Night Owl Cards

  I know I have a lot of Dodgers cards. The counter is right there on the sidebar. It went over 24,000 a couple of weeks ago. I don't know what the total is when I throw in dupes, more than twice that I guess. This is why I am hesitant to enter group breaks or similar offers that involve distributing cards by teams. The cards better be the latest because it doesn't matter where your group break lands in terms of decade, chances are I'm going to have the Dodgers (What I need is a group break of 1930s cards). But when Death Stare Cards announced a team-focused group break involving a lot of almost 2,000 insert cards he had acquired, this seemed to be the perfect fail-safe plan. I may have a lot of Dodgers cards, but inserts are always pesky to acquire. It seems like two-thirds of my want list is insert cards.   I signed up quickly. For 15 bucks, it was a steal. I received my cards not too long ago. There were 113 glorious inserts in the stack.   I needed 12.   Good gr...

I sent my first shipment of cards to Commons 4 Kids today. It was great big ol' box, packaged in the wrong way because you know the post office and its Rules. The box was full of Dodger dupes (trust me, fellow Dodger traders, you have all of these cards already). It felt good to get a bunch of extra cards out of the way that were just sitting there unwanted. But it's a never-ending battle, as you know, because, good gosh, it seems like Topps' collation is worse than ever. I have bought one blaster, one hanger box, two fat packs and one loose pack of 2017 Topps. That comes out to 217 base cards (That may not add up correctly, a few cards are parceled out for trade packages). Out of those 217 cards, 77 of them are dupes. That's almost 36 percent! That seems like a lot, doesn't it? I know it's a small sample size, but, damn, if I was trying to complete this set, that would be deflating. Better order your hobby box and forget about the card aisle. Also, out...

When The Lost Collector sent out his package a couple of weeks ago, he added this Hideo Nomo insert with a note attached that said it was one of his favorite inserts of the '90s. High praise, yes. And it made me think about what my favorite Nomo inserts were -- because I must focus on Nomo, none of this inclusive stuff. As I was formulating a post plan, my friend Greg from Twitter mentioned that one day I should do a post on the best Mike Piazza inserts from the late '90s. "Hmmm," I said. "I'm already thinking about doing a similar post for one of his teammates." That was two signs now that this apparently was meant to happen. Today, it's Hideo Nomo's birthday. So now I have to write a post about my favorite Nomo inserts. Everything is pointing me in that direction. Nomo is a special figure in the hobby. Not only did he become an international sensation at the same time the hobby was exploding with variety, but the man basically inv...

1998 was filled with baseball, but it didn't mean a lot to me. Sure, I watched the home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. But I felt more detached from baseball than I had ever been. In March, my daughter was born and the first thing I think of when "1998" is mentioned is her. She had a way of pushing everything else that I thought was important aside. I ignored old standbys of tracking time, such as sports and music, for the first time since I was in grade school. Hobbies and pastimes didn't exist anymore. The year was spent tending to human basics, feeding, bathing, sleeping, cleaning -- trying to keep everyone happy, basically, and not just the baby. On top of that, I was learning a new and complicated job. And an ice storm uprooted the family and our life for nearly a month. Baseball cards? Ha. Barely a thought. But, apparently for everyone else on the internet, 1998 rained down a bounty of cardboard on collectors. The most amazing cards an...

It's the end of March. Every year at this time I look around, do a quick inventory, check myself in the mirror, and celebrate that, yes, I am still alive. The month didn't kill me. This year I had resolved at the start of the month that I would not let it get to me. And then a different firecracker went off in my face for the next 31 days. But that's over now. Here we are -- as this fiendish month draws its final breaths -- still going. I recognize that fact each year by acquiring a few celebratory cards. Just a few, because who has time to scope out a palette of cards in March ? The cards arrived the other day and you'll see them in several different posts, but right now I want to show the ones that most make me smile. Because March is dying, dammit, and I'm ready to smile. I decided to make an effort in my quest to complete the 2001 Upper Deck Decade '70s set. But except for the above absolutely amazing Dennis Eckersley card, I didn't end up pic...