Flea Market Finds #184: Sheets, Sets, and a SLU

After over a month away from the local flea market, I made my out to the Branham Flea Market on Saturday for my first haul of 2026.  Not sure if it was the cold weather or the holiday weekend, but there were less vendors than usual.  However I did manage to make a few purchases from a pair of card dealers.

The first one is a regular that I've bought from on numerous occasions.  He's located on the very first row and is usually my first stop of the day.  This time around he had a table filled with uncut sheets.

Purchase #1a:  Uncut Mother's Cookies Sheets  $15

There were some cool oddball sets from the early 90's, but I was mainly drawn to his Mother's Cookies team sets.  He had five different 1985 sets which featured the cards handed out at the stadiums.  I was tempted to buy them all, but I didn't want to blow most of my cash on my first purchase.  So I grabbed my two favorite teams:

1985 Mother's Cookies Oakland A's

1985 Mother's Cookies San Diego Padres

I'm not sure how these uncut sheets were distributed, but I've written about the SGA sets from the 80's and 90's a few times on this blog.  Each year my brother would take me to a handful of Giants and A's games and I'd always try to circle the Mother's Cookies Players Card Day on the calendar.

The guy had the Giants sheet too, but I picked my favorite team over childhood memories.

Purchase #1b:  Hockey Autographs $2

The vendor also brought out a box of oddballs for me to check out and there were two 9-pocket pages with these signed hockey cards.  Not sure how legit these are, the price was right, so I took a chance on them.  I was mainly drawn to the Pavel Bure cards, but there are some other notable names in the lot.

The guy was still setting up, so I told him I'd come back a little later.  On the second row, I found the other card guy.  Remember the guy I bought the 70's Laughlin and 80's Traded sets from last year?  Well before he left for Arkansas, he sold his remaining inventory to this vendor.  I've seen him set up a few times, but his prices were always too high.  This time around he was more reasonable...

Purchase #2a:  1985 Donruss Factory Set $15

His first table was filled with 800ct. boxes filled with cards from the 80's and 90's.  His asking price of $15 for this factory set was reasonable, so I started digging through his stuff.

I opened the set while I was there and noticed that one of the packs had been opened:

I still decided to buy it.  Unfortunately when I got home, I discovered that it was missing the Roger Clemens rookie.  I've added it to my saved eBay searches.  My hopes is to find a clean copy for under $10 delivered.

Next to his sets, he had a bunch of wax boxes with packs that had already been opened.  I found one I was interested in...

Purchase #2b:  1996 Sky Motion Football  $5

As you can see, none of these packs were sealed.  But within the box, there was a nice starter set that included a few big names:

1996 Skybox Sky Motion #SM17

1996 Skybox Sky Motion #SM15

1996 Skybox Sky Motion #SM48

There were 37 different cards for my set build... leaving me needing only 23 singles to complete the set.  I immediately went over to Sportlots and crossed off 16 more:

Considering I have already invested over $25 into this set build, I'm already regretting my decision to build this set.

At least there were two of the Hobby Exclusive Gold parallels included in the box:

1996 Skybox Sky Motion Gold #SM32

1996 Skybox Sky Motion Gold #SM32

These were inserted into every other box and can be quite elusive when seeking specific players.

At the other end of his tables, the vendor had a bunch of knick-knacks including programs, photos, card sheets, and smaller card sets.  I bought a few more items...

Purchase #2c:  1982 Cracker Jack Sheets  $8

1982 Cracker Jack AL Sheet

1982 Cracker Jack NL Sheet

This is a set that I've been looking for on eBay for a few years.  I like the Cracker Jack border paired with the 1978 and 1979 Topps card designs.  Plus each sheet features eight hall of famers.

I didn't want to spend more than $10 for the pair... and thanks to this vendor I didn't have to.

In the same stack as these uncut sheets, I also found this cool Upper Deck SGA sheet from the 90's...

Purchase #2d:  1993 Upper Deck Billy Martin Tribute Sheet  $2

Billy Ball played a big role in my childhood and Oakland A's fanfare, so I'm always looking to add new Billy Martin items to my collection.  Upper Deck made a bunch of these tribute sheets in the 90's.  I have a few sitting in my collection and one of them is framed and hanging up in my office.

But before Saturday, I had never seen this sheet before.  It was passed out on August 15, 1993 at the Oakland Coliseum.  Fans who attended that game were treated to this sheet as well as Kirby Puckett's career day at the plate.  He went 5 for 5 with 2 home runs and 4 RBI's as the Twins destroyed the A's 12 to 5.

Purchase #2e:  1983 Stuart Montreal Expos Set  $5

Among the card sheets, programs, and photos, there were also a few sets I was interested in.  The first one that caught my eye was this Montreal Expos oddball set:

Based on what I found online, Stuart was a company that made snacks in Canada.  Based on a TCDB photo, these appeared to be inserted into boxes of snack cakes back in 1983.

The set features all of the early 80's Expos you're familiar with, including these three hall of famers:

1983 Stuart Montreal Expos #4

1983 Stuart Montreal Expos #8

1983 Stuart Montreal Expos #9

I'm happy to add this to my Montreal Expos PC.  And I'm happy to add the next set to my Green Bay Packers PC...

Purchase #2f:  1997 Playoff Packer Super Sunday Set  $5

When the Packers beat the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI, it was the first time celebrating a Super Bowl victory.  Sure I had watched and rooted for teams every year leading up to this one, but they were never my own team.  I was very happy to find this set for a reasonable price.

Purchase #3:  Hot Wheels 2020 GR Toyota Supra  $8

After walking around the rest of the flea market, I didn't see any other deals on cards.  But I saw a guy with a bunch of diecast vehicles.  I asked if he had any GR Supras and he started digging through his boxes.  He found this one:

2024 Hot Wheels Green and Gold #3

I've been trying to track down all of the MK5 Supra die cast cars and this is one of the ones I needed.  I normally wouldn't pay this much for a non-premium Hot Wheel, but the guy did take the time to look for it.

Freebie #1:  1992 Tom Seaver Opened Kenner SLU

When I was done walking the entire flea market, I went back to the guy with the Mother's Cookies sheets.  We were talking about cards and stuff when he pulled this out of a box:

He told me I could have it for free, since the packaging was less than pristine.  The poster and figure are pretty cool:

1992 Kenner SLU Figure & Poster #NNO

But this was the thing I was excited about the most:

1992 Kenner SLU #NNO

He started pulling out other items from the box.  I wasn't really interested in any of it, but I felt obligated to buy something since he gave me this SLU.  So I bought this...

Purchase #4:  2016 Panini NFL Sticker Collection Album  $1

Out of the 485 stickers in the set, this album is only missing 16 of them.  I originally planned on tracking them down, but after wasting so much money trying to build that 1996 Skybox SkyMotion set... I'll probably just leave it as it is.

Well that wraps up my first flea market trip of 2026.  Although I wouldn't call any of these purchases "stellar deals", I am pretty excited about the oddball sets and uncut sheets.

Here is today's question of the day...

Do you collect uncut sheets?

If so...

Do you have any personal favorites in your collection?

Although I love these Mother's Cookies and Cracker Jack sheets, my favorite uncut sheets to collect are Sports Illustrated for Kids magazine cards.

Okay... this post has dragged on long enough.  I appreciate those who stuck it out.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

The Annual Advent Calendar

Every year since 2021, my good friend Ryan (aka SumoMenkoMan) has hooked me up with a custom advent calendar for the holidays.  It's literally twenty-five individually wrapped gifts shipped in a giant box.  In an effort to give you an idea of the size... I laid out some cards across the top of the box:

Here's what I saw when I opened it up on Monday night (yeah, I was a day late):

And here's a look at the advent calendar in its entirety:

Now in a perfect world, I'd sit and hammer out a daily post... just like Nacho Grande does with his Lego City Advent Calendar over on his blog.  Huge props to him for managing his time wisely as he's a husband, father, college professor, group breaker, Lego set maker, Barry Larkin super collector, and board game (and baseball card) blogger all-in-one.

Ryan is in a similar situation... where he's a husband, father, YouTuber, author, sumo card super collector, and proud member of our armed forces.

While... I'm just this single dude who teaches and periodically blogs about cards.  Sadly... I still don't have their time management skills... so I will be taking a slightly different approach.  

Although my plan is to open up Ryan's presents on a daily basis... this year's SumoMenkoMan Advent Calendar will be presented in four parts.  The first three will be published on the first three Saturdays of this month with the fourth part coming out on Christmas morning.

Let's get the ball rolling...

Day #1: Sealed Samurai

Ryan kicked things off with a gorgeous greeting card featuring a samurai in his armor.  He wrote his note on a Post-It note, so that I could use the card for someone else.  That someone else ended up being my father:

In addition to being a greeting card, it's also marketed as a display piece with a special stand.  I chose this route and added it to my father's shelf.  I could probably write an entire post on this display, but for now I just want to point out the greeting card on the right and the PopFuji beer can on the far left... which was part of last year's advent calendar.  

Day #2:  Speeding Tickets

Some of you might be wondering why he would send a pair of Formula 1 Grand Prix of Long Beach tickets from 1980.  Well I collect things related to the Toyota Supra.  And printed on the back of each ticket is an image of the Celica Supra which was the first generation of that car.

Another thing that Ryan knows I love... are unopened packs... especially the Japanese ones.  

Get ready, because the next few days are filled with packs.

Day #3: Three Packs of Terror

2024 is the 70th Anniversary of Godzilla and here are three packs celebrating it:

2024 Ensky Godzilla

I opened one pack to review.  The contents were two acetate cards and one piece of gum:

2024 Ensky Godzilla #04

The first card features an awesome battle scene from Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966).  I haven't seen this film, but I just added it to my Max watchlist.

2024 Ensky Godzilla #31

The second card is a scene from Godzilla: Tokyo SOS (2003).  Another movie I haven't watched yet.

Did you know that there are thirty-eight Godzilla films?  I probably have seen only four or five of them, but Max has a bunch of them... so I'll try to start crossing them off.

The last item in the pack is this individually wrapped piece of gum:  

If you ever tried Japanese gum, there's this fruity flavor that I've never been able to figure out.  The only words to describe it are "sweet", "yummy", and "unique".  Unfortunately the flavor only lasts for a few minutes.

What happens to the other two packs?  Well... one will be reserved for A Pack To Be Named Later... and the other will go into my unopened pack collection.

Day #4:  Four Packs of Calbee

Calbee is a Japanese snack company who is well known for their trading cards.  If you've never seen how they are distributed, the packs come attached to bags of their snacks.

Ryan hooked me up with four bags/packs of 2024 Calbee Series Two.  Each pack contains two cards.  I opened up three packs and pulled these for my Japanese binder:

Toshiaki Imae, Gregory Polanco, & Shota Watanabe

Hiroya Miyagi, Natsuki Takeuchi, & Soichiro Yamazaki

Here's a closer look at the Gregory Polanco:

2024 Calbee Series Two #100

After spending over a decade with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, Polanco crossed the Pacific to play in the NPB.  He's spent the past two seasons with the Chiba Lotte Marines.  Based on the image on the back of his trading card he doesn't seem to be too excited.

But I was excited to see these four packs.  The fourth and final one is going into my unopened pack collection.

Day #5:  Five Packs of K-1 Fighters

Back in 2017, Ryan wrote a review on one of these 1997 Bandai K-1 Fighters packs over on APTBNL.  A few months later, he sent me a bunch of unopened packs... including one of these.  You can check out the contents here.

Yesterday I sat down and opened one more pack.  Here's what I pulled:

I didn't recognize any familiar names, but these will also be added to my Japanese Athlete PC binder.  As for the four remaining packs... one will go to my unopened pack collection, while the other three will go into my rainy day pack stash.

Day #6: Six Packs of Formula Nippon

The popularity of Formula 1 racing seems to have skyrocketed over the past few years.  I have a buddy who loves collecting the trading cards and I even know students who follow the sport.

I honestly don't know much.  But that's not going to prevent me from treasuring these six packs of 1997 Epoch Formula Nippon.

Each pack contains eight cards.  Here's what I pulled out of the first pack I opened:

As with the K-1 packs... I'll set one aside for my collection... and toss the rest into my rainy pack stash.

Day #7:  Seven Snack Packs

Ryan definitely knows what I like, because whenever I go to the Japanese grocery stores in my area... I look for stuff like this:

Each of these items are Japanese snacks that come with some form of trading card.  Based on my previous purchases, they're usually wafer cookies, but I've also seen chocolate or "milky" taffy.

I'm still snacking on the Calbee chips from Day #4... so I won't be tearing into these right now.  However as I eat them, I'll set the cards aside and show them off in a future post.

Until then...

Thank you Ryan for this very generous advent calendar.  Truly appreciate the thought and consideration put into each of these gifts.  I'm still waiting on your "big" present to arrive.  However if it doesn't arrive by early next week... I will just ship your Christmas presents out separately.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!