navigation, in cities much larger than this, I've never relied on GPS. I thought this might be the time I'd need it. I activated it but never turned it on. In fact, I think I might have found a new ...

  I found out about a monthly card show in town just coming up on three years now, and already I'm wondering how soon it will be before there's nothing there for me anymore.   I went this past weekend fully aware that I'd see more tables dedicated to TCG stuff. When I walked in I thought I would try to count how many tables were selling Pokemon/Magic/Yu Gi Oh and how many were selling cards of actual humans. But after spotting the three tables to my immediate right all selling it and knowing the table to my immediate left always sold it, I gave up on that and tried to focus on someone, anyone selling something I could use.   It's pretty clear that kind of dealer is taking over this show. Without doing the count, I'd guess that at least half of the tables were TCG this time. Then, out of the other half that's sports cards, cross off the dealers focusing only on graded stock and also the dealer or two selling nothing but boxes they got through a month's worth ...

   Trading cards takes a lot of time. Also, sometimes it takes a lot of work.   Everyone collects differently and sometimes it's difficult to match up with another collector. That happens all the time. No big deal really. Then there are the fellow collectors that drag out trades for too damn long.   I never participated in collectors forums, but I've heard that trades were often like that there. I have no problem trading away nice cards, but I'm not going to send a couple dozen messages back and forth to come to an agreement on an exact accounting of precise compensation. I've dealt with this in the past with a couple bloggers. It's not fun. Trading is supposed to be fun.   That's why I gravitate to super simple trades. My favorite are: "I'll send you some cards whenever and you send some cards whenever." That's how most trades go on the blogs. It's about the only ones I make these days.   It's also why I participate in stuff like Diamo...

  A little more than two months ago I added this 1952 Topps Duke Snider to my collection during a card show.   That apparently woke me up out of my indifference over the 1952 set. No, I'm not attempting to collect it. I'm not even looking to add all of the Dodgers in the set.   But at some point after getting the Snider, I decided to see what I could do about getting the rest of the low-number Dodgers.   Just the other day one of those cards arrived.    This is such an odd card. Jim Russell had not played for the Braves for three years when this card was issued. He was with Brooklyn in 1950 and 1951, and in '51 he appeared in just 18 games with the Dodgers, spending most of the season with Triple A Montreal. He wouldn't appear in another major league game.   His obvious Braves hat and uniform is also the reason that it was one of the last '52 Dodgers I looked to get. He doesn't look like a Dodger at all!   Condition is not a requirement with addin...

  I'll say one thing for March, it's never not interesting.   I probably go on way too much about this month, but it keeps coming up with new and irritating ways to mess with my life. And I have a story to illustrate.   Since it's March, we're in the thick of state high school basketball playoffs, along with collegiate hockey playoffs and, heck let's start the spring season earlier and earlier because there's nothing else going on this month. It's always the busiest month at work and getting busier.   A co-worker was scheduled to work Thursday, Friday and Saturday and travel to cover our basketball teams in state play two of those days. On Friday, he sent a text saying he had a cold and wouldn't be in Thursday, he'd work from home. OK, no problem, nothing to cover that day. But late that night, I realized he did no work from home at all, and I had to do it, because we've been shorthanded since 2023 and we've got only two guys.   Friday came a...

  I recently returned to my plan to chase down the Dodgers I'm missing in old Heritage sets.   In almost all cases these are short-prints, and I quickly lose enthusiasm after seeing prices and drop the chase for months before coming back to it. But this time when I visited, the prices weren't bad -- it's just there weren't a lot available.   I added the Kaz Ishii short-print from 2004 Heritage. Look at him roll his eyes at those short-printing ways.     I also added another famous Japanese pitcher for the Dodgers, maybe you heard of him. Heritage short-printed his card, too, in 2005 Heritage.   While I was searching for other Heritage SPs from this time period I happened across an insert from 2005 that I didn't have, so I threw that in my cart and called it a night.     This card recognizes his two home runs on the final day of the 1956 season that clinched the pennant for the Dodgers.      I knew the photo used on the front seemed ...

  Card blogs are for showing off your own, very personal card interests. If nobody else cares about them it doesn't matter. That's why it's your blog. But I've made a blog living out of trying to make those very personal card interests about something with wider appeal. I consider it a challenge. Today, I'm all challenged-out. I have the rest of my COMC haul to show off, the non-Kershaw part. It's a variety. I can't wrap up all the items into one tidy subject, at least nothing I haven't written about before. So you're going to see them with no theme, no deep thoughts. It'll be just cards ... except the things that aren't cards ... that only I care about. Like so: These are a couple of cheap items in a modest attempt to boost my collection of Martina Hingis. She's my favorite tennis player, I should have at least a full page of her cards. Not cards but stickers, and only the greatest stickers ever made. I'm mostly talking to a wall whe...