Night Owl Cards

Like most folks in this country, I am not made of money. While going for my daily walks or driving around town, I look at the shiny gargantuans passing for cars on the local road and wonder who can afford that. There are so many of them now, maybe there actually are people made of money?   But little guys like me -- who drive a modest CRV -- must pick our moments for spending cash. Budgets and all that. And, while I've never been a bargain-hunter in everyday life, I sometimes am as a card collector.  Freebies are still a thing in the collecting social media world, though not as often as they once were. I need to do my part in that area -- it's not due to a lack of cards, just a lack of time. But at least I'm participating in the claiming!   Here are some very recent acquisitions, all in response to "free" or "free with a catch" come-ons.     Jim of cards as I see them revived his "Almost Free Fridays" giveaway recently. I was only able to find...

  Chaos continues to reign around here. Between the job upheaval, the malfunctioning keyboard, the constant stormy weather, I never know what I can do with the blog as the situation shifts almost by the hour. Right now, miraculously, the keyboard is operating -- let's see at what point in this post that goes south -- so let's get try to get some words out between torrential downpours.   I have a few small card envelopes sitting on my desk that need to be recorded here. And they really have to get a move on because the absolutely drenched mailman delivered some absolutely drenched bundle of card packages today (no cards were harmed, don't worry). Once the boxes and envelopes dry off, they'll need somewhere to go, so the following cards need to make way:   I've completed my 20th TCDB trade. I know, that's not 100 trades like a couple other bloggers, but for a half-hearted trader like me, it's pretty good. Remember, I had zero desire to trade on that site until...

  There's sometimes this attitude that custom cards aren't worth buying.   I'm guilty of feeling this way. Sometimes I'll run a search through ebay and automatically turn my nose up at some of the homemade cards that find their way into the results. Did someone just make that? There's no way anyone's paying for that!   I've been conditioned to buy cards created only by professionals. So I have certain standards. But if you have the custom-card-making skills, sure, I'll think about buying one. There's one custom card maker who's made me think long and hard about this. The Nine Pockets blog is not shy about giving away the custom cards he makes. I've jumped on the opportunities plenty of times. The quality is definitely there, and often the subject matter speaks to me. So I've accumulated a small collection of Gregory's Nine Pockets creations. Terrific work. Each one addresses a particular favorite pop culture moment of mine with a p...

  I realize that I am fortunate to have a card room. Not every collector has one, in fact I didn't have one until three years ago, and I've been at this collecting thing for a long, long time. (My first packs weren't in '97 or in '87 or even in '77. Try 1975).   Inside that card room I have a card table and a card desk. I'm fortunate to have those, too. I have two binder shelves and a separate shelf cabinet for some card boxes. All very fortunate developments.   That's why I've been a bit concerned about my treatment of my room recently. Sure, some of the resulting mess was because I was upgrading some shelving (see photo above) and also launched a time-consuming giveaway.     But there's really no excuse for the clutter-fest on my card desk. I need to treat it better.   I know it doesn't look that messy. But that's deceptive. I'm losing cards, you guys, because of the way it looks. The bottom left third of the card desk is reserved f...