30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Flea Market Finds #4

When: Saturday, October 2nd
Where: De Anza Flea Market
What: 1999 SP Signature "Auto" Hines Ward & a bunch of sports figures
How Much: $45

Just as I was starting to clean my office and get rid of a bunch of 90's Starting Line-ups, today I picked up a huge lot for a price I just couldn't pass up. A vendor was selling all of his McFarlanes, bobble heads, and 2 pack SLU's for $2.50 each. In addition to that, he had a dollar bin that contained die-cast and dual mini McFarlanes. He had hundred of figures to choose from, but I focused on my PC and some Jeter collectibles for my buddy. So here's a breakdown of what I bought:


Eric Chavez McFarlane
Miguel Tejada McFarlane
Brett Favre McFarlane (x2)
Ichiro Suzuki McFarlane
Tim Hudson bobblehead
Barry Zito bobblehead
Derek Jeter bobblehead
Kobe Bryant bobblehead
Derek Jeter Fleer Die-cast PT Cruiser (x2)
Ken Griffey Jr. Fleer Die-cast PT Cruiser
Jeter/Zito dual-mini McFarlane (x2)
Maddux/Hudson dual Kenner SLU pack
Total Price for the lot: $30

If you don't see it in the picture, that's because I already popped them out of their package and put them on my sports wall.

Two vendors down, another guy was selling figures and he had a 1996 Kevin Garnett SLU (rookie piece) for $5, so I picked that up as well.

After dropping all of these off at my car, I went back to finish off the last two rows... and I'm glad I did. There was a older gentleman selling his collection of baseball and football cards for outrageous prices. I was interested in buying his 1990 Score Bo Jackson, you know... the black and white card and he wanted $2 for it. Then, I asked him about his 1991 Upper Deck Brett Favre rookie and he wanted $10 for that. I quickly realized that I wasn't going to find anything at a reasonable price, but I continued to flip through the last couple of pages in his binder.

And that's when I saw a 1999 SP Signature autograph of Hines Ward. I've been wanted a Ward autograph for awhile now, so I asked him "how much". When he replied $10 (the same price he wanted for the Favre rookie)... I jumped all over it. I guess sometimes it's worth it to be patient.

I'm still stoked that I was able to pick up an on-card autograph of the Pittsburgh Steelers all-time receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns leader.


Time for today's question of the day: Did you ever collect sports figures? If so, what kind? SLU's, McFarlanes, bobble heads, headliners, etc. Do you still have them? Did you ever open them up to display them?

Enjoy your weekend!

8 comments:

Captain Canuck said...

I collected mcfarlanes, mostly football, but any Brave I could find (all original packaging) but I stopped after he switched packaging.
I had a couple of mini's opened on my desk at work..

and I have three bobbleheads of Adam LaRoche. I hope to find more if they're out there....

(...Joe) said...

I thought about it for a while, but decided against doing any figures or bobbleheads. The main issue came down to where I would put them and how much it would cut into the card budget.

The Ranter said...

I have never collected figurines. Cards are my thing, bobble-heads aren't, I guess.

Charles @ Hoopography said...

First off, awesome Ward auto. I didn't know you were a Steelers fan. Ward does have a nice signature tho.

I was really int Starting Lineups back in the day. I have a complete '94 and '95 basketball set along with a partial '96 set. I also have the Dream Team 1 set and Dream Team 2 sets.

I would love to work on the Red and White Slam Dunk set I believe from '88.

I'm not into figures as much any more. Many because I already collect a ton of cards, posters and kicks.

Anonymous said...

I had a few McFarlane Cardinals figures that were being stored at my parents house when I was in the Marine Corps. They ended up being destroyed in a house fire. Thankfully no one was home when the fire happened.

What flea market are you going to? I've got to come out to the Bay area and hit up these fleas. Sounds like there's a ton of sports memorabilia at these places. I went to 3 yard sales and a flea market today and no one had anything remotely close to sports memorabilia.

SpastikMooss said...

I had about 8 SLU's as a kid, but I definitely didn't collect them. I did collect Headliners though, and have almost a full set of baseball, football, and basketball at home. We played games with them and stuff so a lot of them are well worn now (especially like Jerome Bettis and Ricky Watters, 2 of my faves back then). But I still like them.

AdamE said...

I have a bunch of Marino SLUs in a box from when I collected him. Now I just wish I could find someone that wanted them.

I think I have a few more also. A Randy Moss Rooke and a few others.

I NEVER took any out of pakages though.

Fuji said...

Captain Canuck - I wish shipping was more reasonable on these figures, because this guy had several Braves figures for $2.50 each.

(...Joe) - I just figured out that storage is a big problem ;-(

The Ranter - You're smart... I wish I could just focus on one thing... My ADD prevents that ;-)

Charles - I'm not a Steelers fan... but I've always liked Ward. Are you going to show off your SLU sets on your blog? I'd love to check them out.

82redbirds - I'm sorry to hear about the house fire. That must have been very difficult to deal with. Like I said with Captain Canuck... I wish shipping was more reasonable on these figures, b/c he had a ton of baseball figures. In fact, he said he's going to be out there next month again at the De Anza Flea Market (in Cupertino).

SpastikMooss - I have a few headliners myself... off the top of my head, I know I have a couple of Rodmans w/ different colored hair and a Favre

AdamE - If you're looking to get rid of them... I found the easiest way is Craigslist or the flea market to avoid crazy shipping charges