Night Owl Cards

Have you ever stopped to consider your greatest collecting fear? Maybe you haven't. It's not exactly anything you want to think about in what's supposed to be a fun hobby. Fear should never enter any room filled with cards. But if you reflect for a moment, I'm sure you can think of the big fears that most collectors have, even if they exist only in the deep dark recesses of your brain. The two biggest ones I can think of are: losing your entire collection in a fire, or having no one to take on your collection after you die. Happy topic, right? But those terrible fears are too distant for me to keep me up at night. I operate on a more day-to-day level because it's more realistic. And for me, the greatest realistic collecting fear I have is that I will have some significant hole in an easy-to-complete set that I thought was completed ages ago. This is why it drives me crazy when I discover some card that I needed that I think I should have had already. Fo...

Not long into starting this blog I discovered that people have it together far more than I do. While I'm stumbling through life trying to figure out where I put my snowbrush, how I'm going to pay for any Christmas presents and why I forgot to get a haircut again, others already have the who, what, when, where, why and how marked, targeted and checked off. But I did do one thing right. I started a blog about baseball cards. Because of that, those very together people take time out at this time of year to send me Christmas card packages. I'm in awe of their planning. Christmas card packages mean I will get exactly what I want every Christmas. It balances out the socks and gloves. It adds fun to what can be a humdrum part of the holiday for an adult. It basically means better Christmas gifts than before I had a blog. How do I determine whether it's a Christmas package? Well, they wish me a Merry Christmas, duh. Some are especially together and send a holiday ...

I received some Dodger cards from Spiff of Texas Rangers Cards a couple of weeks ago. Spiff is one of the first bloggers I traded with after starting this blog, so it's always great to get some cards from him. And I hope I have some Rangers left to send him! Among the cards that jumped out at me were two original Donruss cards. Those cards from 1981 always take me back to the excitement and bewilderment of having three sets to chase instead of one. Of course, the lasting trademark of '81 Donruss is the card stock. It is shockingly thin. It is so thin that I barely thought of them as cards when I was collecting that year. I bought fewer Donruss packs than Topps and Fleer that year, and I know it is because of the card stock. I kept holding them up to the light to see if I could see through them. But aside from the card stock, I liked '81 Donruss. The design was basic but original and kind of fun. The photos weren't fantastic, but neither were Fleer's. Th...

I've been doing a lot of remembering and ranting lately. I think that's because I'm not buying any cards right now and that's about all I've got in the repertoire. I know that most of you come here to see cards though, and it's about time I show some. A number of people have sent me cards "just because" lately and that kind of behavior needs to be rewarded. So I'm going to take a leisurely stroll through some baseball cards because, after all, all anyone is doing today is sitting around by the grill, drinking beer and watching baseball, right? Nobody is actually WORKING today. "That night owl is so sour." Let's see some cards. The first assortment is from Spiff at Texas Rangers Cards . He was one of my first trades back when I was a wee little owl. I haven't heard from him in a bit so it was nice to see a package of Dodgers with his name on it. He sent it just because he was clearing out after the big move. Th...

Hey, don't complain. I could be tracking down an image of a bizarre Triple Threads card off of ebay and putting it up here. You don't want that do you? Mercy, those things are awful. I refuse to acknowledge something that craves our attention so desperately. Meanwhile, in my continuing pursuit of Topps Lineage '75 minis, some generous folks have checked the want list and gifted me with wonderful cards. Chris of Nachos Grande , Julie of Things Are Funner Here , Joe of The Sandlot and Spiff of Texas Rangers Cards have all sent Lineage minis recently. I'll show you the cards and you can guess who sent what. One person sent this card. It's very weird to see Morgan in a '75 design without the yellow-red All-Star border with the giant white star. One person set this card. Have you ever wondered what the 19th century Cleveland Spiders would look like on a '75 design? I know I have. Yours and my dream has finally come true. One person sent this card. ...

For the first time, I am showing more than one night card in one of these ANC posts. That may cause an issue if/when there is another night card tournament, but we can't worry our little heads about the future, can we? I recently received four more of the Stadium Lights insert cards from this year's Opening Day. These two came from Spiff of Texas Rangers Cards . These two came from J.T. at The Writer's Journey . I still think this is the best insert series in all of 2011. It beats the hell out of those Kimball Flimsies. I now have six of the 10 cards in the set. I'm missing #2 Troy "Can We Play the Mets All the Time" Tulowitzki, #3 Robinson "John Sterling Get Off the Radio" Cano, #6 Chase "I'm Going to Miss the Whole @##$&* Phillies Championship Season" Utley and #8 Adrian "I'm Not Really Wearing a Red Sox Uniform" Gonzalez. If you have any of those four, I'm interested. But know that it may take me a...