Flea Market Finds #36: An Insane Abundance of Randomness

When:  Sunday, August 21st
Where:  Capitol Flea Market
What:  Way Too Much To List
How Much?:  $43

I apologize in advance for this long post, but that's what happens when you spend three hours walking around a flea market loaded with interesting items.  It's pretty rare that I take a trip to my car to drop things off.  Last Sunday, I made two trips.

So without further adieu, here's a look at my finds...

Purchase #1:  Sports Cards  $20

I stumbled across a guy who has been slowly dumping his collection over the past few years and now he's finally down to the leftovers.  I spent an hour sifting through his binders and the singles he scattered across his six foot tables.

To make things a little easier to understand, I'll break the purchase down into three parts...

Part A:  Singles  $5

He had hundreds of singles in Card Savers and top loaders.  He was looking to get $1/card, but after hanging out and socializing, he hooked me up with these seven cards for $5.  These cards are in really good condition for being thrown out on a table with the exception of the Brodie (slight crease) and the Brown (rounded corners).

Part B:  Pages  $5

The guy also had six or seven binders full of cards.  He wanted $30/binder or $2/page.  I pretty much focused on the pages with vintage cards and in the end, he told me I could have five pages for five dollars.

Part C:  More Singles  $10

Within the scattered singles, certain cards were singled out with recent eBay prices.  I ended up grabbing these three vintage football hall of famers, plus a 1988 Oakland Raiders oddball set with this cool first year Bo Jackson.  According to his searches, the three cards and the set were in the $30 range (it's actually much lower).  He asked me if $10 was fair and I accepted.

In the end, I spent $20... but was able to add a ton of stars to my vintage binder.  Plus it was cool to hang out with another collector and reminisce on our cardboard memories.


Purchase #2:  Kenner Starting Lineups  $8

1993 Mark Messier (Canadian)

1996 Rod Carew (Anaheim Convention)

1997 Terrell Davis

Have I told you about my addiction to Kenner Starting Lineups?  It truly is a sickness.


Purchase #3:  Holograms & Commemorative Tickets  $5

Do you remember these?  Each hologram came with a ticket and if I remember correctly, the card shop I worked at during the early 90's sold them for $10 to $20 each.

I've actually see these pop up every now and then at card shows and during my flea market runs, but people usually want way too much.


Purchase #4:  Mr. T Bobble Head and a Shaun Alexander McFarlane  $3

I have absolutely no use for a Mr. T bobble head, but the Alexander figure will look awesome next to my autographed mini helmet.  The guy was asking for $4 for the pair, so I asked if he'd take $3.  I pity the fool who'd pay more.

Purchase #5:  Garfield Print w/Jim Davis Autograph  $2

This is easily my favorite purchase of the day and that's saying a lot, because I love SLU's and vintage cards.

Garfield and Jim Davis take me back to my elementary years, when I'd beg my mom to buy me their books at the book fair.  One of these days, I'll have it reframed (this one is trashed) when I find some wall space in my office or classroom for this awesome print.

Purchase #6:  2001 Bandai Ichiro Figure  $3

I'm not exactly sure what this is.  It's either a figure or a model kit.  Whatever it is, it's from Ichiro's first year in the MLB and it was made in Japan.

In other words, it'll make an awesome addition to my Ichiro PC.


Purchase #7:  Comic Books  $2

Yup.  More comic books.  I'm pretty sure this makes three weeks in a row.  Once again, I can't stay away from first issues and cool covers.  Oh well, at least I didn't buy thirty-five of them like last week.

Okay... that's all folks.  Time to take a break after spending the last two hours organizing and scanning these flea market purchases.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!