Night Owl Cards

  Greetings, my lovely readers.   There is one thing I love to do most when collecting cards. I think you know what that is.   I love to complete sets.   It's not easy to do and it's getting more difficult. But that's OK, I've completed plenty in my time. Even if I never completed another, I'd always have the dozens and dozens perfectly finished sets to view at my leisure.   Still, I press on.   Just yesterday I completed one. It was pretty easy. I finished 1989 Score.   It took not even a couple of months once I received a pile of them from Bru . And then the final handful showed up this week.    First, these three cards from Detroit Tigers Cards and Stuff . Ol' Boobie Maine happened to open a box of '89 Score at the same time I was trying to complete it! I guess that's not all that coincidental. Even 37 years later there's probably someone opening a box of the stuff almost every day.   The Brian Harper was the gremlin in the set that s...

    In one day, I will be on a long-awaited vacation.   It's my first vacation since Thanksgiving -- and, yes, I know that's a cue for someone to say they haven't had a vacation in 20 years -- but it seems like a long time to me. Also, this vacation actually ushers in "The Vacation Season," which lasts until the sad, sad final moments of August.   During work week-after-work week I think about the things I'll do on vacation and plot out strategies. These usually have to do with the hobby, but also mundane things like shopping for clothes and visiting that flea market I keep forgetting about. It's amazing what gets lost in the rubble of having a job.   Because it's just one week off -- and some of that involves family obligations -- I won't get to everything. But here are some of the things I hope to get to:   1. Send out those Dodger packages   I've promised mailings of extra Dodgers for several folks. I sent out two earlier this week and I kno...

  I'm not sure how coherent this post will be. I'm writing it while also trying to write a story for work on my day off, while on virtually no sleep, while being informed my car is dead for good, while it's 86 degrees inside . But I must show off the greatest miscut card I've ever seen in person before life finally finishes me off.   Here: This is a Dodgers card, no? This piece of cultural significance arrived from Corey, that well-known Tim Wallach collecto r . I don't know where he found it. It is such a perfect miscut card in every way -- notable '70s cult figure, Dodgers team name firmly intact, Mr. Gamble's photo entirely intact. You know this is going in my Dodgers binders, right? It's proof that Gamble played for the Dodgers. The back harbors goodness as well. You get all of Gamble's statistical history along with the beginnings of a second cartoon at the bottom. That's the comic for the Dodger who shares the card with Gamble. And I'd ...

I kind of forgot about the eclipse today. I know that's difficult to do with it being mentioned every 20 seconds. But I was offline for the first half of the day. While running a few errands I started noticing people randomly congregating on the street. One young woman started to put a box over her head -- "what the heck?" I thought as I drove past. And then I remembered, "oh, yeah, the eclipse! That's why I'm seeing people actually venturing outside! Here in the Northeast it didn't get dark. I'd call it "slightly overcast." While someone I know in Idaho was throwing an eclipse party, it was just another hazy day in upstate New York. But the occasion does give me a chance to relive that dark period in my collecting career. Those of you who have read this blog for awhile know that my collecting "dark period" ranged from 1994 to 2005. But just like the eclipse, it wasn't pitch black all those years. I collected a little ...

You guys, I've spent a good portion of today watching people open 2017 Topps. I expect that tomorrow the entire day will be covered in people opening 2017 Topps. Today's experience was kind of exciting and kind of disappointing (this year's design looks even more underwhelming now that cards are coming out of packs). But it will be enough to get me to check out Walmart in the wee hours of the morning after work to see if any 2017 has arrived here. I fully expect that some 2017 Topps will show up on the blogs before this night is over as well, all contributing to the general buzz that I'm feeling right now. And it's not going to go away until I can get a few packs of current product in my hands. This could go on for days. Multiple trips to big box stores. Clipped conversations about topics that suddenly mean nothing to me. Shirking of responsibilities and daydreaming at the office. My focus isn't all that great on this blog either, but I'm getting it...