Are You Ready for Some Football?

I am.  But honestly... four days ago I would have said "not really".  What changed?

1995 Pacific Crown Royale #12

Jerry Jones traded one of the best pass rushers in the league to the Green Bay Packers.  Who dat?

2022 Sports Illustrated for Kids #1039

As noted by several sports commentators, Micah Parsons is only the second person in NFL history with 12+ sacks in each of his first four seasons.  The other guy?

1994 Topps Finest Refractor #92

Reggie White helped lead the Packers to a Super Bowl title.  Hopefully Parsons will too.

Since football posts aren't exactly common on this blog, I figured I'd kill a bunch of birds with one stone.

1993 Pacific Picks The Pros #2

Congratulations to Sterling Sharpe who is a member of the Hall of Fame Class of 2025!

2022 Panini Mosaic Reactive Orange Prizm #97

Congratulations to Travis and Taylor!

Side note:  I spent over an hour digging through boxes searching for the 2011 Topps American Pie card of Kanye West and Taylor Swift, but couldn't find it.  Not sure if I even own the card, but I thought I did.

In addition to the start of the NFL season, college football is kicking off as well.

2015 Leaf Draft #25

2015 Upper Deck #15

I'm not an Oregon Ducks fan, but I did follow Ekpre-Olomu about a decade ago.  At the time he was dating my best friend's cousin's daughter and was rated one of the best cornerbacks in college.  Ten years later, he's part of the family.  Earlier in the summer, my friend had him sign a few cards for me.  Thank you Ifo!

By the way... Kerry I have a signed card set aside for you.  He's the biggest Ducks fan I know.

As for me, I'll be rooting for the San Jose State Spartans this season.

1985 7-11 Dr. Pepper San Francisco 49ers Police #NNO

Did you know that hall of fame coach Bill Walsh graduated from SJSU in 1995?  Forty-plus years later... I did too.

Alright... I'll wrap up this post with a Seattle Seahawks card:

1988 Kenner Starting Lineup #NNO

They are my other favorite football team.  I've been a Seattle Seahawks fan since 1981.  They might not be ranked as high as the Packers on experts' power rankings, but I'll be rooting for them just as much.

It's time to answer the question...

Are you ready for some football?

If so...

Who are you rooting for?

As I stated at the start of the post... "I am".  But baseball comes first.  So depending on how the San Diego Padres play, the Seahawks and Packers might be on hold until November.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #179: Cards, a Pennant, and a Glove

This post recaps the final flea market haul of my summer break which took place two Saturdays ago at the Branham Flea Market.  Although the deals weren't as stellar as some of my other finds in recent months, I did have to make a trip to the car to drop stuff off... so the bulk was there.

Let's get into it...

Purchase #1:  A Pair of Moss Rookies  $15

My first purchase of the day was from a vendor I've purchased from in the past.  The one that stands out the most is a basketball haul back in 2019.  He didn't have his usual display case this time, but he had a binder filled with basketball and football cards.

1998 Topps Chrome #35

Unfortunately there weren't any Kobe or Jordans, but there were some pretty cool cards inside.  The highlights were mid to low-end rookie cards of Allen Iverson, Tim Duncan, and Peyton Manning.  I asked about a few of them and $10 each seemed to be the magic number.  At that price, I figured the best bargain of the binder would be these two Randy Moss Chrome rookie cards.

Unfortunately both are a little off-centered... so he told me I could have the pair for $15.  One of my nieces is a huge Vikings fan... so she'll get one and I'll keep the other.

Purchase #2:  Another New VHS Tape  $1

Dances With Wolves (1990)

Not much to say.  It's a sealed VHS tape of a movie I enjoy.  Costner has a new home next to Travolta and Jackie.

The next four purchases were all made from another vendor from the past.  Remember the lady that sold me those Topps Magazines and cheap sets back in June?  Well she was still trying to dump her husband and son's card collection.  She's pretty much down to the bottom of the barrel, but I still found some stuff to buy.

Purchase #3a:  SJSU Pennants  $1

She had a stack of these San Jose State pennants for 50¢ each.  All of them were slightly stained, but I figured I'd grab one for my office and another for my classroom.

Purchase #3b:  Half of an Iconic Set  $2

1990 Leaf Series 1 Baseball Set

Remember when this set sold for over $100?  Heck the Sosa alone was worth that much back in 1998.

1990 Leaf #220

These days... Sosa is only worth a few bucks.  But there was no way I could leave this set behind.

Sadly... when I walked up... another guy had just purchased a set from her and I'm guessing it was the Series 2 set with the Frank Thomas rookie.

Purchase #3c:  Pair of Test Issue Sets  $2

1989 Action Packed Football Test Set

I have a hard time passing up dollar sets.  Grabbed one for my collection and figured I'd break the other one up if Greg (The Collective Mind) needs any of the Washington cards... and if Matt (Cards Over Coffee) needs any of the Giants.

Purchase #3d:  San Francisco 49ers Police Lot  $10

This is probably my favorite find of the day.  I'm sure most of you have little interest in 80's football oddball issues, but I'm all about them.  The lady had a stack of 1984 and 1985 7-11 San Francisco 49ers Police cards:

Here's a closer look at each set:

1984 San Francisco 49er Police Set

1985 San Francisco 49er Police Set

Ignore the $20 price tag.  Everything this lady had was 50% off.  I haven't finished sorting these strips, but there are multiple sets of each.

After picking up these strips of cards, I stopped off at my car and dropped everything off.  Here's the second half of my finds...

Purchase #4:  Star Wars Paperback  $2

1977 Star Wars Paperback (6th Printing)

Back in 1977, I was still reading picture books... so this wasn't an item I would have been interested in.  Forty-eight years later... I couldn't pass up the opportunity to add this to my bookshelf.

Purchase #5:  Magazine w/Cards & Postcards  $1

1992 Jan/Feb Legends Vol. 5 No. 1

A guy had a bunch of sports magazines from the 90's.  He was only asking a buck each, so grabbed this one because it comes with a sheet of cards.  I attempted to get a scan of it, but I started damaging the magazine, so I stopped.

If you're curious... the uncut sheet contains cards of Pete Rose, Frank Thomas, Cecil Cooper, Dan Marino, Jennifer Capriati, Emmitt Smith, Jimmy Connors, Jim Kelly, and Terry Norris.  

Purchase 6a:  More Laughlins  $10

One of the regular card dealers had this box of 1971 and 1972 Fleer Laughlin World Series cards.  Here are a few of my favorites:

The blue backs are cards from the 1970 set... and the black backs are the 71's.

The guy also had a stack of singles for a buck each, so I grabbed two...

Purchase #6b:  Dollar Stack  $2

2014 Bowman Chrome Refractor #CTP-37

You know things gotta be rough for Devers when his 1st Bowman refractor is in a dollar stack.  I figured for the price, the least I could do was provide him a new home. 

1989 Score Rookie & Traded #100T

As for Griffey rookies... unless they're damaged... there's no way I can pass these up for a dollar.

Purchase #7:  Dollar Comics  $4

After walking down every aisle... I started heading back and seeing if I missed anything.  The guy I purchased the Legends magazine from had a buddy with comic books.  I didn't notice he had Star Wars stuff the first time around, but then I saw this:

2000 Dark Horse Star Wars #23

The cover features a jedi named Quinlan Vos, who has a very complicated story arc that involved a relationship with Asajj Ventress.  Ventress happens to be one of my all-time favorite characters.

2000 Dark Horse Star Wars #24

2000 Dark Horse Star Wars #25

2001 Dark Horse Star Wars #26

I grabbed this set of comics in hopes of reading about their relationship, but when I got home and flipped through them... I didn't see her.  Oh well... it still gives me something to read when I'm bored.

Purchase #8:  Baseball Glove  $10

Rawlings Player's Series 10 Inch Glove

The first time I walked around, I saw this Oakland A's glove and asked the guy how much he wanted.  He was asking $15, which is a fair price.  When I got back to him, he asked me if I still was interested in the glove... only this time he dropped it down to $10.

I'm a sucker for Oakland A's memorabilia, so I couldn't pull out my money fast enough.

Like I stated at the start of the post... there weren't a lot of crazy deals this time around.  But for the price of a pair of blasters, I feel like I came home with some cool stuff.

This Saturday is the De Anza Flea Market.  It's going to be warm... but I'm planning to kick off my three day weekend out there.  Hopefully I have some interesting collectibles to share with you guys next week.

Until then... I apologize for the lack of posts.  The start of the school year is always a little hectic.  Give me a few weeks and I should be back into the one to two posts per week swing.

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!

Big Day, Big Sign

It's officially here.  The first day of the school year with warm bodies filling up seats.  That means going over the class syllabus, the school rules, and introducing my seventh graders to middle school.

It's been four weeks since I've had to talk to a classroom full of kids, so if things went as planned... I picked up a Strawberry Acai Refresher from Starbucks on my way to school.  I'm not one of those people who go on a daily basis (more like once a week), but I go enough where a few peeps working the morning crew know me.

Two of them are former students and one them happens to be a huge A's fan.  Last week, he left a special note on my cup and I figured it was a good opportunity to bust out my wallet card.  The drink sorta dwarfs the card, but I never finish all thirty ounces in one day.  It provides me with two days worth of refreshment.

Speaking of big, last week I purchased this big sign for my Oakland A's collection:

1973-74 Fleer Big Signs #NNO

According to the Beckett, these measure 12"x16" and were distributed in 1973.  However The Fleer Sticker Project, says there are two versions of the California Angels signs... so he thinks they could have been released in 1974 as well.

By the way... the sign is a tad bit smaller than what Beckett states.  I busted out my ruler and it measures 7.75"x11.5".  Anyways... this is an item I've been eyeing for awhile now and a vendor on eBay sent me a reasonable offer ($12.80 + $3.37 tax & shipping), so I accepted.

Well that's it for today.  When this post is published, I'll be in front of my first period class.  Hopefully things go smoothly.

Happy Monday and sayonara!