Flea Market Finds #153: Cookies, Kings, and Stamps

Three weekends.  Two flea markets.  One card show.

It's going to be a "good" kind of busy.

Last weekend was the monthly Branham High School Flea Market.  The highlight was running into a buddy I hadn't seen in quite some time.  He's a vendor who always has unique stuff.  I picked up a pretty cool item for my San Diego Padres collection, but before I show that off... let's review two purchases I made earlier.

Purchase #1:  1990 Donruss Set $7

I have little interest in adding another 1990 Donruss set to my collection.  However the vendor pointed something interesting about this particular binder.  At the very back, there was also a complete set of 1990 Donruss Super DK's:

Collectors could send $10, three wrappers, plus $2 for postage and receive an oversized (5x7) set of Diamond Kings.

The set includes twenty-six Diamond Kings, a checklist, a twelve piece puzzle of Carl Yastrzemski, and this Nolan Ryan:

1990 Donruss Super DK's #NNO

I know it looks like the same King of Kings card from the base set, but this card isn't numbered.  The regular sized version is card #665.

Sadly... the 1990 Diamond King checklist is a bit underwhelming in regards to big names, but it does include this really cool Ken Griffey Jr.:

1990 Donruss Super DK's #4

These two cards alone were well worth the seven dollars I pulled out of my pocket.  The Super DK set will be added to the collection.  I'm hoping to recoup some or all of the money by selling the binder and regular set at the next show I set up at.

Purchase #2:  More Sets and a Rookie Card $3

Nothing too special here.  The same vendor who sold me the Donruss set also had a box of miscellaneous cards.  I pulled out three Star Company sets, a beat up 1988 Fleer Exciting Stars boxed set, and a Jake Cronenworth rookie insert and offered him $3 (pretty much to make it an even ten bucks).

I like adding oddball issues like those Star sets... and I don't own many Cronenworth cards.  As for the Fleer boxed set, it's missing three cards (McGwire, Mattingly, and Clark)... so I'll be breaking it up and adding singles to certain player collections if I don't already have a copy.

Purchase #3:  1971 Dell Today's Team Padres Stamp Book $5

My buddy picked up a bunch of these books at another local flea market and was flipping them.  He said he's made a tidy profit off of them.  I was hoping he'd sell me the Oakland A's book too, but he decided to keep that for his own collection.

Anyways... if you've never seen one of these books before, they come with a bunch of player stamps:

I've added a few individual stamps to my collection over the years, but I'll be keeping this book intact.

Purchase #4:  Mother's Cookies Albums $20

My big purchase of the day were these three card albums featuring complete sets of San Francisco Giants Mother's Cookies SGA cards:

For over a decade, Mother's Cookies gave away envelopes filled with 28 baseball cards to San Francisco Giants and Oakland A's fans on trading card day.  The Mariners, Astros, Dodgers, Angels, and Padres also participated in this promotion.

Each fan would get twenty or twenty-one different cards and seven or eight copies of one specific player.  The goal was to encourage fans to trade their duplicates for the cards they needed.  Pretty ingenious, right?

There was also a special card you could mail in with some money for these four pocket albums.  This vendor had a bunch of Giants sets from the 80's, but I didn't want to pay his $10/set asking price.  I ended up pulling the 1983, 1985, and 1986 sets and asking if he'd take $20.  He did.

Here's a peek at what each set looks like...

1983 Mother's Cookies #1

1983 was the first year Mother's Cookies participated in the stadium giveaway.  It's also the only Mother's Cookies set that I own that doesn't featured the trademark rounded corners.

1985 Mother's Cookies #10

Here's a cool action shot of Vida Blue.  He headlines a solid checklist.  The only names I didn't recognize as Giants from my youth were Doug Gwosdz, David Green, Gary Rajsich, and Scot Thompson.

1986 Mother's Cookies #7

This is my favorite card out of all three sets.  Why?  This card brings back one of my favorite baseball card memories.  I was at the game when these envelopes were passed out.  Sadly, I didn't keep it... but I did hold onto the Will Clark.

Purchase #5:  1959 Idaho Basketball Tournament Pamphlet $1

There's a regular vendor who has a variety of pop culture and random periodicals that he tosses onto his dollar tarp.  Last month I picked up that Digable Planets photo.  This month, I grabbed this pamphlet.

Inside one of the teams signed their page:

It caught my attention and figured it was something old and unique for a buck.  Plus I spent over an hour looking up each of these guys to see if any of them went on to play in the NBA.  To make a long story, very short... they didn't.  Sadly I did come across a few of their obituaries though.

That wraps up another trip to the flea market.  This Saturday there's a card show at a local mall.  Ryan (SumoMenkoMan) is flying in for the day and we're going to hit it up, check out some card shops, and hang out.  Then the following Saturday is the De Anza Flea Market.  Like I said at the start of the post... it's a "good" busy.

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!