Night Owl Cards

As you may have gathered over the last three-plus years, I have very particular tastes. There are things I like and things I don't and the smallest detail can sway something from one category to another. This is especially true with people ... er, cards. Sometimes I can't even explain it. For example, the 1963 Topps set, and now, the 2012 Topps Heritage set. The '63 set is widely known as being colorful with a breakthrough design -- two aspects about card designs that I love. It is appreciated by many collectors and some consider it a favorite of Topps' sets of the '60s. It should be a favorite of mine, too, considering my love for super-colorful sets like 1972 and 1975 Topps. But it isn't. Part of it is I'm just not a fan of the look of early '60s cards and early '60s design in general. The colors, the fonts are off-putting for some reason. I don't know why. That's for another post. As Topps progressed through the '60s, I be...

Obak is a card set that I should like. It's a tribute to an old, old vintage set. It's filled with baseball history. These are all good things. But I just can't get behind it. I think the major reason is the look of the set. Some of those old-timey sets were ugly in a primitive sort of way. Primitive is cool sometimes. Other times it's just plain primitive. I like my sets to pretty themselves up a little bit. The other reason is there just doesn't seem to be a lot of Dodger connections in Obak. I've seen a couple. But mostly what I've seen are Braves and Cal Ripken. Jason Heyward seems to be in every pack. I'm not going to collect a set that's full of Braves. Why would I do that? Still, I finally decided to nab a single pack of Obak the other day just to see what it was all about and to test my theory that there was a Heyward in every pack. Here it is: Ban Johnson. He founded the American League as a "clean" alternative to the...