A big part of it has to do with the fact that I don't walk around the Capitol Flea Market on a weekly basis anymore, because there just aren't enough quality finds to justify my free time. I'd rather sleep in on Sundays. I'll still go there a few times a year, but most of my weekend trips are to the De Anza Community College Flea Market on the first Saturday of each month and the Branham High School Flea Market on the third Saturday of each month.
Today's post summarizes my last two trips to these flea markets. I'll go ahead and start with the most recent purchases, which took place at De Anza last weekend. Both of them were from my buddy Tony who is a regular vendor at both flea markets.
De Anza Purchase #1: 2017 Topps Factory Set $25
Tony has been lugging this set around for the past two years and he finally dropped his asking price into a range I was comfortable spending. This particular retail factory set contains an exclusive Derek Jeter Chrome reprint card and five rookie variations, including guys like Aaron Judge, Andrew Benintendi, and Alex Bregman.
Originally, I was going to open up this set and check them out, but Cardboard Connection already showed them off on their site. So I'm just going to keep my set sealed for the time being.
De Anza Purchase #2: Fernando Tatis Jr. Rookie Cards $10
2019 Topps Archives #75
2019 Topps Heritage High Number #517 (x2)
I paid top dollar for these three rookie cards, but I'm a firm believer that buyers and sellers need to take care of each other from time to time... especially when they're friends.
De Anza Freebies: 1997 MotionVision Cards
After spending $35 with him, Tony told me I could take these two Motion Vision cards. These things were impossible to scan clearly, so I ended up taking a photograph with some back lighting. And after manipulating each with a photo editor, you're able to see the two cards much more clearly here:
1997 Motion Vision #11
1997 Motion Vision #17
These lenticular-like cards feature several seconds of footage from the athlete and are cooler to look at in-person. It's a nice reminder of just how innovative card companies were back in the 90's.
Well that wraps up this weekend's flea market haul. De Anza was sort of like a ghost town. I'm not sure if it was the weather or if people were still on their vacations, but the number of vendors and visitors were way below average.
The same thing could be said for the Branham Flea Market back on December 21st. Tony was there too, but I didn't buy anything from him that day. I did manage to pick up a pair of random things, because the price was right.
Branham Purchase #1: Non-Sports and Yu-Gi-Oh Collection $5
A guy had a stack of 9-pocket pages filled with non-sports cards and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. The 1993 Marvel Masterpieces set was the first thing that caught my eye:
1993 Skybox Marvel Masterpieces 2 Set
I'm a big fan of the 90's Marvel trading card sets and when the guy told me I could have the entire stack of pages for $5, I knew this was too good of a deal to pass up. This 90 card set typically sells for $10 to $20 by itself.
1993 Skybox Marvel Universe IV 2099 Insert Set
This is a nine card insert set from a different product which can fetch anywhere from $10 to $15 on eBay. I may or may not already own this set.
1992 Comic Images Youngblood Prism Set
The third and final comic based trading card set was this six card insert set. In addition to these prisms, there was also a partial set of the base cards that was missing one card. I'll have to dig through my non-sports stuff to see if I have any extra Youngblood cards laying around.
There were also over 90 Yu-Gi-Oh! foil cards. I spent a few hours looking them up on eBay and here were some of the nicer ones...
I've never played Yu-Gi-Oh!, but I remember that some of the dragons were pretty popular. Here are three of the higher valued ones in the collection:
And whoever had originally put this collection together, must have opened a few of the Shonen Jump 10th Anniversary packs, because there were multiples copies these cards:
10th Anniversary Set
The Blue-Eyes White Dragon is the top-dollar card in this set. It typically sells in the $20 to $30 range, but can sometimes sell for upwards of $40.
I've been considering a series called Flea Market Flips, where I sell some of my flea market purchases, then use the profits for future flea market purchases. This Yu-Gu-Oh! collection would probably be a good place to start.
The other thing I purchased that day was an item I'll probably flip too...
Branham Purchase #2: Wizard of Oz Monopoly (1998) $10
As much as I enjoy a good game of Monopoly, this purchase was purely for resale purposes only. I saw this sitting on a woman's table and she said I could have it for $10. A quick peek at completed listings revealed another deal too good to pass up.
Well there you have it. My first flea market purchase of 2020... as well as my final two flea market purchases of 2019. Barring poor weather, illness, or another kind of distraction, I'll be heading to Branham again two Saturdays from now. My first card show of 2020 will take place the Saturday after that.
Happy Tuesday and sayonara!
12 comments:
That Motion Vision Favre is awesome!
Amazing haul!
I got an extra base set of the Marvel Universe IV cards to go with those 2099 inserts if you need it. A few of my base cards are signed by voice actor Steve Blum who has done a number of voices for Marvel characters in the animation world over the years.
Nice grabs! $25 for a factory set is good stuff!
That would be a fun series to follow.
Nice deal on that factory set, and I never knew there was such a thing as Wizard of Oz Monopoly! Love it!
Judging by what I've seen on Twitter, posts about flipping stuff would probably do very well numbers wise.
Julie - ACB here. Great pickup on the game! Was it sealed? Even if not, it's a good one to flip!!
I like your idea of a flea market flip. I say go for it! Nice pickups!
Those Motion Vision cards were pretty cool. I'm still amazed at how much footage they fit on them. Early GIF cards, I guess.
A few years back I had a student who would throw Yu-Gi-Oh cards at me in class when he got upset.
"My dragon will show you what he thinks of this math center"
It was hard to keep a straight face.
Great grabs! I wished I had a place to go to get such steals! Favre and Sanders motivision are sweet!
chris - they are pretty cool. i've actually thought about buying a box of this stuff on ebay and building the set.
lee hero - thanks for the offer. i actually have the series 4 set already. i have series 1 too. just need 2 more cards for the series 2 and 2 more cards for the series 4 and i'll be done with that project :) those signed blum cards sound really cool.
base card hero - afterwards he was telling me he paid the full price at target a few years ago... which is why i ended paying him top dollar on those tatis rookie cards.
the lost collector - i just have to find the time to list items on ebay. hoping it'll get off the ground at some point.
shoeboxlegends - seems like they make a monopoly for just about any topic you can imagine ;)
jon - for me it all just comes down to time and motivation. if it ever comes to fruition, my readers will be the first to know
julie - yeah, it was sealed. the only opened monopoly i bought was "the nightmare before christmas" version that i immediately flipped.
sumomenkoman - looks like a few people would be interested in seeing me do a flea market flip post. now i just need to find the time and motivation
trevor p - yeah, there's a lot of footage on each card. if i can find a cheap box of this stuff, i might end up building a complete set
the snorting bull - oh man... you must teach little ones. i can't even begin to imagine one of my middle school students doing that. but like you said... if it did happen, i'd probably bust up laughing
sport card collectors - i used to find tons of deals. these days, they're few and far between. but i am grateful that i have several flea markets to walk around
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