Garage Sale Grabs #1: Private & Personalized

When it comes to shopping for collectibles locally... I prefer flea markets over antique stores, card shops, card shows, social media, or garage sales.  That being said... there's no way I'm passing up the opportunity for a private garage sale with items specifically catered to me.

That's what happened back in April when this woman was helping out with her friend's estate sale.  She had invited me to a street sale, but by the time I arrived, some of the sports related items had already been sold.  She told me there were still plenty of boxes that hadn't been sorted or organized at her house and invited me to come over the following weekend to see for myself.

When I arrived, she had four tables spread out in her driveway and garage with a ton of sports and card related items.  The gentleman's collection was truly impressive.  Unfortunately most of the interesting stuff was more than I was willing to pay.  I did find a few items within my budget...

Purchase #1:  1967 Topps Posters Lot  $50

This was the item I was most excited about.  I really love the design of the 1967 Topps Posters and when I saw that the lot included Mickey Mantle, Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron, I immediately set aside the lot.

1967 Topps Posters #6

1967 Topps Posters #11

The posters were stored in two pocket PVC pages (the thicker gauge plastic pages that people used in the 80's), which made removing the posters a challenge.  They're printed on very thin paper (like newspaper), so they're very fragile (especially along the folds).  

1967 Topps Posters #12

1967 Topps Posters #15

As a result, more than half of these posters are torn or have missing pieces.  I should have examined them at the garage sale.  If I had, I would have asked her to reduce the price or put it back.

Purchase #2:  Ticket Stubs  $40

Giants vs. Dodgers 9/30/99 Ticket Stub

This ticket stub is from the last San Francisco Giants' game at Candlestick Park, which is one of the ballparks from my childhood.  As much as I wanted to add this to my collection, her asking price was a little steep.

I asked her if she'd toss in this ticket stub:

Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Roberto Duran 6/20/80 Ticket Stub

She had a stack of these at the flea market.  This was another situation where I should have paid closer attention to what I was buying.  I thought this was an actual ticket stub to attend the fight.  However the fight took place in Montreal, Canada... not Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

In other words, this was a ticket stub to watch the fight on CCTV at the Sioux Falls Arena.  At least it's content for a blog post.

Purchase #3:  Vintage Lot  $70

The third and final purchase ended up being the best deal... with a pretty cool surprise.  It consisted of ten vintage sports cards:

The key card was the Willie McCovey rookie card:

1960 Topps #316

This is a card I have wanted to own for a long time.  I always assumed it was a high valued card (even in poor conditions), but lower grade copies like this one can be found for under $50... sometimes under $25.

I also added this reasonably priced HOF rookie card to the stack:

1952 Bowman #5

Hidden among the eight remaining cards was this interesting surprise as this card ended up being worth more than the McCovey and Minoso combined:

1963 Post Cereal #119

At first glance, it looks like your standard 60's Post Cereal card.  However after doing a little digging, I discovered that Willie Davis is one of the short prints in the set.

There's also a Jello version of Mr. Davis which is more common and affordable.  The easiest way to spot the difference is look at the red line in the stats area.  If it ends where the blue stars end, then the Davis is from a Jello box.  If the red line extends well past the blue stars, then it's a Post Cereal card.

Well that wraps up my first trip to a garage sale in years.  Not sure if I'm gonna start seeking them out on a regular basis, but if I do... I'll start a Garage Sale Grabs series.

It's not high on the priority list, but you never know.

Until then...

What's the coolest item you have ever found at a garage sale?

I look forward to reading and responding to your comments down below.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

The Sunday Sort: Patches, Planes, & The Professor

The past six Sundays, I've dedicated at least a couple of hours to sorting and scanning with the majority of the cards coming from fellow bloggers.  Sadly... after today I'm down one free Sunday.  After that, I head back into the classroom for my 29th year.

I'm hoping to continue to set aside part of every Sunday to work on hobby related stuff, but we'll have to see how things play out.  The start of every school year is usually very busy.

Anyways... let's get some of the highlight's from today's sort.

Let's start off with some Oakland Athletics that John over at Johnny's Trading Spot sent me last month:

2026 Topps Rainbow Foil #122

This card features two cool patches.  Lawrence Butler has a Las Vegas patch on his right sleeve, while Nick Kurtz features the Tower Bridge in Sacramento on his left sleeve.  I'm not exactly a patch collector, but this card motivated me to go out and purchase a pair of those tower patches for my Athletics PC.

2009 Topps Triple Threads Emerald #128 (#'d 31/50)

Back in the late 2000's, Cahill was considered one of the A's top prospects.  Unfortunately he only had one notable season with them before being sent off to Arizona.  Player aside... this autographed relic is a great looking card with OAKLAND being the center of attention.

1999 SP Authentic Chirography #EC

Whenever I think of Eric Chavez, "underrated" comes to mind.  He never played in the Midsummer Classic, yet he won six consecutive Gold Glove Awards and hit 20+ home runs in seven consecutive seasons with the A's.

John also tossed in a trio of O-Pee-Chee A's:

1984 O-Pee-Chee Baseball

One of these days, I'm going to sit down and build a bunch of team sets.  1980's O-Pee-Chee A's and Padres will be high on the priority list and these three cards will go toward the 1984 A's team set build.

Next up is this really cool Kurt Suzuki insert:

2020 Topps Archives Snapshots Walkoff Wires #WW-KS

This card commemorates Kurt Suzuki's three-run walk-off home run off Edwin Diaz back on 9/3/19.  The Nationals entered the bottom of the ninth trailing the New York Mets by six runs, but walked away winning 11-10.

Here are a few other Japanese guys for my collection:

And a few mascots:

2019 Topps Stickers #'s 210, 227, & 234

And a quartet of vintage airplane cards:

1957 Topps Planes of the World #15, 38, 53, & 60

My dad would have appreciated these cards.

He worked at Lockheed for a few years in the 60's on the SR-71 Blackbird.  I'm hoping Topps will one day produce another set of airplane trading cards and include the famous reconnaissance aircraft.

Rounding out John's care package was a giant stack of Greg Maddux cards.  Half were part of a Maddux Monday giveaway that I won.  The other half was a stack that John Sharp had won and passed along to me.  I picked four favorites from each stack:

Bo over at Baseball Cards Come to Life! also sent me a pair of Greg Maddux cards:

He also included a pair of Jackie Robinson cards and this Hank Greenberg for my Topps Glossy All-Stars project:

1985 Topps Glossy All-Stars #22

One card closer to completing this project.

And rounding out the Sunday Sort is a four-pack of NPB cards from Kenny over at Torren' Up Cards:

The top two cards are from this year's Calbee set.  Unfortunately, when I used Google Translate I didn't recognize either of these guys.  However the two shiny Dream Order cards featured familiar names.

The guy on the bottom-left is Kazuma Okamoto.  He's the starting third baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays.  Next to him is Teruaki Sato.  He is the starting third baseman for the Hanshin Tigers.  If you haven't heard of him, get ready.  There's a good chance he comes over to play in the states in the near future.

Thank you John, Bo, and Kenny for these generous care packages!  And thank you Mr. Sharp for donating your Maddux winnings to me.

I hope all of you had a great weekend.  Happy Sunday and sayonara! 

The Street Sale

This story begins back in early April when I purchased a set of golf cards at the De Anza Flea Market.  The lady who sold it to me explained that it belonged to her friend who had recently passed away.  The gentleman collected a variety of items and she was helping his family with the estate sale.  She asked if I was interested in seeing more of his stuff and invited me to attend a street sale she was setting up.

Unfortunately it was the same day as the Branham Flea Market, so I arrived a little later than I would have liked.  Most of the sports related items she brought out had already been picked through, but I did managed to find a few items for my collection.

Let's check them out...

Purchase #1:  Baseball 33 1/3RPM Records  $20

1977 Scarab Sports Challenge Record #NNO

Although these 6" records seemed familiar, I have never actually seen these before.  Based on the price tags on some of these, they were sold individually back in the day for 69¢.

After I got home, the Mays made me realize these records are similar to another sound and sports related collectible from the 70's: 1971 Mattel Instant Replay vinyl discs.

Here's a side by side comparison, so you can see for yourself:

The shape and artwork resemble each other, but the 1971 disc is smaller and mounted to a thicker vinyl.  On the other hand the 1977 records are printed on flimsy plastic.

They remind me of those records you'd find inside of kid's magazines back in the 70's.  If you know, you know.

This lot contained 9 out of the 12 records produced.  Unfortunately, the three I need to complete the set are all hall of famers:  Johnny Bench, Frank Robinson, and Nolan Ryan.  I have added them to my saved eBay searches, but I doubt I will ever actually complete this set.

Purchase #2:  Ron Ferdinand Lot $20

The gentleman who passed away was a big fan of Ron Ferdinand's work.  I have read a few Dennis the Menace Sunday comics over the years and I'm a huge fan of of original art.  So purchasing this lot was a no-brainer:

There were actually ten items in this lot.  The other three were personalized, so I didn't bother scanning them.  Anyways... can't imagine there's a lot of interest in Dennis the Menace sketches anyways.

Purchase #3:  The Beatles Postcard Lot  $12

There were a ton of Beatles related items like magazines, plates, and pins.  I personally locked in on the cardboard related items, like these postcards:

1964 The Beatles Exhibit Series Postcards #1, 2, 3, & 4

This lot was advertised as a complete set.  However when I got home, I discovered #5 was missing.

1964 The Beatles Exhibit Series Postcards #6, 7, & 8

There are a couple of copies on eBay, but the cheapest one listed is more expensive than what I paid for this lot.  For now... the set remains incomplete.

Purchase #4:  Another Beatles Lot  $12

Next to the postcards, there were two 9-pocket pages with Beatles trading cards.

Nine of them were from the 1964 Topps 3rd Series set.  Here's a closer look at one of them: 

1964 Topps Beatles 3rd Series #121

The other six were from another Topps set from the same year:

Here's a closer look at my favorite card in the lot:

1964 Topps Beatles Color Cards #31

I've already added a few of my favorites into my vintage binder.  The rest went into my vintage box.  Unfortunately half of these had writing on the back.  As soon as I go back into my classroom, I'll grab an eraser.

Purchase #5:  Atari Artist Autograph  $5

One of the other vendors that set up at the street sale was a gentleman who had done some art for Atari back in the 80's.  He was selling these greeting cards that featured different games he had created cover art for.

Pole Position was one of my favorite arcade games back in the day, so I picked that one.  Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Atari actually used this artwork on the 2600 box or manual covers.

No complaints though.  Five bucks was well worth the ten minute conversation I had with him.

Purchase #6:  Water Damaged Wax Box  $10

1981 Topps Raiders of the Lost Ark Wax Box

I saw this box on another vendor's table as I was leaving.  The box obviously suffered from water damage, but a part of me hoped that some of the packs were okay.  They weren't.  Not sure what I'll end up doing with it, but at the very least, the wax wrappers are worth holding onto.

Before I left, the woman explained that this was only a fraction of her friend's collection and invited me over to her house the following weekend for a private and personalized garage sale.  I happily accepted her offer.

But that's a post for another day.  Until then...

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!