30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Flea Market Finds #43: Bobbles & Bonds

When:  Sunday, August 4th
Where:  Capitol Flea Market
What:  One Gnome, Two Bobbles, and Three Printing Plates
How much?:  $30

After picking up a bunch of stuff at the De Anza Flea Market last weekend, I was tempted to sleep in the next day and pass on the Capitol Flea Market.  I'm glad I didn't.

I didn't buy nearly as much stuff at Capitol, but this is one of those situations where quality > quantity.

Purchase #1: Three Stadium Giveaways $20

2008 Kurt Suzuki Bobble Head

This is the second Suzuki bobble head I've purchased at the flea market.  The first one was the much rarer black jersey variant that I kept in the box.  This one has Kurt sporting the alternate green jersey.  After opening it up, I discovered that his glove hand had been broken and repaired, but the guy did a nice job and the price was right... so I'm no complaining.  It's already displayed on my bookshelf in my office.

2012 Tommy Lasorda/Walter Alston Bobble Heads

What's better than a bobble head?  Two bobble heads... especially when both guys are hall of famers.

2013 Sergio Romo Gnome

This is the only piece I grabbed with the idea of possibly flipping it.  Anytime I see San Francisco Giants SGA's, I always inquire about them.  The fact is... Giants fans love their SGA's and are willing to pay decent money for them.  The next time I'm selling stuff at the flea market, I'll bring it out with me and see if the right offer comes along.  If not... there's always eBay.


Purchase #2:  Three San Jose Mercury News Printing Plates $10

If I had a hall of fame for flea market finds, this purchase might be enshrined on the first ballot.  These three printing plates are from a few years ago on August 8th, 2007... the day after Barry Bonds passed Hank Aaron on the all-time home run list.

Front Page

Now I'm not saying that I'm a Barry Bonds fan, nor do I condone PED's in baseball.  But that's what is cool about newspapers and history.  News is news.  And whether you're a fan of Barry or not, he entered the record books on 8/7/07 when he launched home run #756 off of Washington's Mike Bacsik.

Sports Section (Morning Edition) 

I tried to find other newspaper printing plates on eBay and discovered that they're actually pretty affordable.  Based on completed sales listings, sports related printing plates generally sell in the $25 to $100 range.

Sports Section (Evening Edition)

I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do with these yet.  They're very fragile and their size makes them difficult to store.  None of them are in pristine condition and the one with Barry and his son is actually pretty banged up.  But whatever I decide to do... this might be the coolest $10 flea market purchase I've every made.

Today's question of the day...

Have you ever saved old newspaper headlines?  If so, which ones?

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

15 comments:

gcrl said...

i think i still have a number of newspapers - a couple of la times from october of 1988 for sure.

Fuji said...

I'm pretty sure I know which 88 headlines you kept. My advice... burn them. Nothing but bad memories for me ;-)

The Lost Collector said...

I have a bunch of old ones- mostly Yanks. I know I have the papers from Ripken passing Gehrig. I also have a clipping from Mantle's 500th HR.

Marcus said...

I still have (somewhere?) papers from Tony Gwynn's 3,000th hit and when Ripken broke Gerhig's record. I think I might have one from '96 when the Padres won the NL West and another one from '05 when the White Sox won the World Series. Hopefully they're still... somewhere. Great question.

Swing And A Pop-up said...

When the Sox won the 2004 Series.

Dawgbones said...

I've got a bunch of Phillies newspapers from the 2008 post season run that my uncle sent down to me last year. Like you, they are to bulky to properly store or display so I don't know if I will hang on to them or not after I've read them.

Hackenbush said...

I have the newspaper/s from the Chicago Bears Super Bowl win over the Pats in Ja. 1986.

Greg Zakwin said...

I think I once had an old newspaper or two, but no idea where they are now if I did hold onto them.

And sweet pickup on the Lasorda/Alston bobble.

Kirk Jacobson said...

Anything related to Cal Ripken's 2130-2131. I bought nearly every newspaper on the way home from the game and all just made th emove with me.

JediJeff said...

Let's see:

Blackhawks win in 2010
Blackhawks win in 2013
Sox win in 2005
Challenger disaster
1994 World Cup

Once, I was rebuilding a kitchen in an old house. Tore out the sink and behind it was a newspaper from the early 20s. Front page showed the home run leaders - Ruth, Foxx, etc.... Unfortunately, it was so fragile it started falling apart as I touched it. Sad I couldn't keep that.

Ana Lu said...

I usualy keep some newspapers when my football team wins the national football championship. Since it doesn't happen that often in these pasting decades I still have plenty of room to store them.

unclemoe said...

I have the paper from Ken Holtzman no hitter. Random right? It came in a lot of things I won off eBay. It was cool so I've hung on to it.

moe.

Yankeejetsfan said...

Love that Lasorda/Alston dual bobble.

I have the newspaper from when Brodeur set the record for most wins by a goalie in the NHL and from each of the Yankees World Series wins from 1996-2009.

Jafronius said...

The dual bobble is nice...also the Sergio gnome is pretty funny. I have headlines from the Bulls championships and the Sox title (even as a Cubs fan, news is news). I also had clippings from the US / Iraq war (1991) and a few presidential elections. Stopped when I no longer got the newspaper, so no Blackhawks championships because I was too lazy to go buy one.

Fuji said...

The guy has two more no-hitters for the Cubs... than the Padres have in their entire franchise history. Gotta love my Padres ;-)