Flea Market Finds #61: Clemente, Cespedes, and Comics

When: Saturday, April 19th
Where: Branham High School Flea Market
What: Clemente and Crap
How Much?: $17

After I set up my table on Saturday, I decided to walk around and check out what everyone else was selling.  The guy across from us is a regular and the same guy who sold me a bunch of vintage Bowmans back in January, so I headed over to him and immediately made my first purchase.

Purchase #1: 1970 Topps Posters #21 Roberto Clemente $1

It was love at first sight.  As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted it... but I made sure to play it cool.  I picked up a few other items, before finally asking about the poster.  He told me any of the posters were a dollar.  The Clemente has "browned" over the years and is torn in a couple of spots, but there was no way I was going to pass up this deal.

He also had a Johnny Bench and a Rod Carew, but both of them were in very poor condition, so I passed.  Although... for the price I'm sort of having second thoughts.

Purchase #2:  Mussina Autograph and Cespedes Refractor $10 

This purchase is a simple case of the "pros" outweighing the "cons".  On one hand, I don't like the New York Yankees.  They're right up there with the San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys, and Detroit Red Wings in terms of teams I truly dislike.

However... it's hard not to admire what Mike Mussina did on the diamond during his years at Stanford University and while playing in Baltimore and New York.  I also like the overall look of the card and the on-card autograph.

I just wasn't sure I wanted to pay the $10 sticker price, so I asked him if he'd be willing to throw in this 2012 Finest refractor rookie card:

He accepted, I paid, and now both cards reside in my collection.


Purchase #3:  Comics and Baseball Programs $1

Things died down by 1pm, so I figured I'd make one more round around the flea market.  Half of the vendors were packing up, which sometimes means people lower their prices in order to avoid hauling their junk home.

This was one of those situations.

I stopped by this guy's table earlier in the morning, because I was checking out some old Transformers he had.  Unfortunately he sold them about an hour earlier.  But he had a table full of old magazines priced at four for a dollar.  Here's what I grabbed:

An early 80's Oakland Athletics program with Rickey on the cover?  I'll take that.  The other three items are gravy:

Purchase #4:  2011 Panini Madden 12 HOF Edition Autograph $5

What happens when your buddy offers you an oddball, on-card autograph of a hall of famer for the low price of five bucks?  Ummm... you buy it.

Overall... I was pretty happy with my purchases.  After spending seven hours set up as a vendor, I walked away with some nice items for my collection and more money in my pocket than I started the day with.  That'll come in handy this upcoming weekend at the TRISTAR Collector's Show.

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!