Is Bigger Better?

I guess it depends on what we're talking about... and our personal preferences.  In regards to trading cards... I appreciate them in all shapes and sizes.

Let's start off with this small tobacco card I recently purchased for my Japan PC:

1887 N9 Allen & Ginter Flags of All Nations #NNO

This one hundred thirty-eight year old trading card has been on my radar for a few years, but I didn't start targeting it on eBay until a year or two ago.  I have seen a few with pretty high BIN prices, but recently one popped up in an auction.

I set an alarm on my phone (the auction was ending towards the end of my 6th period) and quickly entered a bid with about 10 seconds remaining.  A couple of hours later, I checked and discovered I won.

This card might be small in size... but it's a pretty huge addition to my collection.

Next up are a few oversized cards that John over at Johnny's Trading Spot sent me back in early May...

1995 Bowman's Best Jumbo Refractor #89

This shiny Nomo measures 4" x 6" and is part of a ten card set that were individually inserted into specially marked Treat packages.  John sent me the Gwynn earlier in the year... and I'm currently sitting on half of the set.

Next up is this 5" x 7" Jose Canseco:

1993 Stadium Club Master Photo #NNO

There are three different versions of this card.  One is a standard sized redemption card that was inserted into packs.  Topps also produced a 5" x 7" version for their Member's Only sets.  This one is the third version which were distributed two different ways: part of the redemption program or as a box topper.

Topps also produced oversized Master Photo cards for their Dome and Toys R Us factory sets that featured slightly different designs and photos..

The bulk of John's care package were hundreds of Tony Gwynn cards that are in the process of being sorted and integrated into my binders.  I'll show a few of these off in a future post.

In the meantime... there were two 3.5" x 5" cards that stood out from the rest:

1985 Donruss Action All-Stars #19

From 1983 to 1987 Donruss produced these oversized All-Star cards as a separate (oddball) issue.  1985 was Gwynn's first appearance.

The other Gwynn he sent me is the same size (3.5" x 5"), but was distributed as a box topper in hobby boxes of 1994 Donruss baseball:

1994 Donruss Dominators #1

This card celebrates Gwynn for having the highest batting average in the 90's (from 1990 to 1993) and was serial numbered to 10,000:

According to Statmuse, Gwynn held onto that title:

Can you guess who was #2 on the list?  Click the link to find out.  I never would have guessed that player.

Well there you have it.  Five trading cards.  One small.  Four big.  All of them are pretty darn cool as long as you don't get flustered by storing non-standard sized cards.

Feel free to leave your thoughts on small and big cards down below.  I look forward to reading and responding to them.

Until then... thank you John for another generous care package filled with cool stuff for my collection.

Happy Monday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

I wish I would have opened John's care package a little sooner, because he sent me a bunch of Star Wars figures that would have been perfect for my May the 4th post:

It's kind of hard to see from this angle, but you're looking at an army of 2005 Star Wars Attacktix figures.  If you're not familiar with these, they were part of an action figure game with the goal of knocking over your opponent's figures.

Here's a closer look at some of my favorite figures:

These figures were sold in booster and starter packs.  I bought a bunch, but don't think I ever actually played the game.  I'll probably add most of these to my Star Wars shelf in my classroom.  However the next figures will be kept in my personal collection at home:

1977 Kenner Princess Leia

1980 Kenner Lando Calrissian

1980 Kenner Lobot

1980 Kenner IG-88

1983 Kenner Klaatu

The goal is to one day have a vintage Star Wars display like John's.  I do have three shelves in my office dedicated to my Star Wars collection, but one is for my 90's and 2000's action figures.  Another has my collection of 1990's Action Fleet ships.  And the final one has a few of my Star Wars Lego sets.  But one day... I'll have enough vintage figures to fill a shelf in my office.  The bigger... the better.

Flea Market Finds #174b: Best Haul of the Year?

Tuesday's post was the appetizer.  Today's is the main course.

It covers the purchase of a pretty cool set, a super cool and hard to find set, and some items that take me back to my Little League days.

Considering that the next Branham Flea Market is only two days away... and these purchases were made almost five weeks ago... this post is long overdue.  Let's get into it...

Purchase #1: The Pretty Cool Set  $15 

Remember the guy who sold me the Sears football posters and the 1976 Laughlin Diamond Jubilee set?  He was back and I was very happy to see him.

The first set to catch my eye on his table was this 1978 Olde Cards Halsey Hall Recalls baseball set:

1978 Olde Cards Halsey Hall Recalls #20 Set

I had seen singles from this set before, but had no idea what they were.

1978 Olde Cards Halsey Hall Recalls #20

But with guys like Roy Campanella, Willie Mays and Ted Williams on the checklist... I was interested in it.

1978 Olde Cards Halsey Hall Recalls #21

A quick glance at the back dated it back to the 70's which intrigued me more.  When you factor in the $15 price tag, there was no way I could pass up this set.

But this purchase could have been part of the "appetizer" post, because it's the next two items that I'm mostly excited about.

Purchase #2:  The Super Cool Set  $10

1974 Laughlin Old Time Black Stars Set

The first time I met this vendor, I saw this set on his table.  However the price he quoted me (maybe $50) was a little high for a set I wasn't familiar with.

1974 Laughlin Old Time Black Stars #8

But I couldn't get the image of the Josh Gibson out of my head.  I was thinking how cool it would be to own this card.  Unfortunately the vendor didn't have the set with him the following month.

1974 Laughlin Old Time Black Stars #15

This time around he did and it was much more affordable.  He told me since I was a frequent buyer, I could have it for $10.  At the time I though it was a pretty cool deal.  It wasn't until I got home and started researching this set that I discovered its true value.  Let's just say this might just be my best flea market find of all-time in terms of monetary value.

But this isn't even the coolest purchase of the day...

Purchase #3:  7-11 Slurpee Cups  $8

If you grew up in the 80's and enjoyed 7-11 Slurpees... you know exactly what these cups are.

The best part wasn't even the Slurpee.  When you were finished drinking it, you would turn the cup over and see a false bottom.

 

The false bottom could be removed to reveal one 7-11 Slurpee Disc.  I ended up purchasing over seventy cups (about 30 football and 40 baseball) that contained these discs:

Now unlike the Laughlin set, these don't hold much monetary value.  However they hold a ton of nostalgic value to me.

Back in the 80's, I would ride my bike to 7-ll after baseball practice to grab a Slurpee.  They didn't always have these special cups, but every now and then they would.

Back then Rickey Henderson was my favorite player... and I would have been stoked to pull him from the bottom of a cup:

1984 7-11 Super Star Sports Coins (West Region) #XXI

Forty-one years later, I got the opportunity to experienced that... and it was awesome.

One of my favorite flea market hauls in a long time.  Hope you enjoyed it as much as I have.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #174a: A Solid Appetizer

The end of the school year might have been a little busy and stressful, but I try my hardest to set aside the first and third Saturdays of the month for flea markets.  This post is going to focus on half of my purchases made back on May 17th at the Branham High School Flea Market.

That day I spent the majority of my time with one vendor and everything I'm about to show off came from him.  It was the first time I had seen him out there and the first thing I stumbled across was a box of one dollar items.

Purchase #1:  Playing Cards  $5

My friends and I run a board game club at school, so these decks of cards will be added to our collection of games.

Right next to the dollar box were three boxes filled with two dollar items.  There were a bunch of sealed action figures, Funko Pops, and other miscellaneous toys with beat up packaging.  Imagine the toy section at Ross or Marshalls.

Purchase #2:  Stranger Things Comic & Figures  $2

McFarlane Toys Page Punchers Stranger Things

I had never seen these before, but I'm a big fan of the Stranger Things franchise.  The main thing I wanted was the comic and the packaging was in poor condition, so I opened it up.

The item is meant to be displayed:

I don't have the space for that, so I tossed the comic into my collection and gave the figurines to my co-worker's son.

Purchase #3:  Graphic Novel  $2

Batman The Killing Joke Hardcover

I bought a 1st printing copy back in 2013.  But since it's kind of a valuable book... I never opened it.  This copy is a hard cover and it's not in the best condition, so now I'm going to read it.

The vendor also had some boxes of cards.  One of them was a monster box full of relics, autographs, and numbered cards for two bucks each.  I stood there and flipped through every card.

Purchase #4:  An Encapsulated Card  $2

2024 Wild Card Decades Preview National Exclusive

21st Century Green Rainbow Foil #2D3-F3 (#'d 3/10)

I put together a stack of eight or nine cards... hoping he'd take off a buck or two.

He didn't... so I just grabbed this card of Jean Grey.

By the time I was finished with the two dollar box, the guy looking through the three for a buck boxes was finished.  I spent the next thirty minutes digging through them.

Purchase #5:  Three Cards for a Buck  $20

The boxes were filled a lot of sleeved rookie cards and parallels.  That was the bulk of my purchase:

But I also found some interesting non-sports singles:

Not sure if they're worth 33¢ each, but I don't come across Japanese Star Wars or Steve-O cards very often.

I also picked up this run of Jordans from the 1992 Skybox USA set.  What can I say?  I like junk wax Jordans.

The final purchase from this vendor is by far my favorite...


Purchase #6:  Box Bottoms  $3

While digging through the card boxes, I noticed he had some empty boxes under his table.  Inside were three empty 2014 Panini Golden Age boxes with three card panel box panels:

I opened up three boxes of this product myself back in 2019.  I'm hoping I saved these panels, because I'd love to build both panel sets (red and black).

Well that wraps up the first half of my Branham High School Flea Market finds.  I titled this the appetizer, because the next post contains one of my favorite finds of all-time. 

Until then...

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!