Flea Market Finds #167: Periodicals, Magazine Cards, and an Uncut Sheet

Before I get into the first flea market trip of 2025... I wanted to thank everyone who voted in the 4th Annual Nachos Grande End-of-Year Awards.  I was excited and honored to win two categories this year: Funniest/Most Entertaining Blog and Favorite Blog Series.

Writing doesn't come naturally to me, so to be nominated for Funniest/Most Entertaining Blog was a pleasant surprise.

What blog series was nominated?  Well based on view counts, it's not too surprising the honor was given to my Flea Market Finds.  Over the years, they've always received more clicks than my average post.

That's fine with me, because I love walking around the flea market in search of bargains and new additions for a variety of collections.

Unfortunately... due to poor weather I went 0 for 2 in December attempts.  Luckily the new year brought dryer weather.  So on Saturday, January 4th, I woke up early and hit up the De Anza Flea Market.  It was overcast and cold, so more than half of the normal vendors chose to stay home, but by 9am there was a pretty decent amount of people walking around. 

I'm an early bird, so my shopping spree started at around 7am...

Purchase #1:  Baseball Cards  $4

2003 Donruss Classics Legends of the Fall #LF-10 (#'d 0272/2000)

The first purchase of the day was from a familiar face.  I've been buying cards off of Tony for over a decade.  He's a really nice guy who sets up with his buddy Tom at the De Anza Flea Market and some of the local card shows.

He didn't have a lot of new inventory, but I did manage to find a few cheap singles to help get his sales rolling...

The Munson was marked two bucks.  The Soto and Judge were in his dollar box and the rest were in his 50¢ bin.

He packaged everything together for four dollars.

Purchase #2:  Junk Wax Era Singles $4

One row over was a new guy with cards.  He had two boxes filled with cards in top loaders that ranged in price from $1 to $5.

The Ken Griffey Jr. insert and the Fleer base card of MJ were a buck each.  The rest of the cards were in his 3 for $1 bin.  However when he accepted another guy's four for a dollar offer... he passed the deal on to me as well.

Unfortunately... he didn't have a lot of baseball.  The majority of the box contained basketball cards and stickers like this shiny Shaq:

1993-94 Panini Stickers #C

I would have stayed a little longer and browsed through all of his 3 for $1 bin, but cards tend to draw crowds these days.  As soon as I had people on both sides of me, I gathered up my stack and checked out.

Purchase #3:  1990 McDonald's Cup  $1

There was another new vendor who brought out a bunch of McDonald's and Burger King cups from the 80's and 90's.  All of them were a dollar each.  I was tempted to pick up the 1992 Olympic Dream Team cups of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, but ultimately I set them down and grabbed the one above.

Seeing this cup was a blast from the past.  I owned one just like it back in high school, so I brought it home with me. 

Purchase #4:  Sports Periodicals $3

One of the busiest vendors I came across was this guy with a ton of toys from the 80's and 90's.  He also had tons of random stuff like Rat Fink art and boxes of sports periodicals.  Luckily the sports programs and magazines were on an end cap, so I could flip through them without feeling claustrophobic.

The first thing I pulled out was this Seattle Mariners program from Ichiro's first MLB season:

I also found a promotional issue of Inside Stuff:

It contained an uncut sheet of 1994-95 Fleer Ultra basketball cards:

I'm a sucker for uncut sheets... so I had to add it to the stack.

The last periodical I picked up was this special baseball section of The San Jose Mercury News from 1989:

This came out six months before these two teams met in the 1989 World Series.  Storing old newspapers is a pain in the butt, but I couldn't pass up this piece of history for a buck.

Purchase #5:  Stack of SI for Kids Cards  $10

After going through the guy's periodicals, I strolled down one of his aisles containing mostly Star Wars ships and Happy Meal toys.  In between them was a small box with ticket stubs and a few stacks of trading cards.  One of those stacks contained about 100 early 90's Sports Illustrated for Kids cards:

It's arguably the best bargain of the day with tons of famous athletes.  Here's are a sample of stars:

Unfortunately the vast majority of the cards had been cut like this Tony Hawk card:

1990 Sports Illustrated for Kids #152

Due to these circumstances, they won't be added to my official collection of SI for Kids cards that are stored in binders.  But I will sleeve each one up and put them into my random SI for Kids box.  Cut or not, I'll buy these for a dime any day of the week.

Purchase #6:  A Classic Kid  $1

The final purchase of the day was off of my buddy Pete.  He's my supply guy.  We usually meet up at the other flea market and walk around together.  But on the first Saturday of every month, he sets up at De Anza with his comic book, magazine, and record sleeves.  He also carries penny sleeves, top loaders, and other supplies like pennant holders.

This month he had a random box of cards.  I saw a stack of these purplish Classic cards, so I picked it up and pulled this card out:

1989 Classic #193

It's not one of Griffey's iconic rookie cards... but it's a licensed card of his from his rookie year.  And it's a card that I didn't own.

It's not exactly minty fresh... so he told me I could have it for a buck.  That's a price I could live with.

Well that wraps up my first flea market trip of the year.  There's another one in a few days.  Hopefully I'll be able to find some interesting stuff to share on this blog next week.  Until then...

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

It Takes a Blogosphere

I've been a busy blogger lately... and I'll be publishing more posts than usual in the upcoming weeks to prove it.

Today's post will target my 2024 Topps Series 1, 2, and Update set builds which received a huge boost this week from two bloggers:  Dennis (@ Too Many Verlanders) and John (@ Johnny's Trading Spot).

To help put things into perspective, here are all of the numbers they crossed off:

And here is an updated look at my set needs:

These two generous donations have my Series 1/2 set build down to needing only 14 cards (2%) and 2 cards (.6%) for the Update set build.

These singles were only a fraction of each of their care packages.  Dennis sent me a really interesting collectible for my Tony Gwynn collection that will receive its own post.  While John sent me a smorgasbord of trading cards for a variety of collections that I'll highlight very soon.

Today's focus is about building sets, so I'll wrap things up with a few other singles from Dennis are for sets I'm currently working on.

2020 Topps Allen & Ginter:  Not Complete

I started this set a little over four years ago with a blaster and a nice stack from my buddy.  A few other bloggers have contributed over the years.  These four are the latest additions: 

I'm still fifty-one cards short, but only a percentage of them are short prints: 

Set Completion Prediction:  2027 to 2028

I just need to find a nickel box filled with singles from this set... which might not happen for a few years.

2002 Donruss Estrellas Estrellas:  Complete

2002 Donruss Super Estrellas Estrellas #5

This Nomar completed the Estrellas insert set... but I'm still seeking a few others to complete the 2002 Donruss Super Estrellas master set:

Set Completion Prediction:  2026

This is just a matter of me opening up the wallet and purchasing singles from COMC or Sportlots.  Unfortunately... I'm not one of those guys who are willing to pay more than a buck for any of these cards, so it's a waiting game.

1992 Pro Set HOF 2000: Complete

1992 Pro Set HOF 2000 #1

Just needed one card to complete this set... and it was Marcus.

This set build is officially over.

1995 Classic Assets Phone Cards:  Complete

I think this set build started with a box break... but I'm not 100% sure.  I'm also not 100% sure why I needed two copies of the Jeff O'Neill, but according to my wantlist... I did.

And that's what Dennis sent my way:

1995 Classic Assets Phone Card #NNO

Unlike the 1992 Pro Set HOF 2000 set, this set build wasn't in my cabinet and according to my database... it's buried in a box under a lot of other boxes in my closet.  I usually reorganize my collection once a year during the spring or summer.  I'll add these to the set build(s) when that happens.

1993 Donruss Masters of the Game:  Complete

I'm always excited to complete a set, but some sets are a little more exciting than others.  I was really stoked to see this card in Dennis' care package:

1993 Donruss Masters of the Game #4

First off, it's a cool set that I hope to show off in a post eventually.  Yeah... I like it that much.

But it's also an oversized set, so I'm glad to finally take it out of my set build cupboard and make room for other projects.

1986 Topps Garbage Pail Kids Series 4:  Complete

Almost 13 years ago, I made one of my favorite card show purchases... a collection of Garbage Pail Kids from the 80's that included complete sets from Series 2 to Series 10.

1986 Topps Garbage Pail Kids Series 4 #158b

Unfortunately, there were five cards missing from the Series 4 set.  Don't remember where or when I picked up the first four cards I needed... but this IG Lou completes the collection:

However... just like the Classic Asset phone cards... this binder is sitting in a box that needs to be unearthed.  I know where it is, but won't be able to dig it out until the spring.

So there you have it... a bunch of set builds and a lot of generosity from two awesome bloggers.  Both of these guys actually sent more stuff.  These were just cards of the set building variety.  I'll definitely showcase the other items from their care packages in the next few weeks.

Until then...

Thank you John and Dennis!

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Metal Meets MLB

The majority of my readers are here for baseball cards.  Don't worry... this post has them.  However there's a little music incorporated as well.  If you're familiar with Night Owl's Match the Song Title posts... this is a copycat version.  So if you just want to see baseball cards, then scroll down a little.  Otherwise, let's talk music...

Metallica was my favorite band in high school.  One of my friends bought Master of Puppets and we rocked out to it on a daily basis.  We worked our way backward to Ride the Lightning and Kill 'Em All.

Life was good.

I continued listening to their music all the way through their ...And Justice for All and the Black Album, but never really got into their stuff after that.

These days, they're still a big part of my life.  I routinely listen to a Spotify playlist I made for my classroom and long car drives.  And if I were to rank them among my all-time favorite bands, they would be up there with Fleetwood Mac, The Beastie Boys, The Police, Journey, and A Tribe Called Quest.

That's why I was excited to hear that back in 2021... December 16th was declared as Metallica Day in San Francisco by Mayor London Breed.  In honor of their special day, I figured show off a special sheet of cards I purchased awhile back:

The sheet was inserted into the 2011 September/October issue of Revolver:

The front and back of the cards utilize the 1986 Topps baseball design... which is perfect, because that's the year I started listening to the band.

The magazine included another sheet of cards featuring two more "thrash metal" bands:

Slayer, Megadeath, and Anthrax are the three other bands that make up what is considered the Big 4 of U.S. thrash metal.  Personally... Metallica was reason I bought the issue.  I have a couple of Anthrax albums and remember listening to Slayer back in high school, but labeling me anything more than a casual fan of either of these bands would be considered a stretch.

In an effort to entertain those who came here to read about baseball cards, here are nine baseball cards that are related to nine Metallica songs...

#1:  Enter Sandman

2011 Topps Chrome Refractor #42

When most of you hear this song, I'm guessing Mo is the first person you think of.

#2:  Fade to Black

1971 Topps #118

This is my favorite Metallica song paired with one of my favorite black bordered cards.

#3:  Master of Puppets

1986 Donruss #647

Beane was a master of puppets orchestrating some major changes to the way the Oakland A's approached the game we love.  It never paid off with a World Series title... but it entertained diehard fans until it didn't.

#4:  The Unforgiven

1987 Classic #1

Pete Rose was gambling right about the same time Classic released their first board game containing baseball cards and they honored him with the first card in the set.

Unfortunately... betting on games is considered the cardinal sin of baseball.  Although there were plenty of fans willing to forgive him... many have not... so I dub thee unforgiven.

#5:  For Whom the Bell Tolls 

2015 Topps Tier One New Guard Autographs #NGA-SDO (#'d 302/349)

Some people think of Jonathan Papelbon when they hear this song.  I think of Mr. Doolittle and the right field rockers at the Oakland Coliseum.

#5:  Seek & Destroy

1994 Kenner SLU #NNO

When I picked this song for this post, I knew I'd be featuring an intimidating pitcher.  Two came to mind.  Bob Gibson is arguably the most intimidating pitcher to stand on the bump.  Unfortunately... he was a little before my time.  So I'm gonna go with the Big Unit. 

#6:  Harvester of Sorrow

1989 Fleer World Series #5

Baseball cards bring joy to my life.  At least most of them do.  This card reminds me of the 1988 World Series... which conjures up feelings of sadness.  But it's still a part of my collection... which is why I spent over thirty minutes digging through boxes searching for this set.

#7:  The Shortest Straw

1984 Topps Traded Bronze Premium #NNO

Standing at 1.75"... this is the shortest Straw in my collection.  Actually... that's a lie.  I own all of Darryl's Topps Micro cards which measure only an inch in height... but they're sitting inside factory sealed sets.  So this is the shortest Straw that's been pulled for you.

#8:  Am I Evil?

1988 Kenner SLU #NNO

Great song.  Terrible human being.  I'd like to believe that people can turn their lives around and learn from their mistakes... but what this guy did is unforgivable. 

#9:  One

2017 Topps 30th Anniversary #87-11

I should have put this song at the top of the list, but that's too obvious.

As for the card... I went with the first guy that came to mind when I thought of players wearing #1.  Ozzie Smith wore that number his entire hall of fame career with the San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals.

It was a lot of fun putting together this list of songs.  Honestly... Metallica has so many classics, I could have easily put together two starting nines.  Maybe next December 16th. I'll create a list of B sides.

Until then...

Are you a fan of Metallica?  Do you have a favorite song?

Happy Metallica Day and sayonara!