Night Owl Cards

  Blogging in detail can take a lot of time and effort. I've got several observations and pick-ups to discuss and none of them are worth dedicating a whole post to -- so let's drag out the "housekeeping"' label and piece together a bunch of unrelated topics! I do that a lot, though not since 2024.   Up first is this terrific Hideo Nomo Dueling Dugouts insert from 1997 Pinnacle Inside. I've been intrigued by these from afar for a long time and finally received my first one last year (Karim Garcia on "the back" of the Vladimir Guerrero card). It was time to get a full-fledged Dodger one this time.   The kicker to these is you can turn the dial on the side and it shows the player's stats for that year in the center windows. So cool. Here is a look at the other years on this card:   Outstanding. Interestingly Nomo's stats with the Japan Pacific League's Kintetsu Buffaloes are shown for 1994 but 1993 is blank despite Nomo playing for the same ...

  It's been almost a daily ritual around here the last few weeks to clear snow off the car, out of the driveway, along the walkways. This morning I got up to pull my car in from the street and nearly face-planted because the snow was covering up a sheet of ice that fell around 4 a.m. last night (driving home from work was a bit of an adventure).   Through it all I think I've done an OK job of regularly sending out card envelopes and packages, although I've had to have the conversation with myself over whether it's safe to drive to the post office at least a half-dozen times.   But almost once a week I get there, and I'll be mailing out the latest downsizing box in the next trip. Meanwhile, I received cards (and other items) in response to my last downsizing send . Claimant Mike delivered!   This is not required nor expected but lets see the goods, there is quite the variety.      Starting with an owl card because owl.   It's been awhile since I've...

(Hi folks. I'm two work days away from vacation! It's all I'm thinking about. So let's get on with this so I can think about it some more! Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 353rd in a series):    I don't remember how I discovered this Hideo Nomo card -- probably wandering on ebay at some point -- but when I did, I could feel myself jump in my chair from astonishment.   What? Hideo Nomo is back in Topps products?? When did this happen?   Nomo is one of my favorite players to collect -- ever. There are lots of past posts about that. But he hasn't shown up in cards pretty much since he retired. Outside of some faceless Leaf relic cards a few years ago -- and those really aren't cards -- there's been nothing. Lots of Ichiro and, lordy, too much Hideki Matsui, but no Nomo.   Obviously I had to have this card and I jumped on it. And I was giddy when it arrived. I showed it off so proudly (and I've been doing less of that lately). But something 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 ...

 (Hey look, part-time blogger night owl has another post up! Sorry again for the infrequency. I should be back to the regular 5-days-a-week-but-not-quite-8-hours-a-day posting schedule next week. For now, it's just one card, because it's time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 333rd in a series):   Today is the anniversary of the Dodgers signing Hideo Nomo so I've got a timely post. I like those. I keep telling myself to cut back on all the social media outlets but then I go and add another one with the Baseball Card "House of Cardboard" Discord site. (I've cut back on Facebook and Twitter, so I suppose it evens out). The attractive part of social media for me still is: I find out baseball card things. Like the card above, for example. This card is from an insert set from 2005 Donruss called "Inside View". Now comes the part I didn't know until I saw a discussion on Discord: The set was pulled from production by Donruss, but somehow some of ...

  A couple of comments in my last post, combined with a long-overdue discovery, combined with the mailman apparently not feeling like delivering on my street today, led to this post.   Some folks mentioned yesterday how they skip oversized cards because of the difficulty in storing them. I'm assuming this mostly pertains to fitting them into pages, because you can probably find a box to fit just about anything card-like, unless it's enormous.   I've never shunned non-regulation-sized cards because they don't fit 9 pockets, if I like them, I'll get them, no matter what size. But I understand, as a binder guy, not having a place to store them. I felt that particular collector pain for a long time. Because I didn't have all the different page configurations.   But I do now. I have 2 pockets, 4 pockets, 3 pockets, 8 pockets, 15 pockets, just waiting to complete a mission.   I've shown this binder before, a couple of times. It's what I use to store cards and ...