30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Flea Market Finds #49: Donnie Baseball & Some Sharks

When:  Sunday, November 17th
Where: Capitol Flea Market
What:  A Baseball Card Set,  Soccer Bobble, and a Hockey Photo Collection
How Much?:  $43


Purchase #1:  1984 Donruss Baseball Card Set $12


Remember the guy who sold me the Maravich rookie card?  He was back.  This time he had a bunch of sports card binders.  I immediately recognized the Diamond Kings on top and was interested in the partial set.

He wanted $20, but since there were missing cards (figured the Mattingly was gone)... I offered him $10.  After going back and forth, we settled on $12.  Later when I got home, I noticed that Donnie Baseball and all of the other key cards were there in the binder.

Another day... another project.  I'll save it for a separate post.


Purchase #2:  2012 Ramiro Corrales Bobblehead $1


I've have been slowly building up my San Jose shelf with Sabrecats, Spartans, and of course Earthquakes.  This was pretty much a no brainer.  I'll pick up a bobblehead of just about anyone when they're a buck.


Purchase #3:  San Jose Sharks Photo Insert Collection $30


The rest of the flea market didn't have much to offer, so I headed back to the guy with the baseball card binders.  He had just put out a collection of Sharks photo inserts.  I'm not sure if they do this anymore, but back in the 90's the team would create an 8.5" x 11" photo that they would insert into the game programs.  There was a different player photo for each home game.

This collection featured players from 93/94 to 98/99.  The previous owner must have been a season ticket holder, because there was a complete 93/94 set, while the other years had anywhere from 20 to 38 inserts.

Originally, I mainly purchased the collection for the autographs:


But now I'm debating on whether or not I should try to track down the missing photo inserts.  It would definitely be a challenge since I don't come across these on a daily basis.

It probably seems like I overpaid for this collection, but there were over thirty autographs and close to 175 different photos, plus 50 to 75 duplicates.  I'll be setting up at the flea market in December and will probably take the extras out there and attempt to recoup my money.

Well... it's the first day of parent/teacher conferences.  Assuming this post is published at the scheduled time, I should be sitting down with some of my colleagues, my student, and their parent(s).

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

12 comments:

Mariner1 said...

I remember getting a few of those photo inserts when I would make the rare trip down to SJ to take in a game. I really need to get back down for another game someday. Color me extremely jealous you found those.

Play at the Plate said...

My wife suggested we go to a huge flea market here in the Dallas area early next month. She has no idea what I'll be looking for!

Reds Card Collector said...

$12 for a mostly complete 1984 Donruss set with Mattingly....that's UNPOSSIBLE!

Fuji said...

I haven't bought a program from the games I've attended recently... I'm wondering if they still hand them out. Either way... they're pretty cool and now I have a challenging project.

Fuji said...

You might want to warn her ahead of time... so she's prepared to help you carry all of that cardboard out of there.

Fuji said...

Yeah... I was pretty happy. At the time I thought I was getting the set without any of the key cards and I was still excited about the purchase.

cynicalbuddha said...

Nice pick ups. You got a great deal on the 84 donruss with donnie in it for sure. I just picked up an 87 set with the 3 key missing, but I only paid $2 for it. And I'd say you did pretty good on the Sharks Inserts. A buck an auto!! And over 250 photos!! I think you can make some of that up no doubt.

Pro Set Cards said...

Amazing pick-ups! Love the autographs and the true gems are the Larionov and Makarov autos.

Ana Lu said...

Those Diamond Kings are from each year? So agter all only the Mattingly got away by 12$!?

Fuji said...

Yeah... I'll take them out to the flea market in a few weeks and see if I can make up some of the cost. Nice price for the 87 Donruss set.

Fuji said...

Yeah... glad to see another collector out there who appreciates those two guys. They (along with the Irbe) were the key cards in the purchase for me.

Fuji said...

Diamond Kings were a subset for many years during the 80's... and into the early 90's.