Night Owl Cards

I think everyone knows that they pay a premium for the concept of "new." New movies cost more. The latest styles cost more. The most updated gadgets cost more. New books, new tunes, new grub almost always demand more cash. The same goes for baseball cards. Everyone knows it. The new stuff always carries a bigger price tag (unless you're comparing it to super vintage). Yet, unlike some of the things mentioned above, I don't necessarily think you're getting more for your value with new cards. Unless you get lucky on one of those Topps Heritage value boxes (which I have), you're paying for "new" and that's about it. People have gone absolutely bat guano over Gypsy Queen, and I'm like the dog in the corner, tilting my head trying to understand. Aside from the framed paper cards, I have no idea what the hysteria is about, except that it is "new." Now people are getting bunchy about Bowman hitting the shelves. I know I enjoyed one of...

Either later today or tomorrow I'll be headed to the only garage sale I mark on the calendar each year. I'm not much for garage sales, and when it comes to cards, the garage sale has become one giant landfill for 1991 Donruss . You almost never find anything decent in the card department anymore. Or at least I don't. But there is this one sale that spans the same weekend each year. It's part of the town's field days weekend, an easy excuse to leave work early, stuff your face and get drunk. A bunch of the town's residents also gather all their junk together and hold a mass garage sale. You can go from house to house to house and buy plates that were eaten on in 1974 and video cassettes of "The Goonies ." One guy with a house on the corner has one of those card-catalog type filing cabinets jammed full with sports cards. I have paid him a visit each of the last 2 or 3 years. You can tell he only got into collecting when he thought he could get rich off ...