Flea Market Finds #176: Cards & Stuff

The third Saturday of the month means another trip to the Branham High School Flea Market.  On Saturday, I walked around... but this post isn't about that trip.  It's a recap from my purchases on June 21st.

There's a bunch of random stuff, so let's get to it...

Normally I usually hit up the regular card guy that sets up on the end of the parking lot, but he had a crowd of people around him.  So I skipped him and continued down the row.

Purchase #1:  A Roman Coin  $3

Inquisitive Minds: Coins of the Roman Empire

That's where I found this item on a table.  I'm guessing this was a family doing some summer cleaning, because they were very organized and had everything labeled with price tags.  I'm not really in the market for blenders or tools, but I have always wanted to own a Roman coin.  I'll definitely conduct the dig at some point... and share the results in a future post.

Purchase #2:  Lego Brickheadz  $5

I met a guy who is part of the Lego Ambassador Network, who receives free sets from Lego to review.  He ran out of space to display all of the sets, so he brought the excess stuff out to Branham.  His prices were really good, but I resisted the urge and bought the cheapest thing he had: a bag of Brickheads:

Lego #75317

I actually already own this set, but haven't built it.  Now that I own it, I probably will just give away the new set to my co-workers kids.

Lego #40630

The Mandalorian and Grogu will be displayed at home.  As for Frodo and Gollum, I'll take them into my classroom in a few weeks.

Purchase #3:  70's & 80's Vinyl  $10

Not sure if the vinyl market is starting to cool off, but I've been able to find some good deals on albums from my childhood.  This guy had a bunch of them for $5 each, but I asked him if he'd take $10 for three and he accepted.

Here's what I grabbed:

Men at Work: Business As Usual (1981)

This album has some classics.  I memorized Down Under and Who Can It Be Now... which eventually became my go-to karaoke song.  Be Good Johnny was another favorite.

Pat Benatar:  Get Nervous (1982)

Pat Benatar is one of my favorite female artists... right up there with Stevie Nicks.  This was the first Benatar tape I ever owned and it contains my favorite song of hers:  Shadows of the Night.  I'm very happy to add the album to my collection.

Steve Miller Band:  Greatest Hits 1974-78

Grew up listening to my brother's copy of this album (which I inherited a few years ago).  It contains a ton of classics.  I added this to my stack, because the cover was in such good condition and the price was right.

Purchase #4a:  Dollar Cards  $2

When I walked back down the first aisle, everyone who was hanging around the card guy cleared out.  I stood around and chatted with him, while digging through his boxes.

Here are a pair of dollar cards I grabbed:

1996-97 Finest Bronze Refractor #162

I will never pass up 90's refractors of stars for a buck.  Oakley was part of those star studded New York Knicks teams of the early 90's.  The only downside to this card is the obvious "greening" that plagues 90's refractors.

2003 UD Authentics #102 (#'d 594/999)

The other card I grabbed was this numbered rookie card of Godzilla.  I was out of the hobby in 2003, but was still watching baseball.  Gotta imagine this card was a nice pull back in the day.

Purchase #4b:  Cheap Bin Cards  $1

The vendor also had cheap bin.  He had all three of these cards marked at 50¢, but gave them to me for a buck:

These are the kind of cards I'd prefer to find in dime or quarter bins, but this guy has given me some good deals over the years.  I figured I should buy more than a pair of dollar cards.

Purchase #5:  Baseball Masks  $7

1990 MLB All-Star Masks: Hot Rookies

This book contains four masks that can be punched out and put together.  I should have done a little more research, but I saw the word "rookies" and Ken Griffey Jr.'s face and wanted it.

It ended up being manufactured in 1990, so it's not a rookie item.  Then again... even if it was... I doubt many collectors would care about these masks.

Purchase #6:  New Movies  $2

I've started stock piling new VHS tapes and DVD's of movies I love or ones I think I'd love.

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

This is one of my all-time favorite movies.  I could watch it once every few years and not get bored with it.  I still own copies of my original VHS tape and DVD.  Now I have a sealed copy too.

The Jackie Robinson Story (1950)

I've never seen this movie, but I do own a collection of sports related VHS tapes.  This one has been added to it.

Well that wraps up another trip to the Branham Flea Market.  Like I mentioned earlier in the post, I just went again this past weekend.  I promise it won't take me a month to complete my write-up post this time around.

Until then...

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #165: Two Months & Four Trips Pt. 2

On Tuesday I kicked off my latest Flea Market Finds post.  That's where I explained how I'm a little bit behind in regards to blogging, so I ended up changing things up a little and consolidating four flea market trips into three posts utilizing a countdown format.

Here's a breakdown of these posts:

Part #1:  #22 to #14

Part #2:  #13 to #6

Part #3:  #5 to #1

Honestly... there weren't any mind-blowing purchases in Part #1.  However I document everything I pick up when I walk around the flea market... so it had to be included.  Hopefully you'll find some of the items in this post a little more interesting.  I know I did.

Here's the next tier of September and October's flea market finds...

#13:  Skateboarding CCG Cards  $5

Flea Market:  De Anza on September 7th

2011 Super Heat CCG Starter Boxes

This is one of those purchases that 99% of you won't care about... but I was very happy to find these boxes.

The cards were floating around in the boxes, but since they're CCG cards... they have rounded corners so minimal damage occurred.  As soon as I saw these three cards of Christian Hosoi, I asked the guy how much he wanted:

When I was a kid, I really, really wanted a Hosoi Hammerhead skateboard.  I thought he was the coolest skater at the time.  Unfortunately, they didn't have any of his decks in stock when I went to the skate shop, so I settled on this guy's board:

I didn't keep my original board from the 80's, but I still have the one I rode in the 90's somewhere in my garage.

By the way... I did end up eventually getting a Hammerhead.  Purchased it eight to ten years ago... and the ride is still as smooth as it was the day I built it.

#12:  Some Sticky MJ's  $5

Flea Market:  De Anza on October 5th

Cleo Michael Jordan Stickers

What can I say?  I like collecting Jordan stuff.

I can't find a copyright date... but back in 1991 this company released Michael Jordan Valentine's Day cards.  I'm guessing these were sold at around the same time.

#11:  Quarter Packs  $1

Flea Market:  De Anza on September 7th

Back in February, I bought a box of 1993 Upper Deck Series 2 at the De Anza Flea Market.  This guy was back and he had the same assortment of Junk Wax Era boxes.  I didn't buy any this time around, but I did pick up four of his quarter packs:

The pack of 1994 Upper Deck Baseball: The American Epic was the key to this purchase.  After some research, I discovered it contains the entire nine card set.  This will go into my unopened wax pack collection, but I hope to grab a cheap set off of eBay in the near future. 

As for the 1996 Pinnacle Denny's packs... If I don't already have one in the collection, I'll save one and open the other two at some point.

#10:  Vintage Playing Cards $6

Flea Market:  Branham on October 19th

1979 Army Aircraft Recognition Playing Cards

I got excited when I saw this deck on a lady's table.  She told me her father was in the Army and these belonged to him.  I was hoping to add another SR-71 card to my collection, but it wasn't included.

#9:  70's Non-Sport Stickers $2

Flea Market:  Branham on September 21st

Cheap vintage is always a flea market favorite of mine.  Found a sandwich bag filled with non-sports cards and stickers sitting on a lady's table.

As I flipped through it, she told me I could have the entire bag for $10.  Unfortunately I don't have a lot of use for Bingo! or early 90's Batman cards with dinged corners.  But I pulled out these four discolored stickers from the 70's :

1978 Langendorf Super Heroes Stickers #NNO

1974 Wonder Break Disney Stickers #NNO

I had never seen any of these before, but I figured her two dollar asking price was fair.  All four are browning and the two Superman stickers are crinkled.  But they're from the 70's and they've been stored in a sandwich bag, so you can't expect them to be gem mint.

#8:  A Vintage Board Game  $5

Flea Market:  Branham on October 19th

Parker Brothers The Mad Magazine Game (1979)

This board game always pops up at toy shows and flea markets... and I've definitely thought about purchasing it a few times over the years.  You see... Mad Magazine is just as nostalgic as baseball cards when it comes to my years in elementary school.

But ultimately... I don't have any room for stuff like this, so even if the price is right... I usually walk away.  This time I found a brand new copy (cellophane is starting to tear) for five bucks.  No way I was walking away from that.

#7:  The Sandlot Cards $3

Flea Market:  Branham on October 19th

There is enough interest in cards of The Sandlot cast that they seem to come out ever few years.  I've written about the ones included in specially marked Blu-Ray packages before.  Last weekend, I found a set I had never seen before:

1993 Fox Video The Sandlot Collector Cards

This six card set was part of an uncut sheet produced back in 1993.  I definitely want one of these for my collection, but there's no way I'm spending $90 on it.  I'll take the separated version for $87 less.

I know that there are at least one or two other bloggers who collect The Sandlot cards.  Hopefully we don't bid against each other the next time one of these sets pop up on eBay.

#6:  Another Board Game $10

Flea Market:  De Anza on October 5th

I met a couple who purchased a storage unit with a ton of board games.  Nachos Grande probably would have had a lot of fun digging through their boxes.  I'm always on the lookout for cheap board games for my board game club at school.

Unfortunately I didn't find anything for my students, but I did grab this game:

The box cover contains images of familiar faces and immediately caught my eye.  Inside there were a bunch of different player cards:

When I got home I took a closer look and scanned the Ozzie Smith card:

I was hoping there was a card of Rickey Henderson in the A's set, but there wasn't.  For those who want to see what the board looks like, here a peek:

Can't imagine I'll ever play this game, but if I do... it does appear to be complete.  I'd like to find a shelf to display it, but for now it'll join the Mad Magazine game in my office closet.

Well... that wraps up Part #2 of my September and October flea market finds.  I am super excited to show off my Top 5 pickups.  Four of them are nostalgic finds that tie directly into my childhood... while the other one was a hidden treasure worth some good money to a small group of card collectors.

I'm hoping to have that post up on the blog by next Tuesday.  Until then...

Happy Thursday and sayonara!