Terro and El Torro

I'm not a fan of ants.  About twenty-five years ago I had a really bad encounter with them.  It was back when I was working two jobs (teacher during the day, card shop employee at night).  After a long day at work, I came home and eventually settled into bed.

I had bought a bag of powdered sugar Hostess Donettes a day or two before... and was looking forward to eating a few before bedtime while watching whatever was on the boob tube.  The room was dimly lit.  The light from the television was bright enough for me to see the bag... but not bright enough for me to see the trail of ants going into the bag.

Anyways... long story short... I popped one into my mouth and quickly realized something was wrong.  I ran to my bathroom, turned on the light, and ants were everywhere: on my hand, on my face, and obviously in my mouth.  Now whenever I see them... I kill them instantly.

Last weekend... while scanning my newly acquired flea market finds... I started noticing one every couple of minutes.  I'd kill it.  Two minutes later another one would show up.  This went on for over an hour.  The next day... the same exact thing.

The last time I had a problem with ants, I bought some Terro liquid ant bait and it did the job.  I had some leftover, so I put one on my desk on Sunday night.  The next day, I came home from work, headed up to my office to work on some stacks of cards, and was greeted by thousands of ants.

I thought about busting out a can of Raid... but didn't want to damage any cards out on my desk.  Vacuuming them up was another possibility... but I wasn't sure if the bag would contain them.  The last thing I wanted was to just transport them to another room in my house.  Ultimately... I decided to go all-in and put out three more liquid ant baits and hope for the best.

As of this morning there's still a trail of ants.  However... it's smaller than yesterday and only a tenth of the size of Thursday's trail.  I'm not sure if that's because they've eaten most of the food or if the colony is slowly dying off.  Hopefully... the latter, because I'd like to get back to cleaning my desk, sorting some stacks, and scanning some cards.

Speaking of cards... on Wednesday I learned about Fernando Valenzuela passing away from a comment left on one of Night Owl's posts.  As I left in my comment, El Toro played a huge role in getting me into the hobby.

1981 Topps #302

The year Fernandomania was born... was the year I started opening up packs of baseball cards.  I don't remember if I pulled, traded for, or purchased his 1981 Topps rookie card, but I know that was the first card I owned of his.

1981 Fleer #140

Later that year, I added the 1981 Fleer rookie to my collection when my parents bought me the complete set on a trip up to Seattle.

Over the years, I have picked up a bunch of his cards.  I may not be a Dodgers fan, but I've rooted for plenty of their players.  Fernando is right up there with my favorites.  Here are a few of my favorite cards that I have sitting in my scan folder (sorry... due to the ant issue... I cannot scan any new cards right now):

2014 Five Star Autographs #FSA-FV

On-card, pack-pulled autographs are one of my favorite things to collect and some of the cleanest looking designs were the ones pulled from Five Star boxes in the mid 2010's.

Here's another certified auto of Fernando:

2005 Sweet Spot Classic Signatures #FV

This was his first pack-pulled autograph and one of the most common and available to collectors.

Let's switch gears and check out some oddball issues:

1988 Grenada Stamps 

1986 Topps Box Bottoms #P

1991 Fleer Box Bottoms

1981 Dodgers Police #34

1982 Dodgers Police #34

 Moving along... here are a pair of base cards I really like:

1983 Donruss #1

Not sure if Donruss or Dick Perez created the Diamond King checklist each year back in the 80's... but Fernando kinda got snubbed in 1982.  Glad he got to be card #1 in 1983.

1991 Upper Deck #175

One of my favorite base cards of Fernando is his 1991 Topps card, but I don't have it saved in my scan folder.  His 1991 Upper Deck is a fine surrogate.  Who doesn't enjoy Upper Deck multiple exposure cards?

And I'll wrap things up with this cool relic card:

2002 Stadium Club World Champions Relics #WC-FV

Down two games to the New York Yankees in the 1981 World Series, the Dodgers started Fernando in Game 3.  He went 0 for 4 at the plate that day... but pitched a complete game and got the Dodgers back into the series.

Unfortunately... if you look closely... Topps highlighted the 1988 World Series on this card.  The Dodgers won that series as well... but Fernando didn't pitch against the A's that postseason.

Well that wraps up today's post.  Let me know if you have any hints on getting rid of ants.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #165: Two Months & Four Trips Pt. 2

On Tuesday I kicked off my latest Flea Market Finds post.  That's where I explained how I'm a little bit behind in regards to blogging, so I ended up changing things up a little and consolidating four flea market trips into three posts utilizing a countdown format.

Here's a breakdown of these posts:

Part #1:  #22 to #14

Part #2:  #13 to #6

Part #3:  #5 to #1

Honestly... there weren't any mind-blowing purchases in Part #1.  However I document everything I pick up when I walk around the flea market... so it had to be included.  Hopefully you'll find some of the items in this post a little more interesting.  I know I did.

Here's the next tier of September and October's flea market finds...

#13:  Skateboarding CCG Cards  $5

Flea Market:  De Anza on September 7th

2011 Super Heat CCG Starter Boxes

This is one of those purchases that 99% of you won't care about... but I was very happy to find these boxes.

The cards were floating around in the boxes, but since they're CCG cards... they have rounded corners so minimal damage occurred.  As soon as I saw these three cards of Christian Hosoi, I asked the guy how much he wanted:

When I was a kid, I really, really wanted a Hosoi Hammerhead skateboard.  I thought he was the coolest skater at the time.  Unfortunately, they didn't have any of his decks in stock when I went to the skate shop, so I settled on this guy's board:

I didn't keep my original board from the 80's, but I still have the one I rode in the 90's somewhere in my garage.

By the way... I did end up eventually getting a Hammerhead.  Purchased it eight to ten years ago... and the ride is still as smooth as it was the day I built it.

#12:  Some Sticky MJ's  $5

Flea Market:  De Anza on October 5th

Cleo Michael Jordan Stickers

What can I say?  I like collecting Jordan stuff.

I can't find a copyright date... but back in 1991 this company released Michael Jordan Valentine's Day cards.  I'm guessing these were sold at around the same time.

#11:  Quarter Packs  $1

Flea Market:  De Anza on September 7th

Back in February, I bought a box of 1993 Upper Deck Series 2 at the De Anza Flea Market.  This guy was back and he had the same assortment of Junk Wax Era boxes.  I didn't buy any this time around, but I did pick up four of his quarter packs:

The pack of 1994 Upper Deck Baseball: The American Epic was the key to this purchase.  After some research, I discovered it contains the entire nine card set.  This will go into my unopened wax pack collection, but I hope to grab a cheap set off of eBay in the near future. 

As for the 1996 Pinnacle Denny's packs... If I don't already have one in the collection, I'll save one and open the other two at some point.

#10:  Vintage Playing Cards $6

Flea Market:  Branham on October 19th

1979 Army Aircraft Recognition Playing Cards

I got excited when I saw this deck on a lady's table.  She told me her father was in the Army and these belonged to him.  I was hoping to add another SR-71 card to my collection, but it wasn't included.

#9:  70's Non-Sport Stickers $2

Flea Market:  Branham on September 21st

Cheap vintage is always a flea market favorite of mine.  Found a sandwich bag filled with non-sports cards and stickers sitting on a lady's table.

As I flipped through it, she told me I could have the entire bag for $10.  Unfortunately I don't have a lot of use for Bingo! or early 90's Batman cards with dinged corners.  But I pulled out these four discolored stickers from the 70's :

1978 Langendorf Super Heroes Stickers #NNO

1974 Wonder Break Disney Stickers #NNO

I had never seen any of these before, but I figured her two dollar asking price was fair.  All four are browning and the two Superman stickers are crinkled.  But they're from the 70's and they've been stored in a sandwich bag, so you can't expect them to be gem mint.

#8:  A Vintage Board Game  $5

Flea Market:  Branham on October 19th

Parker Brothers The Mad Magazine Game (1979)

This board game always pops up at toy shows and flea markets... and I've definitely thought about purchasing it a few times over the years.  You see... Mad Magazine is just as nostalgic as baseball cards when it comes to my years in elementary school.

But ultimately... I don't have any room for stuff like this, so even if the price is right... I usually walk away.  This time I found a brand new copy (cellophane is starting to tear) for five bucks.  No way I was walking away from that.

#7:  The Sandlot Cards $3

Flea Market:  Branham on October 19th

There is enough interest in cards of The Sandlot cast that they seem to come out ever few years.  I've written about the ones included in specially marked Blu-Ray packages before.  Last weekend, I found a set I had never seen before:

1993 Fox Video The Sandlot Collector Cards

This six card set was part of an uncut sheet produced back in 1993.  I definitely want one of these for my collection, but there's no way I'm spending $90 on it.  I'll take the separated version for $87 less.

I know that there are at least one or two other bloggers who collect The Sandlot cards.  Hopefully we don't bid against each other the next time one of these sets pop up on eBay.

#6:  Another Board Game $10

Flea Market:  De Anza on October 5th

I met a couple who purchased a storage unit with a ton of board games.  Nachos Grande probably would have had a lot of fun digging through their boxes.  I'm always on the lookout for cheap board games for my board game club at school.

Unfortunately I didn't find anything for my students, but I did grab this game:

The box cover contains images of familiar faces and immediately caught my eye.  Inside there were a bunch of different player cards:

When I got home I took a closer look and scanned the Ozzie Smith card:

I was hoping there was a card of Rickey Henderson in the A's set, but there wasn't.  For those who want to see what the board looks like, here a peek:

Can't imagine I'll ever play this game, but if I do... it does appear to be complete.  I'd like to find a shelf to display it, but for now it'll join the Mad Magazine game in my office closet.

Well... that wraps up Part #2 of my September and October flea market finds.  I am super excited to show off my Top 5 pickups.  Four of them are nostalgic finds that tie directly into my childhood... while the other one was a hidden treasure worth some good money to a small group of card collectors.

I'm hoping to have that post up on the blog by next Tuesday.  Until then...

Happy Thursday and sayonara!