Flea Market Finds #174a: A Solid Appetizer

The end of the school year might have been a little busy and stressful, but I try my hardest to set aside the first and third Saturdays of the month for flea markets.  This post is going to focus on half of my purchases made back on May 17th at the Branham High School Flea Market.

That day I spent the majority of my time with one vendor and everything I'm about to show off came from him.  It was the first time I had seen him out there and the first thing I stumbled across was a box of one dollar items.

Purchase #1:  Playing Cards  $5

My friends and I run a board game club at school, so these decks of cards will be added to our collection of games.

Right next to the dollar box were three boxes filled with two dollar items.  There were a bunch of sealed action figures, Funko Pops, and other miscellaneous toys with beat up packaging.  Imagine the toy section at Ross or Marshalls.

Purchase #2:  Stranger Things Comic & Figures  $2

McFarlane Toys Page Punchers Stranger Things

I had never seen these before, but I'm a big fan of the Stranger Things franchise.  The main thing I wanted was the comic and the packaging was in poor condition, so I opened it up.

The item is meant to be displayed:

I don't have the space for that, so I tossed the comic into my collection and gave the figurines to my co-worker's son.

Purchase #3:  Graphic Novel  $2

Batman The Killing Joke Hardcover

I bought a 1st printing copy back in 2013.  But since it's kind of a valuable book... I never opened it.  This copy is a hard cover and it's not in the best condition, so now I'm going to read it.

The vendor also had some boxes of cards.  One of them was a monster box full of relics, autographs, and numbered cards for two bucks each.  I stood there and flipped through every card.

Purchase #4:  An Encapsulated Card  $2

2024 Wild Card Decades Preview National Exclusive

21st Century Green Rainbow Foil #2D3-F3 (#'d 3/10)

I put together a stack of eight or nine cards... hoping he'd take off a buck or two.

He didn't... so I just grabbed this card of Jean Grey.

By the time I was finished with the two dollar box, the guy looking through the three for a buck boxes was finished.  I spent the next thirty minutes digging through them.

Purchase #5:  Three Cards for a Buck  $20

The boxes were filled a lot of sleeved rookie cards and parallels.  That was the bulk of my purchase:

But I also found some interesting non-sports singles:

Not sure if they're worth 33¢ each, but I don't come across Japanese Star Wars or Steve-O cards very often.

I also picked up this run of Jordans from the 1992 Skybox USA set.  What can I say?  I like junk wax Jordans.

The final purchase from this vendor is by far my favorite...


Purchase #6:  Box Bottoms  $3

While digging through the card boxes, I noticed he had some empty boxes under his table.  Inside were three empty 2014 Panini Golden Age boxes with three card panel box panels:

I opened up three boxes of this product myself back in 2019.  I'm hoping I saved these panels, because I'd love to build both panel sets (red and black).

Well that wraps up the first half of my Branham High School Flea Market finds.  I titled this the appetizer, because the next post contains one of my favorite finds of all-time. 

Until then...

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

A Scoop of Coconut-Pineapple Ice Cream

Growing up... Father's Day wasn't really a huge holiday in our family.  Mother's Day was.  But my father was content with hanging out in the garage tinkering with his tools and a special meal prepared by my mom.  I kinda wish I had done more than giving him a card with a few sentences written in it, because he shaped me into who I am.  He's my idol.

I am glad that I had the opportunity to tell him that numerous times over the years.  In fact, I can still hear his response "your mom played a bigger role than me".  Honestly... they both did.  And even though I'm sad they've both passed away... I'm happy they're together again.

Plus I have plenty of different things to help me remember them.  In honor of Father's Day, I wanted to share three of them.

Let's start with the lantern sitting in my friend's front yard.  It's a little hard to see above, because my phone was focused on my wallet card.  Here's a better shot of it:

This lantern sat in front of my parent's house in Las Vegas for years.  The last time I visited the house, the entire family (including my dad) cleaned it out.  He wanted each of his children and grandchildren to take family heirlooms, before the estate sale.

I brought this lantern home to my best friend who had a great relationship with my parents.  And she was especially good to my father after my mother passed away.  I will always be thankful for that.  I'm also grateful that I still get to see this lantern whenever I visit her.

The other two items are trading cards I purchased months back:

2024 Topps A&G Got the Itch #GTI10

2024 Topps A&G Got the Itch #GTI9

One of my father's favorite treats was coconut-pineapple ice cream.  That's what he'd order when my parents would hit up Thrifty's back in my ice cream scooping days.  And that's what he'd get when we went to Lappert's Ice Cream at the California Hotel & Casino in downtown Las Vegas.

So when Topps produced these scratch and sniff cards last year, I knew I had to buy them.  They've been added to the Papa Fuji collection:

Dad... I'm heading over to Rite Aid and grabbing some Thrifty's Coconut-Pineapple ice cream today in your honor.

Happy Father's Day to all of the dads out there!  I hope you are enjoying your special day with your children.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

A Blogger Inspired Purchase w/an Update

Are you ready for some flea market posts?  I hope so, because I have two to three posts worth of purchases that I'll be sharing soon.  There's even a card show purchase I made that hasn't been scanned and put away.

On a more productive note, I did scan two care packages containing forty-six cards for my 2006 Topps Allen & Ginter set build.  The first one was a PWE from Bo (@ Baseball Cards Come to Life!) containing eighteen cards for my set:

Greg over at The Collective Mind sent me thirty-nine cards.  Eleven were cards that Bo also sent.  Twenty-eight were unique:

The two bloggers helped bring my 2006 Topps A&G wantlist from 130 cards down to 84.  

Before

After

Thanks to Bo and Greg.... the set build is 76% complete (266/350) with 25 of the 84 missing cards being short prints.  My Sportlots focus will be on my 2011 Topps Update set, but as soon as that is complete I'm gonna try and wrap this one up.

In the meantime... here are a trio of Magic the Gathering Doctor Who cards I purchased off of eBay last week:

2023 Magic The Gathering Universes

Beyond Doctor Who #0148

2023 Magic The Gathering Universes

Beyond Doctor Who #0005

2023 Magic The Gathering Universes

Beyond Doctor Who #0003

I remember seeing Doctor Who pop up on PBS when I was a kid, but I never stuck around to watch it.  Then in the mid 2000's, I started watching the show when The Ninth and Tenth Doctors were piloting the Tardis with Rose Tyler.

Joe over at The Shlabotnik Report showed off The Fourth Doctor on his blog, which motivated me to pick up these three.

Well that's an update on my 2006 Topps Allen & Ginter set build as well as my latest blog inspired purchase.

My next post will most likely be the first half of my flea market finds from three weeks ago.  Until then...

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Buy Dirt

One week left.  This time next week, I'll be on summer break.  It's not technically a break... since I'm sharing a summer school contract... but the stress of the regular school year is behind me and it's time to focus on me, things around the house, and of course... cards.

But I still have one week left.  Until then, I wanted to share a quick song inspired post.

On my way into work this morning, I was flipping through radio stations and this song was on.  Not sure how many of you appreciate country music, so I'll just get to the point.  The song is called "Buy Dirt" and it immediately made me think of a purchase I made back in December:

This 2 ounce jar is filled with Oakland Coliseum dirt from the final A's game back on September 26th, 2024.  I bought it from an online store called Last Dive Bar which celebrates baseball and memories at the Coliseum.

According to the original ad, one of the owners collected a bunch of the dirt which he shared with their customers for (cough, cough) nominal price.

1984 Mother's Cookies Oakland A's #28

2019 Topps #126

Fifty bucks sounds like a ridiculous amount of money for a small amount of dirt that may or may not be from the last A's game at the Coliseum.  However most of you know how memorable this game was to me as an A's fan who grew up attending games there.

2024 Topps Now #760

2024 Topps Now #761

So when this item became available back in December during my prep period... I immediately added it to my cart and checked out.  I'm glad that I did, because they quickly sold out within a few hours.

The Last Dive Bar still sells these jars and Coliseum dirt, but they've updated the product description.  I'm glad they did, otherwise I'd be way more skeptical about the authenticity of the dirt.

I know this isn't exactly what Jordan Davis and Luke Bryan meant when they sang "Buy Dirt", but I appreciate the reminder to finally write about this purchase.

Happy Friday and sayonara!

Best Day Ever!

Three months ago... I won the Banana Ball Ticket Lottery and purchased tickets for my friend and her mom.  A few weeks ago, the plans changed and I was going in her mom's place.

Part of me was excited, because I have wanted to go to a Savannah Bananas game since I heard about them two years ago.  On the other hand, as I have mentioned in previous posts... things are a little hectic with end-of-the-year activities... so I was feeling a little anxious.  But if the title wasn't a hint... it ended up being a really awesome experience.

I was going to document the entire trip in this post, but after realizing most people don't care about where we shopped and what we snacked on during the drive... 50% of the original post ended up on the cutting room floor.

Let's get to the interesting stuff (well the stuff I find interesting)...

We arrived at Angels Stadium... about five hours before the game.  Temperatures were in the low 90's, but we were stuck standing around on the black asphalt with hardly any shade to be found.  The first hour or so wasn't too bad, but thing got a little heated from about 3:30 to 6pm.  Literally.

While everyone waited to enter the ballpark, the Savannah Bananas provided fans with lots of entertainment like singing contests, music, and interactive games.  However standing around on black asphalt in the extreme heat really took its toll on us (especially me).  There was a point where I thought I might pass out.  Thankfully after they opened up the gates... we found a place to hang out in the shade and cool off.

However before we went into the stadium, we grabbed we some Banana merch:

The first time around, I bought a hat (to provide me with some shade), a shirt, and a set of their trading cards (see down below).  A little later in the evening, we got back in line because my friend wanted to exchange her shirt for a different size.  That's when I grabbed foam fingers for each of us.

After recharging our batteries, we started walking around the stadium and eventually made our way to our seats:

It might be a little hard to tell... but we were in the last row of the upper deck.  Even though I have been to this stadium before (back in the 90's), I didn't remember how steep those steps were.  It kinda freaked my friend out.  Outside of the Star Spangled Banner and a few tributes... her butt was firmly planted in her seat.

Now if you've never heard of the Savannah Bananas, they are baseball's version of the Harlem Globetrotters.  It's baseball with a bunch of gimmicks built in to make things fun and interesting.

Here's a quick look at how things are different from the baseball we're familiar with:

Baseball traditionalists probably might not appreciate this style of baseball... but if you have kids and an open mind... then I highly encourage you to attend one of their games.  There's a minor league vibe with all of the mini-games and interactive events between the fans and the teams.

One of my favorite moments was the baby race right before the bottom half of the first inning (skip ahead to 13:30):

Oops!  I got a little ahead of myself.  One of the things I was most excited about were the special guests the Bananas bring out.  The first special guest was Southern California native and 2004 Heisman Trophy winner: Matt Leinart...

He was selected to throw out the first pitch of the game:

One of the quirky rules is that whatever the person throws (ball or strike) actually counts in the game.  Leinart pitched the football for a strike.

If you aren't familiar with Leinart, he spent most of his NFL career on the Arizona Cardinals as Kurt Warner's backup.

Here are a few of his rookie cards of his that I spent almost an hour looking for:

2006 Topps Total #484

2006 Topps #354

2003-04 Collezioni Firenze Campioni di Futuro #57

The other special guest was Anaheim Angels fan favorite: Troy Glaus.  He came in to pinch hit in the bottom of the 7th inning:

Assuming this YouTube video works, here is Troy's at-bat (skip ahead to 1:36:00):

And here are a pair of memorabilia cards of his that I dug up:

2001 E-X Behind The Numbers #NNO

2003 Upper Deck MVP Total Bases #TB-TG (#'d 060/150)

The 2002 World Series MVP singled, but was replaced by a pinch runner after receiving a round of applause.

In addition to the special guests, it was really cool to see all of the trick plays during the game... and entertaining events in between innings.  They went above and beyond to highlight the kids in attendance and get them involved.

But ultimately the Savannah Bananas are about baseball.  Here's a peek at this year's team set of trading cards:

The set was $15 and contains thirty-four cards.  Most of the checklist is made up of players and coaches.

Here's a closer look at the front and back of a player's card:

2025 Choice Savannah Bananas #16

At first glance, I thought this resembled one of the mid 2000's Topps flagship designs.  However I wasn't able to find any matches.

The back of the card features career stats, a fun fact about the player, and their social media accounts.

My favorite card is easily the team mascot:

2025 Choice Savannah Bananas #34

A huge thank you to my bestie for taking me on this awesome road trip.  During this hectic time of the year, it was nice to relax and not think about projects, grades, field trips, dances, or graduation.  Instead it was a day filled with fun banter, tasty eats, lots of shopping, and one of the most entertaining sporting events I have ever attended.  Hard to say whether or not this was truly the best day ever... but it was definitely one of the best days in recent years.  Thanks Jennifer!

As for the rest of you...

Have you ever attended a Savannah Bananas game?

If not, does it interest you?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts down below.

Happy Monday and sayonara!