30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Flea Market Finds #21: Flea Market Trifecta

Last week, I enjoyed my vacation by hitting three different flea markets in four days.  My buddy Mike was set up at each of them, so I figured I'd hang out with him and see if I could find anything interesting to add to my collection.

When: Thursday, August 2nd
Where: Capitol Flea Market
What: Non Sports Collection
How Much?: $4



There just something amazing about holograms from the 90's.   I've written numerous posts describing my love for these and I wouldn't expect a change anytime soon.

I discovered these in a brown bag next to some X-Men trading card boxes.  As I examined the boxes to see if there were any unopened packs, the guy told me there was more stuff in the bag.  Sitting right on top was the complete set of X-Men holograms.  I immediately asked the guy how much he wanted and he told me $15 for everything.  I countered with $4... but explained that I only wanted the bag and he accepted.



In addition to the hologram set, the bag contained some non-sport promos and two complete sets.  I've collected promo cards since the 90's, but have very few non-sport promos.  So any addition is a nice addition.  As for the sets... they'll be recycled and sold at next month's flea market.


When: Saturday, August 4th
Where:
Berryessa Flea Market
What: Sports Card Collection
How Much?: $12



This purchase may not be as impressive as the Black Swamp Find, but it's one of my best purchases in recent years.  No there weren't any vintage Mantles or Montana rookies.  But there were over 300 inserts, 150 rookie cards, 100 parallels, 5 insert sets, and 3 complete sets.

Most of the stuff was football, but there was some baseball and basketball sprinkled in.  I'm a little strapped for time, so I'll highlight some of the stuff in future posts.


When: Sunday, August 5th
Where: Santa Cruz Flea Market
What: Boxing & Baseball Card Sets
How Much?: $5



What's the saying?   Win some... lose some.  (IMHO) My Berryessa find was pretty awesome, but I can't say the same for Santa Cruz.

In fact, this is one of my worst flea market finds.  Everything is based on the big black box you see above, since the other two sets are cool... but not worth much.  When I made the purchase, I thought the black Stadium Club box was one of those Member's Only sets from the early 90's.  It turned out to be the 1992 Stadium Club Dome Set... without the dome.  However that's not the worst of it.  Turns out... the Manny and all of the other valuable cards were pulled a long time ago... which means I purchased a box of 1992 Stadium Club commons.

That's what I get for not opening the box up to see if everything was in it.   At least the 1987 Fleer Miniatures and 1991 Ringlords sets are still factory sealed.  One of these days, I'll pop them open and do a write up on them.

Today's question of the day...

Have you ever purchased a set only to find out that the key cards were missing?

Sorry... the contest is over.   So points will not be awarded.  But that's good for me... I'm excited to get back in the "posting" groove without the stress of tallying up points.

Okay... I apologize for the drawn out post, but I had a lot to cover and didn't want to do three mini posts.  Happy Hump Day and sayonara!

15 comments:

  1. I have not, but I love your collection purchase! I'm curious to see some of the goodies in those binders!

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    1. If you're a fan of 90's inserts, then you'll appreciate it. There weren't any $100 cards, but I was able to add 50 to 60 cards to my 90's insert binder. That alone made it worth the purchase.

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    2. I love 'em! The Blowout forums (especially Basketball) rekindled my love for crazy inserts of all sports.

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  2. I just purchased a "complete" 2011 Score football set off of ebay but it was missing 40-50 cards - I got my money back though

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    Replies
    1. Just curious... did you have to ship the incomplete set back? If so, did you have to fork over the shipping fees or did the seller cover it?

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  3. Back in 1990 I bought a 1990 Fleer factory set, and it was short two commons... no key cards, unless you consider Frank Eufemia to be key. After that I never assumed that a set was complete, even if it's factory sealed.

    ...and I never did complete that set.

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    Replies
    1. Hmmm... good point. Now I'll definitely have to pop open the 87 Fleer Miniatures and 91 Ringlord sets.

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  4. I've never purchased a full set, it'd be a lot like a jigsaw from a charity shop!

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    1. I've considered purchasing some cool jigsaw puzzles from the flea market in the past (actually just saw an awesome Bruce Lee puzzle this weekend), but never pulled the trigger, b/c I'm afraid I'll come up a few pieces short.

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  5. I think the only full hand-collated set I've ever bought was from a hobby shop and it was 1995 Topps Traded, so only 132 cards I think. So for two reasons the seller would have good reason not to short me, 1, I knew where he worked, and 2, you can't leave too many cards out of 132 before it becomes noticeable.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah... that's definitely the best way to lose a customer's trust. Unfortunately for me, there are not guarantees at the flea market... and I'm sure the vendor could care less if I trusted him or not ;-)

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  6. No I have not, nor would I buy a card with a piece of black tape on it either!

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    1. LOL... yeah usually I'd be upset, but I guess he knew I'm trying to keep the blog G rated ;-)

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  7. Back in high school I was over at a friend's house. One of his neighbors was a few years younger than us and also collected baseball cards. He came over with a 1990 Upper Deck factory set and offered to sell it to me for $20. That sounded like a good idea at the time so I bought the set. I crack it open, start looking at the cards and find that every single rookie and major star had been ganked from the set. I read the guy the riot act and pretty much had to force him to hand over all the cards he pulled because he had already spent the cash. Even so, there were about a dozen cards missing when all was said and done including McGwire and Ryan. I probably have completed the set by osmosis by now but I still don't have it all in once place.

    And where are all these nekkid art card sets at? I see promo cards for them all the time, but I've never actually seen any of the cards. I need to find me some sleazier card dealers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The early 90's had a few of these "nekkid" art card sets. I'm pretty sure I own two now: Olivia (pictured above) & Boris (another art card set w/ I believe some nude illustrations).

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