Flea Market Finds #131: Cards, Concert Tickets, Comics, and a Can

As the temperatures continue to rise here in California... the flea market hot streak continues as well.

Two Saturdays ago was the monthly Branham High School flea market.  It's by far the smallest flea market around, but it usually produces at least one or two purchases due to a high percentage of sports memorabilia dealers.

In fact, the first dealer I walked up to had cards...

Purchase #1:  Baseball Cards  $20

2003 Flair Greats Classic Numbers Dual #NNO

This card was the centerpiece of this twenty dollar purchase.  I'm one of those collectors who still values memorabilia cards... especially when they depict two legends like Bench and Munson.  Unfortunately I didn't realize that this card had a slight crease (near Bench's jersey number) until I came home.

The other three cards are nice add-ons.  I've been looking for the 2009 Goodwin Gwynn relic for awhile now, while you can never have enough autographs of Goose and Pena.

Purchase #2:  Samurai Blue Cards  $1

My buddy Tony opened up a couple of boxes of 2018 Prizm World Cup, so I put together a partial team set and offered him a buck.  I'm missing card #125 Eiji Kawashima, which I hope to pick up eventually.

Purchase #3:  The American Premium Guide to Baseball Cards  $5

I had never seen this book before, but apparently there are plenty of copies floating around out there.  At the time, five bucks felt like a steal for a price guide that predates Beckett Baseball Magazine.  However after some research, I discovered it's pretty much the going rate.

Oh well... I'd rather have this book over two packs of 2018 Topps Series Two any day of the week.


Purchase #4:  1984 Drake's Set  $1

Apparently I missed out on buying vintage hall of famers by about 30 minutes.  This guy was cleaning out his childhood collection and he had 60's and 70's Topps hall of famers in poor condition for very good prices.

By the time I arrived, the 1984 Drake's set was the only thing I was really interested in.  I was pleased to see that it contained this hidden treasure:

I'm a huge fan of oddball rookie issues.  

Purchase #5:  Joe Morgan: A Life in Baseball  $1

There's a guy who sets up at Branham with tons of crates filled with LP's.  I didn't find any records to purchase, but he did have this Joe Morgan book.  Normally I probably wouldn't have bothered picking it up, but I noticed that it came with a special collector's edition baseball card:

The card alone was worth a buck to me.


Purchase #6:  1977 RC Cola Tom Seaver Can  $1

In addition to the Joe Morgan book, the gentleman had a few 1977 RC Cola cans.  At a buck each, I was tempted to buy all of them.  However storage space is limited, so I just grabbed the Seaver. For being 41 years old, it's in surprisingly good condition.

Purchase #7:  Masters of the Universe Comic Books  50¢

I wasn't a very big Masters of the Universe fan when I was a kid, but the price was right so I grabbed the pair.  In regards to value, this was probably the best deal of the day.


Purchase #8:  Concert Ticket Stubs  $5

This is one of those deals that seemed like too good of a deal to pass up.  There are a lot of cool artists ranging from Santana to Aerosmith.  There's approximately 25 different tickets, plus a bunch of duplicates.  I figure I'll try to flip a few and recover some of my expenses.

Well that's my latest round of flea market purchases.  I walked around the Capitol Flea Market this past Sunday and went home empty handed, so I guess the flea market hot streak has officially ended.  Let's hope Mother Nature's heat wave will end as well.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

1979 Topps #204

Back in 1978.. Pete Rose tied a National League record by hitting safely in 44 consecutive games.  If things go as planned, today I should reach 10,000 steps for the 44th day in a row.