Saturday's trip to the Branham Flea Market was picture perfect. Great weather. Tons of vendors. And a guy with dime boxes.
Let's jump into my finds...
Purchase #2: Old Newspapers $5
I'm gonna start with my second find of the day, because my first purchase was arguably the best. A vendor I hadn't seen before had a stack of 80's local newspapers. This one was sitting on top and stirred my curiosity enough to take a peek:
San Jose Mercury News (10/10/89)
The 1989 World Series will always be special to me. It featured both Bay Area baseball teams which divided friends and family for a brief period.
San Jose Mercury News (10/15/89)
San Jose Mercury News (10/16/89)
San Jose Mercury News (10/29/89)
The Argus (10/29/89)
Why are these items superfluous? Because I'll never really do anything with these newspapers. If I owned the copy of the Oakland Tribune celebrating the A's win, then maybe I'd frame and display it on my man cave wall (when I buy my dream house). But these will remain in a box in the garage.
Purchase #3: Topps Card Locker $5
Remember when Topps would offer up these sports card lockers on their wax wrappers?
I'm pretty sure I begged my mom for one, but I don't think I ever got one.
When I saw this sitting on this guy's table, I immediately recognized the signature and asked for a price. The vendor wanted $15, which is probably fair. But it was a little more than I wanted to spend, so I walked away.
There was a ton of Japanese wrestlers:
My favorite? This shiny yellow parallel of Asuka:
Why are these items superfluous? Outside of a handful of cards for my collection and some care package filler for fellow bloggers, most of this stuff was purchased because they were too cheap to pass up.
Purchase #3: Topps Card Locker $5
I had one of the knockoff brands you could find in those Sears and Service Merchandise catalogs instead. It took me forty years, but now I can say that I'm the proud owner of an official Topps one.
Why is this item superfluous? This is one of those items that can no longer function as it was originally intended. The card trays inside are cracked and even if they weren't, there are much better ways to store your card collection. But don't worry, it's not going into cold storage with the newspapers. I proudly have it on display in my office.
Purchase #4: Comic Books $2
Image Deathblow and Wolverine #1 (1996)
Image Deathblow and Wolverine #2 (1996)
These two comics were actually part of an eight comic book lot. These were the only two that I was semi-familiar with. I knew the vendor and we were catching up for a few minutes. The least I could do was buy some quarter comic books sitting on his table.
Why are these items superfluous? I don't really collect comic books (unless they're too cheap to pass up). I bag and boarded the two pictured comic books and added it to my comic book box. The rest are headed into the classroom for my students to enjoy.
Purchase #5: Signed Baseball $10
Kurt Suzuki is one of my all-time favorite Oakland Athletics.
When I came back down the row... I asked if he'd take $10 and he accepted.
Why is this item superfluous? It's superfluous, because I already own a TriStar authenticated signed baseball of Zuk. Do I really need two signed baseballs of his? Of course not. But for the price, I figure I'll bring this into the classroom with the comics and display it on my collectibles shelf.
Purchase #1: Dime Box Cards $35
I got to the flea market a little after 7am and found these dime boxes within ten minutes. Unfortunately, another guy had already purchased all of the baseball cards. Honestly this is probably a blessing in disguise. As much as I would have enjoyed going through boxes of 10¢ baseball cards, I honestly don't have a lot of free time right now.
That being said... I found a little over 350 singles. Most of them were NASCAR, UFC, WWE, and non-sports inserts and parallels. Here's a look at a few of my favorites:
2021 Topps Chrome Attax Yellow Refractor #9 (#'d 63/99)
Why are these items superfluous? Outside of a handful of cards for my collection and some care package filler for fellow bloggers, most of this stuff was purchased because they were too cheap to pass up.
But that's the thing about collecting stuff like cards, comics, signed baseballs, and newspapers. It's all superfluous. I can't think of a single thing in my collection that is a necessity. It's all extra items in my life that aren't needed or necessary to survive. But they're a huge part of my life and have the power to turn a frown... upside down. So I'm going to keep hunting for superfluous stuff at my local flea markets.
The next one is less than two weeks away, so stay tuned. Until then...
Happy Thursday and sayonara!
Bummer that guy beat you to the baseball cards, but still I see lots of pretty girls! Glad you had a great day!
ReplyDeleteFor a short while my daughter was collecting WWE cards. I took her to a card show and we found one single table that had small box of wrestling cards and they were marked at .25 each. She had $5 and was having a hard time limiting herself to only 20 cards. After I got done going through the guys Red Sox she still hadn't really made up her mind but quickly shoved a bunch back into the box so she was down to 20 cards. I handed him the Red Sox I picked out and told the guy I would give him $7 for the whole box of wrestling and he took it. That may have been my biggest hero move in the history of my fatherhood. My daughter was in awe I got them all for her. lol
ReplyDeleteI love your Flea Market Find posts!
ReplyDeleteAlways so much fun to slowly scroll down looking at the "stuff" and reading your descriptions of the find.
Thanks!
Very cool baseball signed by one of your favorites, and the newspapers are awesome too! And I'm glad you had some fun dime box digging.
ReplyDeleteI still have my two original lockers like that ~ and mine are in the same condition, with the bonus of sticker residue on the inside of the doors. :P I still use over a dozen of the blue ones with the swing lid for my Washington football collection.
ReplyDeleteI have some Deathblow comics among my 8 long boxes that I just moved to the new house a couple weeks ago. That was one of the last titles I collected before I stopped. Just kinda liked the style, but don't remember much about the story.
Nice finds. I used to have two of those card lockers. I have a Terry Steinbach signed baseball.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid, I had the same card locker. It came with team stickers to stick to each slot and then I'd sort my cards by team. But as my collection grew the locker eventually fell into disrepair and ended up in the trash heap. :(
ReplyDeleteThe only newspapers I save are ones that I've produced that I especially like, and still I don't know how to store them, they sit in a desk drawer in the basement.
ReplyDeleteSuzuki wins it. Though I do like Danica.
ReplyDeleteNice with the papers. Especially since it's the Mercury News.
ReplyDeleteAnd an autographed ball for like a third of what a non-autographed ball costs? An absolute steal.
That topps locker takes the cake here! That is awesome!
ReplyDeletejohnnys trading spot - yeah, i'm guessing he beat me by less than ten minutes. he's made a few nice scores over the years. but i can't complain. we've all had a few finds.
ReplyDeleteadame - that's awesome. does she still collect them? if so, what's your daughter's favorite wrestler?
kcjays - thanks. heading to one in a couple of hours :D
dennis - pretty happy with the signed baseball. definitely a conversation piece in the classroom. i think 5, maybe 6 kids asked who signed it.
gca - that's pretty awesome that your blue ones are still in use. i had to gut my blue one b/c the plastic was breaking apart. 8 long boxes? that sounds like an entertaining afternoon. as much as i claim to not collect comics, i love digging through long boxes :D
rj sahl - i have a few signed steinbach cards, but not a signed ball. that's really cool.
crocodile - that happened to me as well. i'd love to find one that wasn't breaking apart, but i'm guessing they're pretty collectible
night owl - you should show off some of your favorites in a blog post. i'm sure i'm not the only one who would love to see them.
elliptical man - yeah, i love the signed ball. but if i had to pick only one item from this post to keep, it would probably be the mercury news issue where the a's won the series
nick vossbrink - i probably would prefer the oakland tribune, but i grew up reading the mercury news so i won't complain. had no idea official balls were so expensive. that's crazy.
matt - thanks. just wish the plastic inside wasn't cracked.