Who needs the Flippin' National?

When there's the Capitol Flea Market less than 10 miles from my doorstep.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to make it out to the flea market this weekend.  But that's okay.  I still need to write about last weekend's card purchases.

There's a lot to share, so let's get going...

Purchase #1:  Ten Cent Treasures $20

There were several guys out there with sports cards, but only two had cardboard I was actually interested in.  One of them had some of the best dime boxes I have ever sifted through.  In fact... had it been a little cooler and my legs were a little less wobbly... I might have stood there sifting through his stuff another hour or so.

Let's kick things off with the card that caught my attention...

1962 Post #6

This card is a little larger than your standard trading card and was sitting on top of the gentleman's 5000ct. box.  I've always been a fan of vintage Post trading cards, so I picked it up and asked how much he wanted for it.  He mentioned that everything in the box was 25¢ each.  I turned around and told him I'd take it.  After sifting through about half of a row, I already had a stack of about 20 cards, so I asked if he'd give me a bulk discount.  He responded with "take as much as you want for 10¢ each".

Those were the magic words.  I walked away with over 200.  Fifty to sixty were vintage Topps' cards from the mid 60's to the late 70's.  Most of those were hall of famers and fan favorites.  Obviously none of them were Mickey Mantle rookie cards and most were in pretty poor condition.  But what do you expect?  They're in a guy's quarter bin.

One of my favorite cards is this combo card that features two hall of famers and a World War II veteran who earned two Purple Hearts fighting for our country...

1967 Topps #1

While I'm on the topic of cards featuring multiple players, I picked up a handful of cool league leaders cards.  Here are my two favorites:

And how often do you find a vintage rookie card of a hall of famer for a quarter?  Wait.  I mean a dime:

1966 Topps #254

The oldest card I found was this 1958 Topps Bob Turley:

1958 Topps #255

I recognized his name, but didn't realize he won the Cy Young and World Series MVP Awards that season.  If I'm not mistaken... this card is my very first '58 Topps baseball card.  Well... at the very least... it's the first to be featured in my vintage binder.

Here are a handful of other vintage goodies I added to my binder...

In addition to vintage cards, there were a bunch of cool baseball inserts and oddballs too...

Plus some vintage football...

In fact, there was a little bit of everything.  I found basketball inserts, football rookie cards, baseball parallels, and even this very cool reprint of Wayne Gretzky's 1979/80 OPC rookie card:

However since I went back into the classroom this week... I just didn't have enough time to scan and crop everything.  Hopefully you were able to get the gist of my greatest dime box experience.


Purchase #2:  Fifty Cent Finds $10

The same vendor also had a small shoebox filled with autographs and jersey cards.  He wanted a buck a piece, but told me that I could have anything I wanted for fifty cents since I spent twenty bucks with him.

I probably should have purchased the whole box, but another guy was patiently waiting for me to finish and I didn't want to be rude.

Most of the box was filled with basketball and football, but I did manage to grab these two Molinas...

Like the Turley... I'm pretty sure these are the first Yadi memorabilia cards in my collection.

My favorite card in the box was this rookie card of Larry Fitzgerald that features the signature of Coach Green:

2004 Fleer Authentix #138

For those who don't remember Dennis Green, maybe this will refresh your memory...

Another cool card was this autographed memorabilia card of Vincent Jackson that's numbered out of 10:

2010 Classics Sunday's Best Prime Autographs #11

Here are a few other gems I found in the fifty cent bin...

After I tallied everything up... I pulled twenty-two cards from the box, but he was nice enough to charge me for only twenty.

By the way... this is the same vendor who sold me the 1989 Upper Deck factory set for $10.

Hopefully he sets up again in the near future.  I had a lot of fun digging through his stuff.

After spending over an hour at this guy's booth, I was exhausted and tried to jam through the rest of the market.  But the Flea Market Gods weren't having any of that.  They tossed everything from bobble heads and an autographed football in my path.

Click here to see the rest of my flea market finds from that weekend.

Purchase #3:  Two More Autographs $8

Towards the end of the flea market, I met a vendor who had just purchased a card collection from another vendor.  He had a bunch of really nice high end stuff, but by this juncture, I had already spent way more money than I had intended and wasn't really interested.

However, there were two lower end cards I was interested in...

2004 Topps Originals #JA3

I have been looking for an affordable on-card autograph of Jim Abbott for my collection and 2004 Topps Originals are one of my favorite buy back autographs issues of all-time.  Five bucks seemed like a fair price.

2003 Studio Private Signings #179

You know I'm not a fan of sticker 'graphs... but my San Diego Padres PC didn't have an autograph of The Flyin' Hawaiian, so I set it aside.  The vendor wanted five bucks for this card too, so I offered him eight bucks for the pair and he accepted.

That weekend, I almost dropped $75.  Can't remember the last time that happened.  It was a great way to wrap up my summer vacation.

I'll still be heading out to Capitol every now and then, but now that I'm back in school... my priorities have shifted.

One priority that hasn't wavered is building everyone's packages.  I bet you thought I forgot about them.  Don't worry... I haven't.  I just had my final COMC package shipped last week.  As soon as it arrives, I can stuff them into envelopes and ship them on out.

Have a great week everyone.  Happy Monday and sayonara!