Old Friends and New Additions

I'm caught up with my Flea Market Finds posts.  Now it's time to catch up with my card show hauls.  While I tend to splurge on a variety of purchases at the flea market, I'm much more selective when I shop at shows.

In fact, the only reason I attended the Santa Clara Card Show back in late June was to hang out with my buddy who was setting up at the show.  Walking in with Ben saved me the $10 admission fee... but things balanced out, because I still had to pay for parking ($10).

This show shares the same story I've read across a bunch of your blogs: some sports cards and lots of Pokemon.

I did find a few guys with quarter bins and dollar boxes, but I only made a purchase from one of them...

Purchase #1:  Quarter Bin  $2

I'll happily hand over a quarter for PCA rookie cards.  This guy is super fun to watch.

The other five cards are refractors for the binders.  Although I'm happy to add these to my collection, finding them for 25¢ is a sad reminder that Topps is flooding the hobby with these shiny parallels.  

Purchase #2:  The Greatest Auto  $200+

1992 Pro Line Portraits Autographs #NNO

This card is a huge addition to my autograph collection.  It has been on my radar since the 90's, but honestly I never thought I'd actually own a copy.  Then I saw it sitting in Ben's display case:

He had a $400 price tag, but told me I could have it for $350.  We worked out a deal where I traded him two display cases (from my card show days) and $200 cash.

This purchase had me floating like a butterfly... but stung (my wallet) like a bee.

Purchase #3:  Oversized Stuff  $5

1997-98 NBA Hoops Great Shots #13

One vendor had some oversized cards sitting in a box.  This Kobe poster caught my eye and lured me in.  But buried in the stack below was this hidden treasure: 

2006 Topps Allen and Ginter N43 Box Topper #N43-4

At the time, I just thought it was a cool card of one of the greatest hitters of all-time.

But in regards to value... this was the best deal of the day.

Freebie #1:  Oakland A's Lanyard

While walking around the show, I ran into some old friends I hadn't seen in a few years.  Some of you are familiar with my buddy Mike.  Anyways... he introduced me to Alfredo and his wife about a decade ago.  They were regular vendors at the Serramonte Mall shows.  However since Mike passed away, I hadn't seen them.

Well they were set up there and it very nice surprise.  We shared stories and caught up.  Anyways, I saw this lanyard and tried to buy it.  But they refused to take my money.

Purchase #4:  An Ohtani Rookie Card  $20

2018 Topps Now #678J

After hanging with Alfredo, I went back over to Ben's table to tell him I was going to head out.  Saw this Ohtani in his display case and grabbed it. 

I'm not actively chasing all of Ohtani's Topps Now cards, but the "kanji" was interesting.

Well... that wraps up my purchases from this particular show.  I attended a card show last weekend as well that I'll try to recap next week.

Until then...

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #177: Stuff from the 70's, 80's, and 90's

It's official.  I'm finally caught up on writing flea market posts.  Perfect timing too, because in a few days I'll be heading out to the De Anza Flea Market in hopes of finding some hidden treasures.

In the meantime, here's what I picked up two Saturdays ago at the Branham Flea Market.

Purchase #1:  80's Baseball Sets  $100

Remember the guy with the Laughlin sets?  Well... he was back again.  Sadly he didn't have any 70's oddball issues this time around.  But he did bring a few 80's sets.  I picked out these four:

First up is a 1983 Donruss factory set:

1983 Donruss Factory Set

This was the first set I noticed (he had these sets spread out over a few tables).  Although they aren't rare by any means... it's not really something I come across at the flea market on a regular basis.

He also had a 1982 Donruss factory set: 

1982 Donruss Factory Set

Not sure if Donruss released the 1982 sets in cellophane packs (like the other 1983 set above), but this one didn't come with any.  The set was in order though, so it was easy to check for the Ripken:

1982 Donruss #405

The centering is terrible, but I'm happy to add this set to my collection of 80's sets.  Speaking of centering, the key rookie cards in the next set are really clean:

1983 Topps Set

This is one of my all-time favorite sets.  I love the design... and it contains the rookie card of my favorite player:

1983 Topps #83

1983 Topps #482

1983 Topps #498

And rounding out the trifecta of 1983 flagship sets is the Fleer set:

1983 Fleer Set

Unfortunately when I got home, I discovered this set was missing two cards.  Plus Joaquin Andujar (card #1) was sun damaged.  I already ordered all three cards on Sportlots, but it might take a few weeks for them to arrive.

In the meantime, check out the Big Three:

1983 Fleer #179

1983 Fleer #360

1983 Fleer #507

There was another guy who came along and showed an interest in these sets, but the vendor said he'd give me first dibs since I've bought a bunch of stuff from him this year.  He was looking to get $40 for the Topps set and $30 each for the others.  I asked him if he'd take $100 for the quartet and he accepted.

After I paid for these sets, I hung out at his booth.  We talked about him moving soon and him heading out to Arkansas.  We also talked about each of our hobby histories and why he was getting rid of his stuff.  I also found two more sets...

Purchase #2:  More Baseball Sets  $20

1986 Sportflics Decade Greats Factory Set

This is a set that I have been actively seeking for over a decade.  The box wasn't sealed and was in pretty rough shape, but I still wanted it.

I know Sportflics aren't super popular, but they hold a lot of nostalgic value for me.  I never owned this set, but I opened a lot of 1986 Sportflics packs and owned the Rookies factory set.

This set covers the best players from the 1940's to the 1980's.  Here's what the cards look like:

1986 Sportflics Decade Greats #28

These lenticular cards feature three images for the price of one:

It's the trademark characteristic of 80's Sportflics cards.  But the card backs were pretty cool too:

Check out how much information they packed onto the back of this card.  Plus it's so colorful!  They only downside is they sacrificed the athlete's career stats and focused on a specific decade (hence the name of the set).

In addition to the 75 player cards, they also included 51 trivia cards:

1986 Sportflics Decades Greats Trivia Card #32

Okay... enough Sportflics talk.  Here's the other set I grabbed:

1993 Gatorade Detroit Tigers Set

I've never seen this set before, but according to TCDB it sounds like these were handed out as a stadium giveaway.

I thought about opening this set up and pulling singles for my binders (player collections).  I'm going to keep it sealed for now though.

As for the purchase price, there wasn't any negotiation this time around.  Like I said... I really wanted this Sportflics set... and his twenty dollar asking price seemed fair.

Okay.  I've rambled on way too much and we're only through the first two purchases.  It's time to speed up the process...

Purchase #3:  Sega Genesis Game  $15

1993 EA Sports Tony LaRussa Baseball (Sega Genesis)

My streak of picking up new (in package) 90's media continues.  This time it comes in the form of a video game.

While most of my buddies were SNES fanboys in the early 90's... I was a Genesis guy.  Never owned this particular game, but figured it would look cool on my A's shelf.

Purchase #4:  Three for a Buck Singles  $4

Back in May, I bought some cards off of a guy with 3 for $1 boxes.  He was back.  Here's what I picked up: 

You know how much I enjoy Star Wars and shiny cards.  I also found a huge stack of Jackass cards, but only grabbed the Tony Hawk.

He also had two unopened packs of Sport Kings.  I'm still searching for the Richard Petty card for my set build.  How cool would it be to pull one from these packs?

Purchase #5:  80's Wax Pack  $2

1981 Topps Raiders of the Lost Ark

Found this pack sitting in a bin with a bunch of non-sport Junk Wax Era packs and figured I'd save it.

I'll have to see if I already have one for my unopened wax pack collection.  If I do, I'll crack it open on a rainy day when I need some blog fodder.

The guy who sold me this pack, also had some random 80's team sets...

Purchase #6:  Yankees Team Set  $5

1985 Topps & Topps Traded

There were a handful of singles I needed in my 80's base card binder, but the key to this purchase was this card:

1985 Topps Traded #49T

I needed this for my Topps flagship base card run of Rickey.  I was hoping to find this card in a dollar bin, but I got tired of waiting.

Purchase #7:  Vintage Football Stamps  $10

The last purchase of the day was off of the guy I usually start with.  However the past two times he's had a group of guys digging through his boxes.  Anyways... I ended the day by grabbing these two vintage packs of NFL stamps:

1972 Sunoco NFL Action Stamps

Each pack contains 9 stamps.  At the time, I figured this was a killer deal.  How often do you find unopened packs from 1972 for $5 each?  The answer is... anytime you want.  They're listed on eBay for this price or even cheaper.  Oh well... win some, lose some.

Hopefully I'll find some winners on Saturday at De Anza.  Either way... I'll show off my finds sometime next week.

Until then...

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!