30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Flea Market Finds #140: Cards, Cards, Cards

The days of stumbling across guys dumping their collections for pennies on the dollar are few and far between.  However that doesn't mean I've completely given up on the thing this blog is best known for:  my flea market finds.

This past Saturday was the third one of the month... which meant that the Branham High School Flea Market was going to be open for business.  It's small, but has at least three to five guys with sports memorabilia.


Purchase #180's Sports Card Case  $5


The cards are in poor condition, but they were just a bonus.  The main thing I wanted was the caseAnyone else use one of these back in the early 80's?

As soon as I have some free time, I'll sit down and sift through these cards

Next up are three purchases I made off of my buddy Tony...


Purchase #2Fernando Tatis Rookie Cards  $2


Fernando Tatis Jr. is the first Padre in years that I've been excited about.  I'm going old school and hoarding as many cheap rookie cards as I can get my hands on of this guy.


Purchase #3Three for a Buck Singles  $7



I've been thinking about doing a "time capsule" experiment, which involves locking up a few cards for a set period of time, then opening it up and seeing how much the card and player's popularity fluctuates.  I figured that some of these would make excellent candidates for this experiment.

Tony included these two cards in the purchase:

2019 Diamond Kings Blue Framed Parallel #113

2018 Heritage High Number Action Variation #716

I figured I paid $7 for these two short prints and got twenty-one rookie cards for free.  I'm always trying to convince myself that I got a good deal.  ;)

By the way... while I was going through these boxes, legendary card blog supporter... Mr. Haverkamp walked up.  He reached out to me last week and was interested in checking out this flea market, so I emailed him the details.  I'm pretty sure he purchased a few items from Tony's boxes too.

After looking through the cheaper stuff, I started looking at his "hits" and picked out a few memorabilia cards for the collection...


Purchase #4Player Worn Memorabilia Cards  $10



Yeah... yeah... yeah.  I know the odds of these actually being game worn are slim.  But I still enjoy collecting memorabilia cardsTwo bucks each is a little more than I usually pay, but Tony took care of me on the rookie cards, so I didn't mind digging a little deeper into my pockets for these.

A lady with a bunch of random stuff was set up right next to Tony's spot.  She had this tub of baseball cards sitting on a table:


It contained a bunch of 2011 Topps, so I immediately started searching for the famous Trout rookie card.  It took me over twenty minutes to figure out that she didn't.  But I did manage to find a few cards for my collection.


Purchase #5Four Cards for a Dollar  $3


The Votto is in really bad shape... and honestly none of these are worthy of sending in to get graded.

2013 Topps Update #US290

However... there was no way I could pass up these Yelich Update rookie cards for a quarter each.  I was also happy to find this Harper:


2012 Topps #661

The two Trouts at the bottom are second year cards.  Plus there were two overproduced 2013 Topps Griffey inserts that I had added to my binder before scanning them.

The final two purchases came from another regular vendor... although it had been a few months since the last time I had seen him.


Purchase #6Two Shoeboxes Filled With Cards  $5


Like the Sports Card Case... I haven't even bothered looking through these yet.  The last thing I need is more cheap base cards cluttering my office.  However I figured it'd provide one or two hours of entertainment with the chance of finding a handful of cards for my collection.  Worst case scenario, it'll give me something to write about.


Purchase #7Two Small Sets  $2

The guy had a few sets sitting on his table which he offered to sell me for two bucks a piece.  I asked if he'd take two dollars for the pair and he accepted.

1990 ProCards A and AA Minor League Stars

This was the main set I wanted.  It features early cards of three hall of famersJeff Bagwell, Frank Thomas, and Jim Thome.  

2001 SP Legendary Cuts

This is a 90 card set featuring some of the greatest baseball players of all-time.  At a little over a penny a card, this was just too good of a deal to pass up.

Well that wraps up my July Branham High School Flea Market purchases.  I also went out to the Capitol Flea Market the previous weekend.  Didn't find any sports memorabilia, but I did grab a pair of CD's for a buck each:

The Beatles Anthology #1

The Beatles Anthology #2

I haven't listened to these yet, but it's The Beatles.  I'll put them on at some point.

Well that's all for now.  I hope all of you are having a great week.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

24 comments:

The Lost Collector said...

You got a lot! Awesome finds on the Yellich.

I like the idea of a time capsule. I found an unofficial one - a box I had a kid labeled "stars", and it was funny to see some of the card I had in there...a lot of Jose Cruz Jr and Brady Anderson.

Anonymous said...

You got the Beatles Anthology CDs for a buck each??
That is a great score.
They are cool collections made specifically for real fans.
Enjoy!

-anonymous paul-

Zippy Zappy said...

I've had the Anthology CD since I was a kid. It's a great introduction to the Beatles' poppier stuff, but if you want the more experimental stuff it's... not there. At least Free As A Bird is a great track.

Angus said...

Once upon a time I mailed away for a hockey locker from the back of a pack of O-Pee-Chee cards to store my cards. Since I haven't seen it in over thirty years, I'm assuming that I no longer have it.

Collecting Cutch said...

Man you got some amazing deals. The Yeli for a quarter is a sweet score and the Beatles CDs for a buck? Awesome stuff dude!

Jeremy said...

Nice finds. I wish there were some flea markets to find that stuff around here. I feel like the concept of the flea market is no longer as popular as it used to be.

Hackenbush said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Hackenbush said...

My favorite is that Legenday Cuts set. I guess they're not allowed to make sets like that anymore. A shame. Love the blue and gold.

night owl said...

Until you got to the '01 Legendary Cuts, I was getting a little concerned. I could throw a rock out my window and hit a rookie-card hoarder. Cool Beatles tunes buy!

SumoMenkoMan said...

I definitely had one of those cases! Awesome trip down memory lane!

Matt said...

Some great finds with the Yelich and the Harper among other things. Any 80's Giants hiding in that box?

Reds Card Collector said...

Yelich rookie for a quarter? Inconceivable!

Big Tone said...

Love It!Those 1990 minor league cards are a thing of beauty! Delgado looks 15 LOL!

Peter K Steinberg said...

Awesome cards. Seeing Blackmon without facial hair is funny. For some reason when I read your tweet about this I thought of Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell" and have turned it into "Rebel Yelich"! More more more more more.

Matt said...

Yelich and Harper rookies at 4/$1? That's insane! You found some great stuff!

gregory said...

What a great '80s sports card case. I bet it even SMELLS like the '80s.

Fuji said...

the lost collector - the idea of a time capsule came from this movie i just watched on netflix called jack of all trades. guy was looking through his collection for the first time since the 90's. figured i do something like that on a much smaller scale

anonymous paul - the cd's seemed to have a bunch of songs i recognized, so it instantly became a no-brainer for the price

zippy zappy - i'm totally a pop guy. always been the guy who is familier with the songs that get radio play

angus - that'd be a pretty cool one to own. if you did, i wonder if the plastic separators inside held up over the years. the one i bought is pretty badly damaged

collecting cutch - thanks. the yelich was one of my favorite finds. my heart definitely started pumping when i found that card

jeremy - it goes up and down in my area. sometimes i'm really into them... other times i'm not. competition for sports memorabilia has definitely gotten tougher over the past 10 years though.

hackenbush - i'm kinda surprised that topps doesn't do something similar. maybe it has to do with licensing or something

night owl - i started collecting in the 80's... so collecting rookie cards is part of my childhood. but i appreciate a lot of stuff. autographs and vintage are still two of my favorite things to collect.

sumomenkoman - i'm pretty sure this is the same style as the one i had as a kid. if i had to guess, i found it out of a jc penny or sears catalog

sport card collectors - if there are any, i'll set them aside. it didn't look like they're in the best of condition though

reds card collector - yeah. those were some nice hidden treasures

big tone - yeah, they're cool. i've grown to appreciate minor league cards more and more over the years.

peter k steinberg - lol. i should have used that

matt - yeah... they were pretty nice finds. but... i gotta keep it real... they aren't in gem mint condition

gregory - lol. haven't sniffed it. but considering it's filled with cards from the 80's... it might.

The Snorting Bull said...

1. When I first started collecting in 1983 my parents bought me a bunch of those Sports Card Lockers. I had them for a long time before they started cracking. Mine were also covered in stickers, but I had baseball logos and they were on the outside of the box

2. I love the Thome Minor League card on the Burlington Indians. The Royals Appy League affiliate now plays in that stadium, they recognize some of the Indians players that came through town. Since the Indians are a divisional rival the honored Indians players have stalls in the bathroom. Well, I think Bartolo Colon might only be a urinal, but you get the idea.

arpsmith said...

I had two of those exact same lockers as a kid, brings back memories of sorting all of my cards by team. I love that SP set, great find for a buck. I probably would’ve paid 10.

Hackenbush said...

Topps used to have ATFF sets. My understanding is that their agreement calls for a certain percentage of current players in every set. They cannot produce a set just made up of legendary/retired players. I don't see how I benefited in any way from Topps' exclusive contract.

Fuji said...

hackenbush - it's stupid, but it explains why we haven't seen anything like legendary cuts from topps in a while.

Fuji said...

the snorting bull - dang... i like colon. that's jacked up to give him a urinal. guy deserves a spot in the bullpen.

arpsmith - you comment just reminded me that i once had my 1981 fleer set in my locker

Henry Blanchette said...

I'm also very excited about Fernando Tatis Jr. I think he's quietly going to become one of Baseball's brightest stars. He has more upside than any other 2019 rookie, even Vlad Jr and Pete Alonso.

Fuji said...

I agree. I think part of it has to do with him playing in San Diego. Hope he ends up having a solid career. Otherwise in 15 years, I'll be writing about my Tatis collection that's worth pennies.