Enjoy This

The A's and Padres won.  The Giants and Dodgers lost.  Yesterday was a good day.

With the A's being the A's... and the Giants and Dodgers having the second best record in baseball, this probably won't happen again this season, so let's celebrate with some cards featuring these four teams that arrived in my mailbox earlier in the week from Oregon:

Let's start with my beloved Athletics.  They're sitting in last place in the AL West, but at least they decided to hold onto some of their young fan favorites like Tyler Soderstrom:

2024 Topps Archives #187

He's currently one of MLB's home run leaders.  Yeah. Yeah.  It's early in the season.  But I'm an A's fan... give me this one day to enjoy this.

The A's also held on to their all-star closer:

2024 Topps Archives Black Foilboard #255

Miller recorded the save last night.  It's his fourth of the year and he still hasn't allowed an earned run in 2025.  More importantly... he will forever be known as the last player to throw a pitch in a MLB game at the Oakland Coliseum.

The main guy I've been eyeballing in the box scores is the A's 2023 first round draft pick:

2025 Topps #314

Wilson currently has a fifteen game hitting streak to start the 2025 season.  He also leads the team in hits and batting average going into today's game.  Let's go!

Rod (@ Padrographs) sent me a flat rate mailer with a bunch of 2025 Topps cards, including the entire Series 1 A's team set:

Out of the nine guys who made the checklist, Abraham Toro is the only player no longer on the team.  It's a shame the team couldn't hold onto guys during their final decade or so in Oakland.

Now let's talk about the team who currently has the best record in baseball.  Yeah. Yeah.  It's early in the season.  But I'm an Padres fan... so let me enjoy this.

Fernando Tatis Jr. is a big reason for their bright start:

2025 Topps Celebration Power Players #PP-14

This card is about as bright as they get.  If they make a Chrome refractor version of this card, I'll definitely be chasing it down.

2025 Topps Stars of the MLB #SMLB-4

Not quite as cool as the other insert, but I collect every and any Tatis card I can get my hands on.  It's nice to see him earning that money he signed for back in 2021... both at the plate and on the field.  I'm guessing Rod is pretty happy about that too.

The Padres can't afford to let up, because the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers are right behind them in the standings.

The Giants are one of those teams that I dislike when they're winning.  It doesn't usually have to do with them, but their fans.  And when they're winning, the Padres are usually losing.  It's kinda fun watching both teams play competitive baseball.

2025 Topps #277

Jung Hoo Lee has been playing really well.  I remember being excited for the Giants last season when he signed with them.  He's currently leading the team in WAR and the league in doubles.

Finally there's the Los Angeles Dodgers... who most fans expect to represent the National League in the World Series this year.  It sucks that the Padres have to look up at them in the standings almost every season.

But today they aren't and I'm going to enjoy this.

That being said... the Dodgers are loaded with players I enjoy rooting for.  Most notably... there's this guy:

It's not often I receive a nine-pocket page of Ohtani cards, so you better believe that I'm going to enjoy them.  Even if he wins another World Series ring this fall.

Thank you Rod for another cool care package.  I had a lot of fun watching the A's and Padres win yesterday... but I enjoyed opening this up today and seeing all of these goodies a tad bit more.

Let's go A's and Padres!

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

I almost forgot to show of the top loaded cards from Rod's mailer:

Rod and I share an interest in collecting autographs.  Pretty sure these are the first four signatures of any of these guys in my collection.  Thank you Rod!

Flea Market Finds #171: Magazines w/Cards and Some Turtles

Another start to a new month and another trip to the De Anza Flea Market.

Last month at the flea market, my childhood buddy texted me and asked if I was out walking around.  He told me he saw me, but that I blended into the crowd and he lost me.  We decided to meet up this time around.

It was cool to catch up with him since it had been a couple of years since we last hung out.  Unfortunately whenever there's someone with me, I feel obligated to match their pace (which is usually faster than me), so I may or may not have missed out on stuff.

For example, this vendor had some packs and boxes.  Do I really need a box of 1988 Donruss or 1990 Topps?  Of course not.  But if they were $5 each, I would have grabbed them.  The problem is I didn't have a chance to ask, because my buddy was already a few vendors down and I didn't want to hold him up.  There were at least two other vendors with cards that I barely checked out, but I did manage to make two purchases.

Purchase #1:  Magazines w/Cards  $20

Last month... my buddy Tony sold me two SI for Kids issues from the early 90's.  He mentioned that he might have more at his house, so when we were coming up to his booth... I warned my friend that I might need a few minutes with him.

He indeed had another SI for Kids issue:

Sports Illustrated for Kids (September 1991)

Here's the sheet of cards that were inside:

This is a solid sheet of athletes.  Seven of them are in the hall of fame for their respective sports.

Tony also had one of these Alan Kaye's Sports Cards News & Price Guides:

Alan Kaye's Sports Cards News & Price Guides (July 1992)

If you're familiar with this magazine, the cover doubles as an oversized card:

Depending on the condition of these magazines, I will either keep them intact or cut them up.  This particular one had some water damage, so I went with the latter.

Each issue also includes two nine-card sheets (similar to the SI for Kids magazines).  The first one included The Bash Brothers, The Great One, and a second year Thome:

The other sheet had cards of Bo, Boomer, Barry, Morris, Mully, and Ryno:

In addition to those two sheets, there was another sheet with an oversized card of Mickey Mantle and five tobacco sized cards of Negro League stars:

And if that weren't enough... Mr. Kayes tossed in these two Rookies of the Year holograms:

Next up is a 1989 issue of Baseball Cards featuring The Kid:

Baseball Cards (November 1989)

This magazine was pretty beat up, but the rookie year card of Griffey was pretty clean:

Here are the other three "rookie cards":

The final magazine was the only issue I decided to keep intact:

SCD Baseball Card Price Guide Monthly (November 1990)

I thought about cutting out the cards... especially the Jordan baseball card.  But the magazine was in nice condition, so I kept the issue intact and grabbed some images off of eBay:

Twenty bucks probably seems like a lot for four magazines from the 90's, but the Jordan issue by itself can often sell for that amount.  I figured the rest is gravy.

Purchase #2:  TMNT Graphic Novel  $10

1989 First Graphic TMNT (5th Printing)

Found this graphic novel sitting in a crate.  The vendor had a bunch of toys and comics.  I probably would have dug around a little longer had I been alone.  Anyways... saw this and figured I'd grab it for my co-worker's daughter.  She's a huge Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan.

Well that's it.  Two purchases and only one of them was for myself.

It was nice catching up with my friend, but if we do this again... I'll probably go back and walk around the flea market a second time on my own.  Either that or I'll have him show up an hour or two later.

Well that's it for now.  There's another flea market in ten days at a nearby high school, so stay tuned.

Until then...

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

Last year Dennis over at Too Many Verlanders sent me some programs and magazines.  Since they relate to today's flea market post, I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone.

Let's start off with this issue of Legends from 1991:

Legends (May/June 1991)

This issue comes with a really cool sheet of cards that includes Michael Jordan, Rickey Henderson, and Barry Sanders.  There's also another sheet containing Reggie Jackson, Gayle Sayers, and Nolan Ryan postcards.

I've been slowly building a collection of Legends issues for over a decade now and needed this one, so I didn't have it in me to cut out the cards.

Luckily, Dennis included some examples from other issues:

Legends Postcards

Here's a closer look at the Gwynn:

And here's a look at some cards that were carefully cut from other Legends issues:

1990 Legends #20

1991 Legends #53

Dennis also sent me this Rickey Henderson:

1990 Topps Magazine #TM30

1990 was the first year Topps released their magazine.  They published four issues and each one contained eight cards.  This Rickey came out of the final issue of 1990.  They would go on to produce Topps Magazine for three more years with a total of sixteen issues.  If you're interested in reading a little more about them, I showed off my collection back in 2013.

Dennis also tossed in a pair of sports programs:

1987 MLB All-Star Game Program

This is a pretty cool piece of history, since 1987 was the only year the Oakland Coliseum hosted the MLB All-Star Game.

This program honored another stadium...

Before Petco Park, the Padres played at Jack Murphy Stadium.  This program honors their thirty-four year tenure there.  If the hobby gods are looking down on me, then you might see this program make an appearance in a future post.  It has to do with tracking down two more cards mentioned on the back cover:

Thank you Dennis for these really cool additions to my collection!