Where: Capitol Flea Market
What: A Baseball Card Binder
How Much? $20
I'm on a pretty strict cardboard budget after the purchases I made earlier this month. But there's just something about vintage cards... I just can't walk away from them.
My buddy and I were just about to wrap up our flea market tour, when we stumbled across a guy with a tub of cards and a binder filled with everything from late 90's parallels to junk wax era inserts to good old vintage base cards.
As I flipped through the binder, there wasn't anything that was going to pay next month's mortgage. No Mantles or Mays. But there were around one hundred 60's and 70's Topps cards, including a few stars. After going back and forth on a price, we settled on $20 for the binder... which isn't exactly a steal... but it's a price I was willing to pay.
Most of the newer stuff is garbage, but I did find a few cards for my personal collection:
1985 Topps Woolworth's #15
Remember Topps and their 44 card, retail oddball sets from the 80's? This one commemorates one of my favorite pitchers from the era and the MLB strikeout record by a rookie pitcher that still stands today.
1983 Fleer #643 and #644
Did you rip Fleer products in the mid 80's? If so, then I'm sure you remember their cool, 2-card puzzle subsets. Black & Blue. Speed & Power. Carew & Boggs. Sax & Thon. Good times... good times.
1990 Fleer Soaring Stars #6
This card is proof that inserts don't have to be autographed, holograms, foil wrapped, embossed, refractors, shiny, or die-cut to be awesome.
1989 Pacific Legends II #220
Can't say for sure... but this might just be the first Shoeless Joe Jackson. It's not worth much, but it's a nice addition to my collection.
And finally a few of my favorite vintage cards:
1972 Topps #420
I already own this card, but I needed an extra one for my vintage card binder. Actually there were a few cool pitchers in this binder: Seaver, Blyleven, and Jenkins. But Lefty is easily my favorite.
1972 Topps #454
What's so cool about this card? It's the team card of my favorite team from my birth year. According to Beckett it's worth $2, but to me it's priceless.
1972 Topps #???
Okay, it's your turn:
What do you miss more? Topps' 44-card box sets or Fleer 2-card puzzle subsets?
Happy Tuesday and sayonara!
I never saw the 44-card box sets, they came out during a period I stopped collecting.
ReplyDeleteThe 2-card puzzle thing was cool. I especially remember the Sax-Thon one.
$20s for all those '60s and '70s, including that Red Sox '72 one? That's tremendous.
They were similar to Fleer's 44 card box sets from the same time period. They're cool oddballs, but don't hold much value.
Delete$20 is a steal for all those cards. Why the hell does my flea market suck so?
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't remember either of those subsets. I'll go stand in the corner name and be shamed.
If you only knew how often I go out and find nothing at the local flea markets. Luckily it's one of my favorite things to do... walk around and look through other people's trash.
DeleteYou should check out the Fleer puzzle subsets. If you're a fan of 80's base, they're some of the coolest cards around.
Fuji, dunno if you're building the '61 set or not (or if he crosses over into your PCs), but is that '61 Clem Labine available?
ReplyDeleteIt's yours. Email me your address and I'll ship it out to you.
DeleteDefinitely the Fleer combo cards. I'd scanned a bunch of them last month, but I haven't gotten around to posting them yet. I guess I'll leave out the "Black And Blue" cards... :-D
ReplyDeleteI felt like I was one of the few people in the 1980's who liked Fleer. I appreciated the goofy stuff like this that they did, plus the understated (some would say dull) designs they used.
I say post the Black & Blue... the more exposure, the better. Maybe we can start a new cardboard revolution ;-)
DeleteI enjoyed a lot of the different 80's Fleer designs... especially the brown bordered 83 set, the blue striped 84 set, the color coordinated 85 set, and the fade to white 87 set.
Love those Fleer combo cards! The '85 Fleer set if my favorite Fleer set from the '80's, because of the team logo in the top-left corner. So easy to sort by team! (Although, if the cards were in numerical order, Fleer had already sorted them by team!)
ReplyDeleteLoved how Fleer sorted their sets by teams... made building/sorting them so much easier ;-)
DeleteI'd say that was a deal. Nice find.
ReplyDeleteThanks PATP! I gotta admit... the cards weren't in exactly nice shape. But I was able to add 12 to 15 new cards to my vintage star binder.
DeleteThe 72 A'S team card is a great pickup,your favorite team ,birth year ,and they won the World Series that year.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I already owned one, but it's part of my 1972 A's team set. However, I needed one for my vintage card binder... so I was pretty happy to acquire it.
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