Flea Market Finds #106: Dime Box Singles and Die Cast

These days... my weekend ventures to the local flea markets are more about getting my daily steps in... rather than finding new collectibles for my collection.  Part of it has to do with the increase in competition against other treasure hunters... and part of it has to do with the fact that I'm much more picky about what I'll spend my money on.

Today's post covers two different flea markets over back to back weekends.  The first two purchases were made on Saturday at the De Anza Flea Market.  I didn't really expect there to be many vendors due to the holiday weekend, but to my surprise it was probably at 70% capacity.

Purchase #1:  Dime Box Cards $5

About halfway through the flea market, I came across a guy who appeared to be selling off his collection.

I keep telling myself over and over again to avoid spending money on people's dime boxes... yet I still find myself digging through them.  Luckily this guy only had two 5000ct. boxes, so I only wasted fifteen to twenty minutes of my life digging through them.

The final tally was fifty cards for five bucks.

Most of the stuff was your typical Junk Wax Era singles, but I did manage to find a handful of early 80's hall of famers for my binder.  There were also a bunch of Ichiro Tribute to 51 cards that I snagged   I also found a big stack of 1991 Stadium Club cards that were missing their foil, but I ended up cherry picking the hall of famers and leaving the rest behind for another collector.

Purchase #2:  Card Boxes $3

The guy also had about 50 to 75 card boxes laying in the trunk and back seat of his car.  He was selling the 800ct boxes for $3 each, so he gave me both of these smaller boxes for the combined total of three dollars.

The 300ct. box on the left contained a bunch of 1995 Stadium Club Virtual Reality parallels.  Although these aren't exactly rare, they are pretty cool because they projected how the player would have performed if the 1994 MLB Strike didn't take place.

The box on the right contained a small stack of 1985 Topps commons, some 1997 Collector's Choice cards, and about 100 Topps Embossed Golden Idols parallels.  Unfortunately neither of the boxes produced any major stars, but I can use the base cards and parallels for Super Traders packages.

There were two other vendors with cards, but I was in a rush to meet a friend for brunch and neither of them had anything that really stood out.

The only other purchase I made took place a week earlier at the Capitol Flea Market.  I almost never buy anything from this flea market anymore.  But I came across a guy who was selling off his die cast car collection.


Purchase #3:  Volkswagen Diecast Collection $30

This guy's display was pretty impressive.  He must have had several hundred Hot Wheels and Johnny Lighting cars that were sorted into categories.  I immediately noticed a couple of VW buses.  Now if you read this post, then you know I love my VW's, so I started creating a pile.  After putting aside three or four of them, I asked him for prices.

He wanted $4 each on most of the stuff or three for $10 and wasn't really willing to negotiate, because he said he was losing a ton of money on his investment (welcome to my world buddy).  I realize that his prices weren't exactly cheap, but there were vehicles I had never seen before.  He ended up throwing in one free vehicle, since I was spending $30 with him.

I'm not sure if this is a sign of the times... but I'm actually more excited about adding these VW's to my collection than I am those dime cards or cheap parallels.  The only problem is I don't really have the room to display these at my home, so these VW's will probably be headed to my classroom.

Well that's it for now.  Stay tuned for my 2016 Topps Archives box break and Serramonte Mall Card Show recaps.  One was definitely a great experience... while the other was mediocre at best.

In the meantime, I hope everyone is having a good week.  Happy Wednesday and sayonara!