Night Owl Cards

    I don't think I need to tell you that I love lists. Half of my blog, probably, is some sort of list. I love making lists. I like compiling those lists into a series (a list of a list). I like organizing my cards according to lists.   I've been doing that since I was a relative tyke, sitting on the bedroom floor, laying out 10 cards (five on each row) in order of career batting order on the back, selecting the next card off the stack to my left, and then shifting the lined-up cards over one according to the new arrival's stats.   Lists are an easy way to make information digestible and entertaining. Creating lists enjoyed a big boost in popularity in the early 1980s, as there seemed to be new books every week about this list or that. Lists fell into overkill, especially since the advent of the internet and a whole bunch of fly-by-night websites that want clicks. But a well-maintained, thoughtful list is always interesting to me. I gravitate toward lists: Top sitco...

  I wrapped up the Dodgers team set for 1961 Nu-Card Baseball Scoops with the arrival last week of the Johnny Podres card.   There are 11 Dodgers-themed cards in the set, which is a lot for an 80-card set but not as much as the Yankees, who are featured 16 times. I acquired most of the cards from card shows, oddly enough -- they just don't seem appealing enough for collectors to have them on hand like some other sets from around the same time.   But I love them, for obvious reasons, and I made a renewed effort to finish off the set over the last month or so. Fortunately, the cards aren't particularly expensive. I guess you'll pay a bit for the big-time stars, but I was lucky enough to get the Jackie Robinson early (and if I had to guess I'm thinking someone sent it to me -- sorry no time to look through every blog post). The most I can recall paying recently is $12 for the Roy Campanella at the latest card show.   The '61 Baseball Scoops set is the second one from N...

    Although I recently lamented the former card bloggers who have disappeared from the virtual card world -- couldn't tell you what they're doing or even if they're alive -- there are still plenty of former bloggers that I see on other social media sites. That's one of the reasons I have not been solely a blogger since the rise of other social media forms.   While blogging is easily my preferred platform for cards, communicating with old blogging friends in more informal ways, whether Twitter or Blue Sky or wherever, is a bit easier, casual-like and a little more fun (sometimes). It's random card thoughts and and conversations in easy bites. Another plus -- trades spring out of nowhere. You start the day with no intention of exchanging cards and 20 minutes later I'm swapping cards.   Recently I sent a few current Tigers cards to ex-blogger/ex-twitterer Boobie Maine , who now is in the card (and music) conversation on Blue Sky. I know too many Tigers fans lately...

  I've been tired of the emphasis on the rookie card in Topps products for years. I don't know how many posts I've devoted to rookie-overkill, but it's certainly a running theme and I'm sure it's boring some readers to tears.   I do know that Topps, and the hobby, has been about rookies, and young players in general, for a long, long time. I'm thinking of the Sporting News Rookie Stars subset in 1959 Topps and similar themes that came after, followed by the multi-player rookie card themes throughout the 1960s, '70s and early '80s.   Then there are the rookie trophies and rookie cups, the All-Topps teams. Those have been around for quite awhile, since 1960!   But obviously the focus is on those youngsters even more these days and you could point to various moments all the way to the present in which Topps (or other card companies) ramped up that focus, through special subsets, inserts, autograph cards, short-prints, etc.   Today I'm pointing at 19...

  I finally received a sportlots order today. It's my second order of the year from the site and this time I went with the box shipment to save myself some money.   I was questioning myself for doing it while waiting because gosh does it take awhile. It was only a month, it turns out, but it certainly seemed longer. I know I've been through this before (and written about it) but the saving sometimes don't seem worth it during the wait.   I usually reserve sportlots orders for plugging a few team set needs or set needs in general, but not for super-vintage cards in most cases. Sportlots isn't great for knowing what the cards look like when you buy them (it seems to have cut back even more on the pictures in fact). So stuff like Kellogg's cards is out.   I don't know how much these arrivals will interest people but who cares? This blog thing is here for showing my cards, nobody else needs to like them but me.   Here we go, I mean, why all the 2021 Stadium Club Ch...