Night Owl Cards

  For the last year-plus, my Wednesday workload has been what used to be the job of 4-5 people.   That meant that virtually my entire day was devoted to the job, even the so-called "off-hours" of the day. And many weeks work tasks bled into Tuesday, too. Writing a blog post on Wednesday was usually impossible.   However, finally, after wondering how long I would put up with this, yet another downsizing has meant that I'm getting my Wednesdays back. Beginning next week, Wednesday will be just like any other day of the work week.    I'm really happy about this, even though I have to get through this Wednesday first. As a bit of a pre-celebration with (checks clock) very little time, I'm squeezing in a short post. I received some cards yesterday from a stack sale over on Bluesky. After directing some of the cards to fellow collectors' stacks, I have eight cards left for my collection that I will count down.   Nothing exciting -- except to me, of course. Here t...

This is the kind of post that's best reserved for a much more succinct manner of social media. In fact, that's where I saw this little nugget of information that I never knew before. I never knew it despite collecting the 1974 Topps set and completing it, despite doing so years and years ago, and despite viewing this Tom Walker card a couple dozen times at least. Willie Mays is on the card, too, you guys. You can spot his "24" as he waits his turn in the cage, as a member of the New York Mets there at Shea Stadium. Fantastic. I learned this from none other than the SplitSeason1981 account over on Blue Sky. He's the former mayor of Cooperstown, and a card collector. I traded with him several years ago. He mentioned the neat Mays fact today and I was dumbfounded. It's amazing what you can learn even after 50 years of hoarding trading cards. That's all I have for you today. It's been a hectic week but I'm glad I picked up at least some cardboard know...

  Whenever I finish off an old vintage set, it takes a little while to get serious about another one. I have to work up the energy to go through what it takes to tackle another one. It's a time-and-money investment. It's a project, really, not a work project, but a fun one. But, as always, projects take dedication, drive and stamina. It's not for the weak. Take that however you want.   Often it isn't until I purchase a certain card do I feel like I'm really in the right mind-set and I'm on my way to pursuing another set.   The 1969 Topps set, coming after I finished the 1970 Topps set, has been a goal for the last four or five years but casual-like as I focused on more pressing card needs. It's always been in the background even as I added '69 Topps cards to my collection.   But with 1970 and other stuff out of the way, it's not in the background. In fact it's staring me in the face, waiting for me to commit.   You may think that with 624 of the ...

  The latest edition of Beckett Vintage magazine showed up on the porch Monday. It contains my most recent article. The first 50-or-so pages of the issue is about the recently departed Willie Mays. I like the photo spread of every one of his Topps cards. My story shows up on page 72. It's about collector Roy Carlson, who has created a hobby buzz in the last year with his discoveries of picture reuse in Topps' vintage sets. I mentioned that I was doing a story on him in April and it has finally appeared in the August-September issue.    I'm the last person that should be surprised by how slow the wheels operate in the world of print publication, but the ones for magazine publishing are the very slowest. I did the interview in April and wrote the story in May and it shows up three months later. I almost felt like I had to talk to Roy again to update everything!   But I think it's an interesting article anyway. I always feel like I'm doing my job more when I interview...

  I haven't written hardly anything about the passing of Willie Mays, except for a single tweet . Like everyone else, I marvel at his career, as best as I can for someone who saw none of it. He was on the wrong side of the Dodgers-Giants rivalry, too, so the best I can do is some version of "wow, look at those stats." But there were plenty of other people willing to pay tribute on social media. One of the off-shoot discussions that comes from such a significant player dying is "who is now the greatest living ballplayer?" Unlike many fans, I am not interested in talking about that. It's impossible to come to a conclusion. So maybe start another topic when we're sitting on the bar stool. Like who has the best pizza. The other topic was Mays being the last star of the '50s to leave the earth, the passing of an era. I don't know if I'm totally in agreement with that thinking. There are still plenty of big names who touched the 1950s still around....

  When I was a high school senior, I took like three math classes. I don't know why, I must have been deranged. The same teacher taught all three classes. He was your typical early '80s high school math teacher. With dark hair and a mustache, he kind of looked like Burt Reynolds, if Reynolds was not quite as dashing, dressed in a way that attracted chalk and mumbled odd sayings that seemed to amuse only himself. The classes were tough, we all thought they were and, as teenagers do, we made fun of him outside of class. It wasn't a class you could act up in -- he had a bit of a temper -- so we grumbled about our teacher at lunch or in the hallways.   I can still see him turning from the chalkboard to face the class, hands outstretched with chalk in one hand and eraser in the other and saying something that summed up what he had just written that we couldn't decipher and then he'd blink several times. One of his many sayings, really the only I can remember was "qu...

  One of the most significant cards in my collecting history arrived at my door today. The 1956 Topps Willie Mays card ties my formative collecting days to my current collecting existence, confirms what I believe in in this hobby, and realizes dreams from long ago I never thought possible. It also sets a couple of personal records. It is the most I've ever spent on a single card. Yet it didn't hurt my wallet nor cause any regret. In terms of a cardboard acquisition it is about as perfect as it gets. No guilt. All power and beauty. It removes a considerable road block in my quest to complete the 1956 Topps set. It was one of the Big Three that I fretted over for years. "How would I ever obtain that card?" And now it's here. I don't have to remind you that baseball legends from the 1950s (and '60s and '70s) are departing at a rapid pace. That wasn't a top consideration in landing this card. But with Willie's age (he will be 90 in May) and the way...

I've mentioned several times that I'm not one of those people who looks for deals or bargains. If I happen to be low on money and at a card show, then I will scope out discounts, but that's about the only time. This doesn't mean I'm rich or a wild spender. I'm neither. I just can't be troubled with spending so much time searching for deals. I don't check out the circulars in the Sunday paper, I don't pester retail salesmen for cents off, I don't argue with the check out girl about the price on canned pears. It's just too much time spent on something that doesn't mean much. If you grew up during the Great Depression or in a poor family or are a college student, then, yeah, I get why you'd be obsessed with finding steals. But, overall, I think too much noise is made about who got what for how little. I don't play that game. I don't care. I hope I never have to. This offends some people. A few days ago, my brother went...