Flea Market Finds #164: Finest Find of the Year

Picture the perfect Saturday.  Does yours involve family?  Friends?  Food?  Cards?  Sports?

This past Saturday may not have been perfect, but it was close.  The day started out with a trip to the flea market, a card show, and a delicious lunch with a childhood friend.  And ended with the A's and Padres winning... and the Diamondbacks and Dodgers losing.  Plus there was a short, but much needed nap tossed into the mix.  Arguably the best Saturday of the 2024 summer.

Today's post focuses on what I picked up at the Branham Flea Market.  This monthly flea market takes place in a local high school's parking lot and probably averages 50 to 70 vendors.  My favorite thing about this particular flea market is that there always seems to be a few first-time vendors who came out in an effort to clear out their personal belongings.

All three of my purchases were from people I had never seen before and two of them seemed to be doing some summer cleaning...

Purchase #1:   Oakland A's Stuff  $10

About halfway through the flea market, I came across a guy with a bunch of Oakland A's memorabilia on a table.  We started chatting about the A's leaving Oakland and he showed off a few of his items.  Two things really caught my eye.  He had one of those plastic batting helmets from the 80's that was still in the original packaging for $15.

Ultimately I put it back on the table and settled for this instead...

1979 Oakland A's Scorebook

The guy had six or seven game programs and scorebooks from the late 70's and early 80's.  This one is from 1979 and had five ticket stubs stapled to the cover:

This is the year that Rickey Henderson made his MLB debut.  Unfortunately all five of these games were from the pre-Rickey era... although the last one took place only six days before.

Purchase #2:  1993-94 Finest Basketball Set  $20

Back in 1993, I was on a break from the hobby.  It was probably a good thing, because I was in college and there was no way I could afford Topps Finest baseball or basketball.

Even when I was on the outside looking in, I knew both of these products were popular, hard to find, and very expensive.  In 1994, I returned to collecting (thanks to the 1994 NBA Draft class) and this set was way out of my budget.

1993-94 Finest #1

Over the years, I really wanted to add the Michael Jordan to my collection... but I just couldn't justify spending $30 to $50 for a base card from the middle of his career.

That's why I was super stoked to pick up the entire set for less than the price of a Topps Series 2 blaster.

The vendor who sold me it bought a large collection from an estate sale, pulled out the stuff he wanted, and was selling the rest to recoup his money.  As expected, he was trying to dump a lot of Junk Wax Era sets and singles with prices ranging from outrageously overpriced to a deal like this set.

1993-94 Finest #189

At the time of purchase, I wasn't 100% sure the set was complete.  The Jordan and the Penny rookie card were in top loaders, but the rest of the cards weren't in order.  The $20 price tag was worth the risk and it paid off.

1993-94 Finest #3

1993-94 Finest #212

I eventually sat down, sorted the cards, gave each one a brand new penny sleeve, and put them into a new 400ct. box.  This might just be my favorite flea market purchase of the year.

However since the Jordan is part of the set... I still need to find a copy for my player collection.

Purchase #3:  Dollar Bin Cards  $3

The final purchase was from one of those "garage sale" vendors.  This family had everything ranging from dvd's to used clothes to kitchen appliances to unwanted toys.  On the ground were three 3,000ct. boxes filled with cards from the late 80's and early 90's.

I quickly glanced at them and almost walked away... when I noticed this black bordered card:

1985 Topps #251

This Warren Moon rookie card is pretty beat up, but it was enough to catch my attention.  The guy was looking to sell everything, but after telling him I probably would only want a few cards he told me I could have whatever I wanted for a buck a piece.

After digging through his boxes for about ten minutes, I added these two cards to the stack:

1990 Score #697

I'm a sucker for this Bo and will always fork over a buck to add it to the binder.

1998-99 Topps Chrome Season's Best Refractor #SB12

The other card I found was this Kevin Garnett refractor.  We currently live in an era where refractors seemed to be pulled in every other pack.  This card came from an era where collectors appreciated the refractor when they pulled one.

Well that wraps up my latest trip to the flea market.  Not a lot of quantity... but very happy with the quality.

The card show I went to right after this was exactly the opposite: quantity over quality.  But I'll save that for another post.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!