Night Owl Cards

For awhile there, I was a bit miffed over the reaction to Tuesday's post. I'm aware that there aren't as many set collectors as there once was and especially on the blogs it seems to be a very rare breed -- much rarer than it once was. But I expected more than one person to be at least a little amazed by the different path to putting a set in order by card number, especially since all I ever heard from set collectors prior was there's just that one way to skin a cat. I should know by now that there is no guarantee when it comes to blog comments. But I think this is the new normal. Everything on the blogs is down these days: comments, views, number of posts by other bloggers, trades, cards arriving in the mail from other bloggers, just general enthusiasm for the card blogging life, down, down, down, down. The interesting thing is that I've noticed the latest downturn (there have been several over the last eight years or so) within the last year. If you go ...

Believe it or not, I have never completed a Fleer flagship set during my 40-plus years of collecting. Much of the reason for that is growing up during the time of the Topps monopoly. I didn't know Fleer existed until I was 15 years old. Even after the arrival of Fleer and Donruss, I kept a bias toward Topps. Topps got my money. However, since the early 1980s, I have managed to complete sets of the other "upstarts." I've completed 1984 Donruss and 1988 Score and 1993 Upper Deck. Yet, still, nothing from Fleer. Today that changed. Awhile ago I said I was open to receiving Fleer cards from the 1980s. Nothing from 1989, mind you, but everything else was fair game. And I announced that I would specifically try to complete Fleer sets from 1981, 1984 and 1988. You just saw a stack of 1981 Fleer that I received from ARPSmith's Sportscard Obsession. Hopefully I'll get a want list up for that next week. Meanwhile, the 1984 and 1988 bids are coming along ...

Well, I'm off to a slow start in obtaining every version of this card ever made. But we must begin somewhere. I am required to acknowledge the first person to send me this card since I announced that I want to collect all of them. It was Section 36 . Thanks to him, I can now play a game of "One of These Things Is Not Like The Other." Sadly, the game would be flawed because they're all exactly the same . Isn't it great? This 2010 Topps 206 mini recognizes the first professional baseball game ever played under lights. Grand Rapids beat Zanesville, 11-10, on July 8, 1909 in Grand Rapids, Mich., if you must know. The fact that there are four cards here is appropriate because July 8 is one of four key days in night baseball history. The others are May 24, Aug. 8 and Sept. 2. I am going to try to start recognizing night games on those four dates -- if I remember. (There is also another key date, which makes the whole "four" thing irrelevant. But I...

I've mentioned several times here that I worked in a department store when I was in college. It was a pretty good gig as far as minimum wage jobs go, but there was one thing that frustrated me in particular. The return desk. I never worked there, and I was always grateful for that. But I would be summoned up to the return desk periodically for a question on an article that someone was returning. Frequently, my response to the question was something related to this: "Don't let them get away with it." I found out quickly that all kinds of schemers frequented the return desk. It wasn't just the people who bought something and then saw that the item they bought went on sale three days later and returned it for the new deal. I could live with them. It was the people who returned stuff that was: A) Broken B) Torn C) Worn frequently D) Not from our store E) Probably not from our country F) Possibly not legal G) Unidentifiable Most of the time, I'...

When I say I'm not collecting any 2012 Topps, that means I'm not collecting ANY 2012 Topps, in all its forms. Heritage, Opening Day, Attax, Update, Allen & Ginter (gulp), none of it. I'm reasonably confident that I will be able to stick to this. Even if I grab a few packs every so often, there's nothing there that's going to make me chase the set. However, Allen & Ginter is the one that could give me some hesitation. It's not for the reasons you might think. I'm beyond the design (two straight years of disappointing designs will do that). I'm beyond the non-ballplayer subjects. I'm even beyond the quirkiness (there wasn't much quirkiness in last year's set). No, the problem I'm going to have is next summer when everyone gets their boxes of A&G and the latest edition of Gint-a-Cuffs commences. As a three-time Gint-a-Cuffs participant, I know that GAC is a heck of a lot of fun. It's even fun for a loser like me w...

This trade map has worked quite well so far. Since the last time it made an appearance, less than a month ago, I've added two more states. All of states shaded in blue include residents who have sent me cards. The two dark blue states -- Colorado and New Hampshire -- are the most recent additions to the map. Also, in response to Captain Canuck whining about being left out, I have colored Alaska red. No, it's not Canada, and, yes, there are other states closer to Alberta than Alaska, but that's as far as I'm going. Send me some cards, CC, and maybe I'll color Montana red. I am very happy to fill in Colorado. I found a Rockies fan and sent her some cards that were beating down the door to get out of my collection. Shelliebee mentioned the trade on her blog long ago, so it's about time I get around to reciprocating (that's your big word for the day). The cards from New Hampshire came from Section 36 . He's a Red Sox fan, as every resident of the Granit...