Flea Market Finds #183: Binders & Sets

Saturday's trip to Branham Flea Market was cancelled due to poor weather.  On the surface that kind of sucks, because I potentially missed out on some flea market finds.  However it was kind of a blessing, because I'm already two weeks behind in recapping my trip to the De Anza Flea Market.  

So let's get it started...

Purchase #1:  1990 Leaf Baseball Set  $20

I've had strong ties to the 1990 Leaf baseball set dating back to my early college years when I was working at the LCS.  While there, I built two complete sets that I still own thirty-plus years later.

Not sure what the deal is, but I've been stumbling across a significant amount of these cards in recent months.  Back in August, I picked up a Series 1 set, because it was super cheap.  Two weeks later, I found the Frank Thomas rookie card (from Series 2) sitting in a box I purchased. 

This time around I found a guy with a bunch of Junk Wax Era sets.  One of them was the 1990 Leaf set pictured above.  I obviously don't need another one, but for $20 the price was right.

Side note... this purchase is the perfect time to share my OCD issues.  Whenever I buy a set, I obviously go through it to make sure it's complete.  If I know I'll be holding onto it, I give it a brand new home with new semi-rigid holders like shown above.

By the way... if you're a fan of 1990 Leaf like myself... I encourage you to check out a recent post on Card Boredom that takes a deep dive into David's wallet card which is a 1990 Leaf Sammy Sosa.  It's very informative and super interesting.

Purchase #2:  Deadpool Comics  $5

Not many comic book fans among my readers, but I assure you there are more cards down below.  So just scroll down...

Deadpool #1 (2023)

Deadpool: Nerdy 30 (2021)

Deadpool #1 (2020)

Before I get into the final five purchases, I wanted to mention that there was a card show at a nearby mall the day of the De Anza Flea Market.  In other words, the regulars who usually set up at the flea market opted to set up at the show.  I also feel like a lot of the collectors I compete with out here were at the card show too.

I was pretty happy about that, because I came across a guy with a bunch of cards.  Normally fresh inventory like this would attract a ton of collectors and vendors.  But an hour into my walk, I was able to pick through this guy's boxes without any competition.  Here's my haul broken down into five parts...

Purchase #3a:  Football Relics  $30

The first box I flipped through was a box of $5 autographs, relics, and inserts.  

As soon as I saw the Favre jersey cards, I asked if he'd give me a discount if I purchased a stack.

After some haggling, we settled on $3 each if I purchased 10 or more cards.

Purchase #3b:  Dollar Box  $10

He also had a box of dollar rookie cards, autos, relics, and inserts.  I was stoked to find another Favre jersey card for my collection:

2003 Fleer Mystique Shining Stars Jerseys #SS-BF

I rounded out the stack with these nine cards:

I also found this really cool insert sitting in the box:

1999 Donruss Preferred QBC Passing Grade #10

If you're not familiar with this insert set, each card contains two parts.  There's a sleeve:

And a football that slides into the sleeve:

I asked if he'd take $10 for these eleven cards and he accepted.

He also had about twenty binders with basketball cards.  He told me they were $10 each except for the Warriors one.  He wanted $30 for that, because it contained a bunch of memorabilia cards and autographs.

Well I pulled that one out first.  Then I found another one full of Jordans, Kobes, and Lebrons.

I didn't have the time to scan everything, but here's a peek into each binder...

Purchase #3c:  Golden State Warriors Binder  $30

I didn't end up counting, but there were around seventy-five memorabilia cards and autographs.  Obviously there weren't any high-end Curry relics, but I did find a couple of cool cards:

2012-13 Elite Court Kings White Canvas Autographs #40 (#'d 01/99)

2013-14 Panini Innovation Foundations Ink #96

The Bogut went into my Prime # PC and the Sleepy Floyd was added to my Golden State Warriors PC.  There was also a nice stack of Curry base cards and low-end inserts.

Although I was excited about this binder, I was way more excited about this one...

Purchase #3d:  Jordan, Kobe, & Lebron Binder  $10

Back in the 90's, I was a huge Jordan collector.  I kept most of the nicer inserts from back then, but sold off his base cards when I left the hobby in the early 2000's.  Adding them back into my collection has been a challenge due to his popularity.

That's why I was super excited to buy several hundred Jordans for less than a nickel each.  Granted... the majority were part of the 2007-08 Fleer Michael Jordan box set:

But there were some base cards, subset cards, and low-end inserts as well:

Here are five of my favorites:

1991-92 Upper Deck #44

1991-92 Upper Deck Award Winners #AW1

1991-92 Upper Deck Award Winners #AW4

1992-93 Stadium Club #1

1992-93 Topps Archives #52

The second half of the binder contained Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, and a ton of other 90's stars and rookie cards.

I was especially happy to add these three Kobe cards to his Topps base card run:

2004-05 Topps #8

2005-06 Topps #69

2006-07 Topps #8

I'm down to only needing four more to complete the run.  The good news is I have his rookie card and the overpriced 2008-09 card.  I just need four from the late 90's and early 2000's.  The bad news is his base cards can sometimes be hard to find in bargain bins, so I'll have to be patient with this project.

Purchase #3e:  Non-Sports Factory Set  $10

2004 Upper Deck History of the United States Set

The last thing I grabbed off this guy's table was this factory set filled with cards featuring U.S. Presidents, states, and historical events from our country's history.  There are a few cards from this set that I have been meaning to add to my collection, so I was happy to find a complete set for a decent price.

Well that wraps up my latest run to the flea market.  This may or may not have been the final one of 2025.  I'll leave that up to Mother Nature.  Regardless I've purchased some awesome stuff this year at the flea market.  In fact, it's arguably my best year.  I have always wanted to do a Top 10 list of favorite flea market finds and this might just be the year I do it.  We'll see.

Until then...

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

One to Open, One to Keep

1991 Impel Laffs isn't going to be for everyone, but to a collector who enjoys building sets and opening packs... these two boxes brought a smile to my face.

Back in May, John over at Johnny's Trading Spot sent me these two unopened boxes that potentially could contain rookie cards of Steve Urkel and Balki Bartokomous.

For those of you who aren't familiar with this product, it focuses on three of ABC's TGIF television shows during the 1990-91 season: Full House, Family Matters, and Perfect Strangers.

1991 Impel Laffs #25

Full House kicked off Friday evenings at 8pm and was featured on the first 26 cards in this 80 card set.  I watched this show a few times in high school, but by the time this product was released I was in college... so Friday evenings were usually reserved for going out.

1991 Impel Laffs #28

Steve Urkel and Family Matters followed Uncle Jesse and the Olsen Twins in the 8:30 slot.  Impel gave them the next twenty-six cards (#27 to #52) in the set.  I also watched a few episodes of Family Matters, but this was my least favorite show of the trio.  That being said... this Urkel card is my favorite card in the set.

1991 Impel Laffs #56

And rounding out the evening and set of cards was Perfect Strangers which came on at 9pm back then.  This was my favorite show out of the bunch and the one I remember the most.  However by the time these cards were created, I had stopped watching it.

Each show received twenty-six cards in the set.  Two checklists rounded things out to make it an even eighty cards.  Within each show... there are actor cards, character cards, and a variety of scene cards.

1991 Impel Laffs #53

Each box has thirty-six packs with each pack containing five cards.  That's a total of 180 cards.  I figured that I'd easily be able to complete one set, but as Bronson Pinchot demonstrates... Impel's collation was terrible.

There were four or five cards that I pulled five copies of and a bunch of others with two, three, or four duplicates.

When the packs settled, I was left needing twenty-one cards for my set build.

Some of you might be wondering about the second box that John sent.  I debated opening it in an effort to complete this set.  But two things stopped me.

#1:  With the collation issues, there's no guarantee that I was going to pull all twenty-one cards that I need.

#2:  Johnny gave specific directions.  Open one box.  Keep the other.

I know he wouldn't mind if I opened both, but I enjoy collecting unopened boxes.  For the time being... I have added it to the collection with hopes of completing this set through trades or bargain bins.  If anyone else is building this set, I have a lot of duplicates.  Maybe we can help each other out.

Thank you John for sending me these two boxes.  It's always a blast spending a Sunday afternoon opening up packs in an effort to build a set.  I might not have completed this one, but in addition to opening this box of cards, I also opened up a COMC shipment that finished up two sets.

Complete Set #1:  2024 Topps Update

2024 Topps Update #US100

It shouldn't be too surprising that the hottest rookie card in the set was the final one I needed for my set build.  I paid $2.50 for this card back on April 15th.

Complete Set #2:  1992 Leaf Gold

1992 Leaf Gold #317

I purchased a complete set of these black bordered parallels back in 2021.  Unfortunately there were a bunch of cards that were damaged by "binder pinching".  Well four years later, COMC helped me cross off the final card I needed:

I spent over an hour organizing my COMC shipment into stacks.  Some of them I will write posts for... but most will go directly into my binders this week.

Speaking of this week, I have most of it off (except I needed to go into school today for a couple of hours).  My goal is to clean and organize my office... which includes the remnants of John's care package, the COMC shipment, some flea market and card show hauls, and a few care packages I need to open up.  I'm also hoping to hammer out one more post, before my final week of summer school.  So stay tuned.

Until then...

Happy Monday and sayonara!