Flea Market Finds #38: Phil's Brother & The Ross-less Supremes

Sometimes you have to strike out a few times before you finally make solid contact.  That's how you can summarize my last few trips to the flea market.

Two weekends ago, I walked around the Capitol Flea Market but walked away completely empty handed.  They didn't even have my strawberry aqua fresca.  There were less vendors set up than your average Sunday, most likely due to it being Mother's Day and all.

So to make up for it, I headed out to Capitol this past Saturday and struck out again.  But it's my fault.  I should have remembered that Saturdays are pretty bad at this particular flea market.  In fact, it was so bad I almost didn't go on Sunday.

But I'm glad I did.

When:  Sunday, May 19th
Where:  Capitol Flea Market
What:  Autographs and Ticket Stubs
How Much?:  $11

Now I don't want to give you the wrong impression.  I didn't find an autographed Babe Ruth baseball, a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, or anything epic like that.  I just found some cool additions to my collection without breaking the bank.

Purchase #1:  Joe Niekro Autographed Baseball $3

Joe Niekro had a solid twenty-two year career in the MLB, where he won 221 games and struck out 1,747 batters.  But to some fans, he'll always be remembered for the emery board incident that took place on August 3rd, 1987:

He argued that as a knuckleballer, he only used the emery board to keep his nails short.  Epic excuse, right?

That's why I was pretty excited about adding this ball to my collection.  The price was definitely right.  I was prepared to pay up to $15 for the Tri-Star authenticated ball, but was pleasantly surprised to hear the lady's asking price of $3.

It's hard to believe that it's been seven years since Niekro suffered from a brain aneurysm and passed away at the age of sixty-one.  Thankfully, his knuckleball lives on through Chelsea Baker, but I'll let the video do the explaining:

Pretty cool, right?  It'll be interesting to see if she can continue her success on the diamond into high school.

Purchase #2:  The Supremes Autographed 8x10 $3

During the 60's, The Supremes were one of America's hottest groups.  They had twelve #1 singles from 1964 to 1969 when they were led by the legendary Diana Ross, who was one of their founding members.

Unfortunately, Ross didn't sign my photo.  However it does contain Mary Wilson's autograph, along with the signatures of Cindy Birdsong and Scherrie Payne.  From what I can gather, this trio represented the group from 1975 to 1976.

Purchase #3:  1989 World Series Tickets $5

I've been wanting to add some of the Battle of the Bay World Series tickets to my collection for awhile now.  Unfortunately, these go for a decent dime on eBay.

I'm glad I was patient, because I practically stole these from a vendor when he sold me the five ticket lot for five bucks.  Ironically, I saw these the previous weekend and passed on them, because he was asking $10 per ticket.

When I saw that he still had the tickets, I asked him about them again.  This time he told me he wanted $15 for the whole stack (he had a stack of 15 to 20 mixed tickets from Bay Area franchises).  Most of the other tickets were old 49ers ticket stubs that I don't really have a use for, so I told him I was only interested in these five.  I was totally shocked when he gave me his price.

I wanted to ask him why he went from $10 per ticket to $1 per ticket in the span of seven days, but I didn't want to risk ruining the deal.  Whatever the reason, I appreciate his price reduction.

I hope all of you had a great weekend.  Happy Monday and sayonara!