Mother Nature was looking out for me this weekend. It's been raining off and on the past week or so. Most of the time I enjoy this kind of weather, but I was looking forward to walking around the De Anza Flea Market on Saturday. As luck would have it... no rain was forecasted that morning.
My expectations weren't high. Both vendor and visitor attendance drops during the winter... and there were scattered showers on Friday. But when I drove up, I was pleasantly surprised.
Purchase #1: 1993 Upper Deck Series 2 Baseball Box $40
Not all Junk Wax is junk. About ten minutes into my walk, I stumbled across a guy who had a bunch of Junk Wax Era boxes on his table. Three stood out. One was an early 90's Action Packed football. Another was a 1990 Upper Deck baseball. Then there's the one I bought.
Does it contain a Derek Jeter rookie? I won't find out anytime soon. This is going into my unopened wax box collection. Yup. I'm one of those guys who collects those.
Purchase #2: 1990 Comic Ball Promo Set $5
A few vendors down, I found a binder with some comic cards. The guy wanted $20 for the entire binder, which I'm sure was a fair price. Unfortunately, I didn't really want anything other than this set of promo cards.
Another Junk Wax Era product I like. I already own a complete set of the regular set and the holograms. Now I have the promo card set too.
Purchase #3: 2023 Hot Wheels Premium Fast & Furious $15
I'm a sucker for Toyota Supra MK5 die-cast. Saw this two-pack back in December, but the vendor wanted $20. Found this at a different vendor's booth and he told me $15 is what Target sells them for (if you can find them on the pegs).
Purchase #4: 50¢ Cards $3
There are always a handful of vendors who deal with storage locker purchases. I'm 90% positive this guy was one of them. He had a bunch of 5,000ct. boxes filled with sports cards. The majority were from the last decade or so, but there was some vintage sprinkled in here and there. When I walked up there were a couple of other guys flipping through them.
I spent about thirty minutes going through the boxes. Here's what I pulled out...
2010 Topps A&G #130
There were hundreds of Allen & Ginter cards from a variety of years sitting in these boxes. I would have bought a lot more had they been a dime each. 50¢ is a different story. I only picked up two. Here's the other one:
This was one of those weird purchases where I had just thought about this card the night before. On Friday, I saw on ESPN that Carl Weathers passed away and immediately wondered if I owned any Rocky cards featuring him. When I checked COMC, this card popped up. Not sure if I have one sitting in a box somewhere.
2015 Topps A&G #56
Anyways... I figured I'd grab this copy just in case.
Next up were these three Jordans:
There were hundreds of these Retrospective inserts and I like the A&G singles.... I would have loved to have a bunch of them. But 50¢ each adds up quickly.
2009 Upper Deck 20th Anniversary Retrospective #1009, #1126, & #1131
I seem to have accidentally deleted the sixth card I purchased... which was a Shaquille O'neal Hoops rookie card. But do you really need to see anymore Junk Wax Era cards today?
Well that wraps up my latest trip to the flea market. Not sure when I'll be heading back. Guess it all depends on the weather.
In the meantime... I do have a few posts I'm working on in between staying busy at work and organizing stuff at home.
Until then...
Happy Tuesday and sayonara!
18 comments:
I bought a box of 1993 Upper Deck two months into starting my blog. It was opened immediately.
I don't keep anything wrapped, I rip it all. I remember ripping a box of 1993 Upper Deck years ago, it was a pretty fun rip.
93' UD has a ton of great photos.
So you don't open the Upper Deck box and you buy a Shaq RC but you don't show it? Sheesh.
Voting for Apollo Creed.
You being back at the flea market makes me feel like nature is healing. Nice pickups and RIP Carl Weathers.
👍
How is the US Government ever supposed to keep anything secret when cards start popping up about Area 51? But I so like that Carl Weathers card.
Nice pickups. Doesn't 1993 Upper Deck brick when left alone for 30 years? Probably best to leave it as an unopened box
Looks like you got some good pick-ups. I'm not sure I could collect unopened boxes. The temptation would be too great and I'd have to bust it open. I'm going to have to start finding some flea markets to go to around here. There's one really big one, but I'd like to find a smaller one.
Love the 1993 Upper Deck box. I know you collect unopened boxes, but that would be a tough one for me not to open. Those are great looking cards, some inserts too with the holograms.
Yeah I'd be unable to leave that Upper Deck box sealed as well. That's 100% a set I'd love to build some day.
I miss going to my flea market. Even though I have most of the cards by now, it'd still be hard to resist a box of '93 UD!
You're very lucky to have the outdoor flea market. We dont have those around here and I think they'd be fun to go to.
Seems like everyone wants you to open that box 😂
Oh wow! Some nice pick ups for sure!
I think I may have the complete set of those Looney Tunes cards. I love the Wile E. Coyote's stats.
Hey Fuji. Wanted to get back in touch. I've been out of the game for a good while. Always enjoyed your posts and loved trading with you. Send me a message.
night owl - if i didn't already own hand collated and factory sealed versions of the set, i'd pop it open too.
the angels in order - i open most of the new products i buy, but when it comes to older stuff... i like having it around for that rainy day. plus there's the unopened wax box collection that i probably will never open up
johnnys trading spot - quite possibly the best set ever in regards to photography
elliptical man - lol. i'll pull out the shaq and scan it just for you. i'll post it in my next post
dennis - i was totally bummed that it rained this past saturday, but i'll be back at the flea market in a few weeks (assuming mother nature cooperates).
mark zentkovich - thanks for stopping by
crocodile - i know... i'm sure countries have been studying that card for years now
shlabotnik report - oh no! it does? i just catalogued my 1993 upper deck set. i should pull it out and see if it has bricked.
michael d - my unopened box collection started with some expensive boxes from the 90's that i held onto from my days of working at the lcs. i never opened them b/c the set themselves aren't worth nearly as much as the unopened box. eventually i just started adding more boxes of products i already owned sets for or products that were unique. by the way... what's wrong with the really big flea market? both of the flea markets in my area are kind of small. there's one more that's a little larger, but it's kind of dirty
the snorting bull - i'm obviously in the minority. so far almost everyone has said they couldn't keep that box sealed.
nick vossbrink - it would be fun to build a hand collated set from fresh packs, but it'd get expensive. i bought a 1993 upper deck baseball starter set (missing 40 cards) at the flea market back in 2013 for $5. not sure how i completed it, but i did.
nick - you're not alone. so far almost everyone has said they'd open the box. maybe if i paid $10, but this box wasn't your typical flea market bargain.
uncle charlie's shoebox - yeah... there are two outdoor flea markets i love walking around. there's actually 2 more, but i never go there. one has mostly new stuff... and the other is pretty dirty. before the pandemic i'd go to the dirty one and find some cool deals, but these days there are a lot of collectors out there and it's not really worth my time. as for the box... it's a good thing that i never really was the type to cave into peer pressure
sumomenkoman - one of these days we'll need to hang out and walk around a flea market. i wonder if there are any in japan
ginko-5 - those early 90's comic ball sets were cool. my favorite thing about them were the holograms
chuck's used cards - glad to see you're back in the game.
If priced right, I would've been all over that Action Packed box.
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