Swap Meet Swapping

Yesterday I set up at the De Anza Flea Market and hung out with some of my sports memorabilia buddies.

I brought out a bunch of used dvd's that my friend gave me, some random items I've been picking up at the flea market to flip, and this collection of sports card binders that I've been trying to dump on Craigslist the past few months:

I had filled the binders with leftover cards from collections I purchased over the past two years at the flea market, so there wasn't anything spectacular in them.  However... the binders and pages alone, would have been worth the purchase price.

Unfortunately, I only sold two... maybe three of them for $5 to $10/each during that time.  It had gotten to the point where I was about to give them away just to get rid of the clutter in my garage.  So yesterday's flea market adventure was going to be my final attempt to sell them.  After that, my plan was going to hand them out to my students.

As soon as I began unloading them from my buddy's van, my other buddy asked if I was interested in trading them.

Uh... heck yeah, I was.

After we set up... I started digging through his stuff and found four 1994 World Cup pin sets, that at one time retailed for around $200/set.  There are three different sets...

Plus one extra set of the country crests.  Each set contains twenty-four pins housed in a nice wooden frame.  Pins aren't really my thing, but they're really nice and are easier to store than binders.

He ended up giving me the four pin sets for the collection of binders and twenty dollars cash.

A few minutes later... he purchased some stuff off of my table (items I purchased at the flea market in the past)...

He spent $15 on my autographed Roger Craig VHS tape (I paid a buck), the Ronald Reagan doll I purchased last week (I paid $3), and a San Francisco Giants team set.

So when the dust settled the trade looked more like this:

I received four pin sets and in return he got a ton of sports card binders filled with cards, a Roger Craig autograph, a Ronald Reagan doll, a San Francisco Giants team set, and $5.  The trade immediately paid off for him as he ended up selling more binders in one day, than I sold in two months.

I'm hoping that since the World Cup starts in a few days, I'm able to capitalize off of the hype and flip these pins for some cash on eBay.  Only time will tell.

Worst case scenario... I get stuck with these pin sets, but at least they're less bulky than those damn binders.

Stay tuned.  I'll share my flea market finds in tomorrow's post.  Until then...

Happy Sunday and sayonara!