Thursday, May 29, 2025

Find or Flop?


At the start of the month, I went out to the De Anza Flea Market and found a guy with sandwich bags filled with 50's, 60's, and 70's baseball cards.  He was asking $25 per bag or five bags for $100.  After sifting through about twenty bags, I grabbed these two and offered the vendor $40.  He accepted.

Each bag contained fifty cards... which breaks down to 40¢ per card.  After sitting for three weeks in my office, I finally got around to opening these up.  Let's see if this purchase was a flea market find or a flea market flop.

Obviously for the price, the bulk of the bags were commons.  However I managed to add a few notable names to my vintage binder.  I'll start with the bag of 1961's:  

1961 Topps #20

1961 Topps #503

1961 Topps #483

1961 Topps #80

1961 Topps #41

These five are keepers.  Here's a look at the other forty-five:




There were a few other semi-stars as well as some A's and an unmarked checklist that I added to the binder.  The rest are available if you are building this set (see list of #'s down below).

Next up are the 1959's.  I don't own a lot of singles from this set, so I was happy to add these five to my binder:

1959 Topps #268

1959 Topps #410

1959 Topps #392

1959 Topps #295

1959 Topps #428

Less star power compared to the stack of 1961's, but at least there were some familiar faces and names.




In addition to the first five, I pulled a few semi-stars from these nine pocket pages... along with all of the A's and a pair of unmarked team cards.  The rest are available to those who are working on either of these sets.

Here's a breakdown of what's available:

1961 Topps  100, 116, 131, 151, 182, 190, 193, 201, 206, 213, 216, 225, 236, 242, 253, 259, 272, 275, 283, 285, 334, 339, 352, 378, 418, 458, and 465

1959 Topps  : 29, 43, 72, 75, 84, 94, 167, 169, 170, 188, 196, 199, 207, 219, 223, 232, 242, 258, 277, 285, 299, 308, 323, 347, 370, 379, 386, 419, 434, 454, 479, and 501

In hindsight, this wasn't one of my better purchases (in regards to value), but I wouldn't classify this as a "flop".  I was able to add some singles to my collection.  The rest will either help some of you out with set builds... or go into my box of vintage.

What do you think?  $40 for fifty 1959 Topps cards and fifty 1961 Topps cardsFind or flop You make the call.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

20 comments:

Matt said...

At 40 cents/card, you did very well in my opinion! The League Leaders with Mays and Clemente is a great add!

Bo said...

Agree with Matt, this was a good pickup. A league leader card is not the same value as a base card but having Mays AND Clemente means it never comes cheap. Robin Roberts and early career Harmon Killebrew (first year of the Twins!) are great value adds too.

For my setbuilds, I could use 1959 #84 and #299. Been meaning to check your wantlists anyway, especially when you posted about that A&G set b/c I know I have a lot of extras from there. Thanks!

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

I'm building both sets.

here is the link to my Topps set needs.

https://sites.google.com/site/johnnystradingspot/johnnys-trading-spot/set-builds/topps

Jafronius said...

Yep, it a find for me. I don't have the mentality to drop that much on singles but if there was a scenario to do so, vintage cards would be it. Congrats on the finds!

Crocodile said...

I'm not working on either of those sets, but that's a great find.

AdamE said...

.40 each for vintage is a great deal!!

Jeremya1um said...

I would’ve got as much as I could afford for that price.

Nick Vossbrink said...

Yeah that's a good price on the cards and I bet you had fun with the rip too. You missed Jim Bunning on the 61 Leaders card and a few of the 61 Dodgers show the Coliseum peristyle in the background.

Elliptical Man said...

I think it's a decent deal. Some of those "other" players were pretty good actually. Gilliam, Landis, Roseboro, Haddix, Face.

Anyway, Phillies legend Roberts wins it.

night owl said...

Yup, that's a good buy. I'm not collecting either set, but I add both whenever I find a cheap card. You've already got more than me on both sets in one fell swoop.

gregory said...

No flop there. In fact, if there's a ranking one level above "find", I might apply it to these bags of cards.

Don said...

That is a good buy. Some well known names, hall of famers, and a couple high numbers.

Nachos Grande said...

I agree with pretty much everyone else, great buy! Hard to believe you can get that many cards for such a cheap (per card) price!

sg488 said...

Flop in my book ,unless you like players that played way before you started following baseball.

The Lost Collector said...

Definitely not a flop! Some good names, and the condition of many don't seem too bad at all.

Chris said...

Value wise, I'd say you got a solid deal. But finding vintage grab bags like this is well worth the price!

Matt said...

solid deal!

Fuji said...

matt - the mays/clemente was the key to picking that bag.

bo - i've always liked the fact that league leaders were an affordable way to add stars to a collection. that killebrew was a nice surprise. didn't realize it was his first year with the twins

johnnys trading spot - found two for you. also picked up some braves for you at the card show i attended two weekends ago

jafronius - i've slowed down on my big ticket purchases, but when i do splurge... vintage (or hof autographs) is usually what i'm looking for

crocodile - if you decide to start, you know where to come for help

adame - i probably wouldn't drop 40¢ on most of these... but when you factor in some of the bigger names, i'm okay with the purchase

jeremya1um - i wonder if someone swooped in and made him an offer he couldn't refuse. the guy with those bags definitely wanted to move them.

nick vossbrink - you're right. i didn't catch him until now.

elliptical man - a lot of the guys you listed went into my binder.

night owl - if you decide to build either, let me know and i'll help you out

gregory - lol. i'm happy with the purchase. but there's an upcoming find that i'll be writing about in the next week or so that i'm way happier about.

don - thanks. i was excited to add some new cards to my vintage binder while helping others with their set builds

nachos grande - it would be even sweeter had i been building any of these sets. the guy had a bunch of different years too.

sg488 - i hear ya. vintage isn't for everyone. and i can even see it where 40¢ is too expensive for commons in conditions like these.

the lost collector - they're not in great condition, but they can be decent place holders for people building these sets

chris - i wonder if he'll be back this saturday... and if he is... i wonder if he'll have more.

matt - thanks.

SumoMenkoMan said...

I feel like that’s a great buy. The nostalgia alone….

Fuji said...

sumomenkoman - unfortunately he wasn't there last weekend, but i'm guessing he probably sold all of those bags the first time around.