Flea Market Finds #178: Three Decades of Baseball

Summer break is coming to a close.  I've already spent four days in my classroom getting it ready for the 2025-26 school year and it's pretty much ready to go.

This past Saturday was the De Anza Flea Market... and I'm not sure if they changed management... but it was booming with vendors.  This was by far the biggest turnout in years.  In addition to the usual people who set up, there were probably another 40 to 50 spaces filled... and some brought cards.

Let's check out this week's haul...

Purchase #1:  80's Donruss Baseball  $10

1981 & 1984 Donruss Baseball

I came across a couple with furniture.  Sitting on a dining room table were six or seven boxes of baseball cards.  The lady came over to me and said each box was $20, so I started going through them.  All of them contained 1987 Donruss baseball... with this partially filled box of 1981 Donruss being the lone exception.

1981 Donruss Stars and Managers

I asked her if she would take $10, since it wasn't completely filled and she accepted.  1981 Donruss were some of the first packs of baseball cards I opened, but I didn't keep any of them from my childhood.

Over the years, I've added a few singles to my 80's binder.  This purchase added four more 9-pocket pages to the collection.

These two cards highlighted the purchase:

1981 Donruss #499

1981 Donruss #550

Both immediately take me back to 1981 when my friends and I would trade cards on our front porches.

The box also had some rookie cards from the 1984 Donruss set:

1981 & 1984 Donruss Rookie Cards

Plus an investors' lot of Joe Charboneau rookie cards.  🤣

Purchase #2:  90's Magazines  $10

Another new vendor had a bunch of 80's and 90's toys.  He also had a bunch of cards, but they were mostly the overproduced early 90's stuff.  I had spent about ten minutes digging through his boxes when he asked if I'd be interested in baseball card magazines.

You know I was.  I ended up going through a box containing a bunch of issues of Sports Cards from the 90's.  Here's what I pulled out: 

I targeted these, because they contained these uncut sheets:

Although $10 is a little more than I wanted to spend, it did help me land the next purchase for a bargain price.

Purchase #3:  80's Action Figure of a Legend  $10

The guy with the magazines also had a box of Starting Lineups.  Sitting inside was this hidden gem:

1988 Kenner SLU #NNO

As much as I dislike the San Francisco 49ers, this is a figure I have wanted for decades.  Since I purchased those magazines, he told me I could have the figure for $10.

This probably will be the least popular purchase of the post among most of you, but this was easily my favorite.

Purchase #4:  A Bo Jackson Rookie Card  $5

1987 Topps Rack Pack

One vendor drove all the way from Fresno to set up.  He's not a regular, but I have seen and talked to him before.  He had a box of 1987 and 1988 Topps baseball rack packs for $3 each (or 2 for $5).  I started to see if there were any PC guys on the tops of these racks, but didn't find any.  Then the vendor pulled this pack from under the table.  He wanted a premium which I happily paid.

Purchase #5:  A Searched Vintage Vending Box  $25

When I first arrived at the flea market, I ran into a buddy who was standing next to a guy going through three 1978 vending boxes.  There was one of each sport and he had just purchased them for $25 each.

1978 Topps Baseball Vending Box

About an hour later... my buddy called and said the guy was interested in selling them.  He had already told me that the boxes had been picked through, but there were some stars left behind:

The guy wanted $30 per box or we could take all three for what he paid.  My friend wanted the basketball and I was only interested in the baseball.  After thinking about it for a few minutes, he grabbed the football too, so we were able to get the $25 deal.

Much like the 1981 Donruss purchase, this one helped fill the 1978 part of my 70's binder.  Since they're from a vending box, the corners are nice (for the most part), but the centering is really bad.  I might end up pulling out my 1978 set and upgrading some singles.  Not sure when I'll have the time to do that though.

I just received two more blogger care packages and a shipment from Sportlots.  I'd like to organize them and hammer out a few more posts before my summer break officially ends next Wednesday.  We'll see how things shake out.

Until then...

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!

By the way... if any of you are building the 1978 Topps or 1981 Donruss baseball sets, leave a comment down below and/or email me your lists.  I might be able to help you out.