Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Flea Market Finds #99: Dirty, Disgusting, and Ghetto

I've been told a few times just how lucky I am to have cool flea markets in my neighborhood.  And to a certain extent, I probably shouldn't take advantage of my situation.  There's the monthly, middle class, community college flea market that takes place on the first Saturday of every month.  Then there's the small, yet cozy high school flea market that takes place once a month.

And then there's the Capitol Drive-In Flea Market.


The actual drive-in theater has been around my entire life and was a pretty popular place to go watch movies on Friday and Saturday nights when I was younger.  The last movie I watched there was Casino Royale close to a decade ago.  To put it gently... it wasn't exactly how I remembered it from my youth.  But then again... I'm sure the number of drive-ins around the country have slowly diminished over the past couple of decades.

As for the flea market itself... I figured I'd let a few of my friends and family describe it to you.  I asked seven people to tell me the first word that comes to mind when they think of the Capitol Drive-Ins.

Four people called it "dirty" or used a synonym for that word.  My mom called it "disgusting".  My buddy who sets up at flea markets on a regular basis, said "junk", because there's rarely anything of "quality" out there.  The last word that came to mind was "ghetto", which is pretty much how I'd describe this flea market.


How ghetto is it?  It's so ghetto that people who attend need to use The Club on their late 80's Honda Civic hatchbacks.

Oh... and it's not out of the ordinary to find a jug of urine sitting next to your car in the parking lot.


The good news is... if you're looking for a stolen bike, broken VCR's, headless Barbie dolls, or stained wash cloths, then the Capitol Flea Market is the place to be.  But don't get the wrong idea.  I'm not complaining.  It provides excellent people watching and a great place to take your Sunday morning walk.  And as you've seen in prior posts... every now and then you can find something to buy.

I haven't gone in a few weeks, because it's been either too wet or too cold, but I managed to go out there during my Thanksgiving break.  Here's some "junk" I grabbed...

Purchase #1:  1991 Conlon Collection Set  $3


These cards aren't exactly going to help me retire early, but if you love the history of baseball... than this is a pretty awesome set.  It's filled with guys who played in the early 20th Century and it's an affordable way to add some hall of famers to your collection.


Purchase #2:  1991 Space Shots Series Two Set $1


I've picked up a few of the Series One sets in the past and was pretty excited to find a copy of the Series Two set.  After doing a little research on this series of space cards, I discovered there was some controversy behind them.  If you're interested you can read about it... here.


Purchase #3:  1989 World Series VHS Tape $1



Don't laugh.  I was actually pretty stoked to find this.  
Oakland A's fans don't have much to celebrate these days, so we live in the past.  Now all I need is get my hands on a WORKING VCR.

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!

12 comments:

Adam said...

Nice find on the Colon Collection set!

Tony L. said...

I hope you mean Conlon. After seeing a bottle of urine, I don't think getting a Colon collection at this flea market would be a good idea. ;-)

Fuji said...

I was thinking to myself... damn autocorrect. Yeah... I won't be purchasing any colon collections anytime soon.

Zippy Zappy said...

The guy who laid out his entire Bartolo Colon collection for sale is quite disappointed.

Hackenbush said...

Great deal on those sets.

Jon said...

I bought that same video about a year ago. And yes, I do have a working VCR that gets a lot of use.

Matt said...

Not bad pickups.

BobWalkthePlank said...

You mean you don't carry a piss jug at the flea market.......Ugh that is gross.

Nick said...

Conlon is one of the best sets ever made.

Mark Hoyle said...

Great find on the Conlon set

Commishbob said...

Conlon set is a terrific pickup. Great photos in it.

I still use a VCR to show old game tapes that I haven't gotten around to converting to digital. I scrounged several from around the district and athletic department because I'm afraid that if I wear one out I'll never find a replacement.

Fuji said...

zippy - the guy with a bartolo colon collection has nobody to blame except himself. although... i gotta admit, i totally want to add an autograph of colon picturing him in his athletics uniform.

hackenbush, sport card collectors, mr. hoyle - thanks

jon - okay... off to amazon to find me a vcr

matthew - lol. told you it's in the hood.

nick - although i wouldn't put it in my top 20 list... i do admit to having a soft spot for that set.

commish - you're a genius. just remembered that there's a vcr on an old tv cart sitting in my pod at work. gonna need to watch this tape during one of my preps.