Night Owl Cards

   Car problems again, guys. Same car, too. This is the third time I've had my vehicle in the shop this year and the timing, while never good, sucks for the hobby side of things.   This weekend I was facing the exhausting-but-fun prospect of card shows on back-to-back days. But now the Sunday show is out because I don't have a vehicle to drive that distance. That leaves the local show, which I appreciate -- especially in times like this -- but it's not as good, not nearly.   To illustrate, I have some cards that I received from Jeff of Cardboard Catastrophes . I can safely say that I will find none of these cards at the show a couple miles away this weekend. In fact, all of these are from my want lists -- my blog want lists, which may or may not be accurate as we will soon see.         First, three 1970 Kellogg's cards. All three of these were needs, well, still are needs. The cracks mean they stay on the want list. I was going to compare this Bil...

  Yesterday I attended the big show at the state fairgrounds that goes off twice a year. The last time I was there was in September and I obtained the majority of cards from three dealers who are almost always there and almost always get the majority of my business.   I was so confident that they would be there this time that I didn't bother to update my blog want lists or to finally figure out how to access my TCDB want lists on my phone. I just took my hand-penned want list for 1969 Topps and 1979 Topps football and stuffed them in my pocket. If two of those dealers were there, then that would be sufficient.   Well, neither of the two were there. This was a crisis because they are there so often I automatically thought something was wrong. Then I realized just about all my vintage options were gone. The crumpled list in my pocket was useless.   It was time to regroup, though after I did, I walked the show with a lot more uneasiness than I usually do. Not only were...

 (Happy President's Day. No, I don't have this day off or the week off. I do have an extra day off thanks to the post office not delivering today. But that'll be Wednesday, not today. Wish me luck as I will have ventured out into 13-degree weather with the wind howling at 30 mph tonight. Time for Cardboard Appreciation! This is the 348th in a series):   I received this 1979 Hostess panel from Max of Starting Nine . Every time I land a Hostess panel the debate begins -- cut or leave intact!   Each item is a special case. I am collecting both panels and individual cards for all the '70s Hostess sets and sometimes the decisions are tough. So let's go through what we know:   1. You can see that the panel is scuffed and creased. This means almost nothing to me when it comes to Hostess cards. They practically came out of the package beat up (or more accurately "stained up"). This was long before every card had to be pristine and imprisoned. But it sometimes affe...

  Maybe it's the start of the year, but I feel the urge to leave the social media scene more and more. I don't consider blogging part of that. It's separate for me. But I deleted Twitter/X two months ago and I think Facebook will be coming next. I know a lot of folks deleted Facebook a long time ago, I get it. I've stayed because of connections to people who mean something to me in my life. But as some of them leave the app themselves, there's less there for me to see and the recent news that the site is about to enter an even wilder scene than it already has isn't encouraging me to stay (I have never relied on Facebook for news, I have a journalism degree for crying out loud).   I never joined Instagram or TikTok, so if/when Facebook leaves, all that will be left is Bluesky . (There's also Discord, but I'm not on that much).   For now, Bluesky is pretty delightful. Part of me expects it to go to pot eventually like it seems every social site does, but I...

  The National has come and gone for another year but my National is still in the works. Longtime readers know that I don't go to the National, I wrote a post about why last year . Though I'll never rule out going in the future, a card-carrying introvert like me won't regret it if he never attends.   But usually at this time, inspired by the pictures I see from the National, I acquire some cards of my own. I call it "My National".   I'm fortunate enough that I happen to have enough money to spend on cards right when the National is going on, usually birthday-related, but not always. This year I had some money from a Beckett Vintage article plus an unexpected reimbursement check  So I got to acquire cards without blowing cash on plane tickets, gas, tolls, parking, food, lodging and admission, too!    Now, "My National" didn't come without some annoyances, as well. There are still a few cards that haven't arrived due to constant ebay delays tha...

  I've already mentioned a couple times how April has been a pretty poor month for me buying cards in person. From missing three easily attended card shows to not coordinating my trips with the random hours of the card shop in town, April's been filled with blown opportunities. I'd say thank goodness the month is coming to an end, but I've been dreading Responsibilities May ever since the year started so I don't expect a lot of card goodness happening next month either.   Fortunately, other card collectors don't seem to be having the same problem. And, I'm rather humbled (and a bit sheepish) that they are remembering me in the process of finding cards that I should be finding.   The latest example is from Cardboard Catastrophes . Everything he sent in an envelope is exactly what I am hunting for when I'm actually getting myself to a show or shop. In other words: 1970s ODDBALLS!!!!   Crikey. This is what I need to be getting off my butt for -- Hostess car...