My Side Hobby

A few weeks ago, I went to a card show held at a local mall.  Like most card shows I read about on blogs, there were mostly dealers specializing in Pokemon cards and or modern graded sports cards.  Out of the 100 or so tables advertised, I only found one dealer with dime boxes and his table was swarmed with customers.

Normally I would have circled around the show and come back when the crowd thinned out, but I had purchased some cards at the flea market earlier in the morning.  I stopped off at my buddy's table instead, chatted with him for a few minutes, then headed home without making a single show purchase.

It kind of makes me wonder if card shows are still something I enjoy attending.  I have already cut out local shows that charge admission or parking.  Now the lone free show near my house is filled with dealers selling stuff I don't have a lot of interest in and the crowds are getting a little too large for my liking.

Maybe I need a change.

Last week, The Shlabotnik Report featured a post summarizing his trip to a postcard show.  Now I've shown off a few postcards on this blog, but there have plenty of others that I've kept to myself since there doesn't seem to be a lot of interest among my readers.

In spite of that, I figured I'd show a few that I have picked up in the last year.  Let's start off with a pair featuring Milwaukee Downer College:

After going to the University of Hawaii at Manoa in the early 50's, my mom transferred to Milwaukee Downer to get her degree in occupational therapy.  Less than a year after moving to Wisconsin, she met my father at a Hawaii club dance and the rest is history.

Another interest of mine is the Kintaikyo Bridge in Iwakuni City.  On my father's side of the family, I have relatives who were caretakers of this bridge.

My dad's uncle and cousin's husband helped with the reconstruction of the bridge during the Showa Period in 1953.

His cousin's son was the master carpenter for the Heisei reconstruction in 2005.  When my parents visited Japan in the mid 2000's, they met him for the first time and walked across the newly constructed bridge.

All three of these postcards have very similar backs.

The only difference I spotted was the small text printed on the lefthand side of each postcard.

I have one more postcard related item I'd like to share.  While searching for cards related to the Golden Gate Bridge, I came across the 1993 Skyline San Francisco set:

I purchased it on eBay back in October, but when I received it... I thought it might be a set of postcards based on the back of the packaging:

Actually... like the cover of the set states, there were actually trading cards inside:

Since this is more of a postcard related post, I won't spend too much time going over this set.  However here's a quick look at it:

Here's the card that inspired this purchase:

1993 Skyline San Francisco Scenes #1

Does anyone else think the borderless design resembles 1992 Stadium Club?

The back of the card features a write up on the famous bridge, which is a symbol of San Francisco.

Well that's it for today.  I know postcards aren't exactly trading cards.  But they're still photos printed on cardstock that people enjoy collecting.  And as luck would have it... I've discovered there's an event held three times a year at Golden Gate Park called the Vintage Paper Fair.  All of the 2025 dates have passed, but the promoter says he's planning on three more dates next year.  I'm hoping to attend at least one.  I bet I don't see a single Pokemon or graded sports card there.

Until then...

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

A Longtime Friend

The older I get, the less social I am.  Sure there was a period in my life when popularity was important, but once I got into college everything changed.  The switch from quality over quantity was made and I've never looked back.

As a teacher, I meet new people all the time and it's important for me to play the game and interact with other teachers, administrators, and parents.  But anyone who truly knows me... understands that I prefer small social gatherings with close friends over big functions like dances, weddings, or parties.

That's one of the reasons my buddy Cody and I get along so well.  We both taught at the same elementary school back in the early 2000's.  We were part of a big group of young teachers that enjoyed hanging out together.

But life happens.  We grew up and most of us went our separate ways.  Some transferred to other schools in our district, others moved out of the area, and a handful left the profession altogether.  As a result many of us are just Facebook friends these days.

Cody was one of those teachers who moved out of the area and switched careers.  However every year he comes back to the Bay Area to visit family and friends... and every year we go out to dinner at The Drying Shed.

This year he brought me a bag of ALF trading cards:

Now Cody isn't exactly a big time card collector like some of you.  He's just the biggest ALF fan I know.  So before we look at some of the cards he gave me, let's take a peek at part of his collection:

He has ALF wall decorations, plushies, figurines, and trading cards.  He even has Gordon Shumway plastered all over his refrigerator:

As you can see, like many of us... he has a sentimental soft spot for nostalgic stuff from our past.  Except instead of hoarding baseball cards and sports related memorabilia, he collects ALF, Winchell's, Fotomat, and Baker's Square related items.

At the same time, he does have a collection of non-sports cards including Happy Days, Mork & Mindy, and of course ALF.  He gave me a nice Series 1 starter set:

There were plenty of duplicates, so if anyone else out there is interested in building this set... email me your set needs.

Okay... let's take a look at some of my favorites from Cody's bag:

1987 Topps ALF Series 1 #27

1987 Topps ALF Series 1 #36

1987 Topps ALF Series 1 #39

1987 Topps ALF Series 1 #19

Thank you Cody for these awesome ALF cards, but more importantly for being one of my longtime friends.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #183: Binders & Sets

Saturday's trip to Branham Flea Market was cancelled due to poor weather.  On the surface that kind of sucks, because I potentially missed out on some flea market finds.  However it was kind of a blessing, because I'm already two weeks behind in recapping my trip to the De Anza Flea Market.  

So let's get it started...

Purchase #1:  1990 Leaf Baseball Set  $20

I've had strong ties to the 1990 Leaf baseball set dating back to my early college years when I was working at the LCS.  While there, I built two complete sets that I still own thirty-plus years later.

Not sure what the deal is, but I've been stumbling across a significant amount of these cards in recent months.  Back in August, I picked up a Series 1 set, because it was super cheap.  Two weeks later, I found the Frank Thomas rookie card (from Series 2) sitting in a box I purchased. 

This time around I found a guy with a bunch of Junk Wax Era sets.  One of them was the 1990 Leaf set pictured above.  I obviously don't need another one, but for $20 the price was right.

Side note... this purchase is the perfect time to share my OCD issues.  Whenever I buy a set, I obviously go through it to make sure it's complete.  If I know I'll be holding onto it, I give it a brand new home with new semi-rigid holders like shown above.

By the way... if you're a fan of 1990 Leaf like myself... I encourage you to check out a recent post on Card Boredom that takes a deep dive into David's wallet card which is a 1990 Leaf Sammy Sosa.  It's very informative and super interesting.

Purchase #2:  Deadpool Comics  $5

Not many comic book fans among my readers, but I assure you there are more cards down below.  So just scroll down...

Deadpool #1 (2023)

Deadpool: Nerdy 30 (2021)

Deadpool #1 (2020)

Before I get into the final five purchases, I wanted to mention that there was a card show at a nearby mall the day of the De Anza Flea Market.  In other words, the regulars who usually set up at the flea market opted to set up at the show.  I also feel like a lot of the collectors I compete with out here were at the card show too.

I was pretty happy about that, because I came across a guy with a bunch of cards.  Normally fresh inventory like this would attract a ton of collectors and vendors.  But an hour into my walk, I was able to pick through this guy's boxes without any competition.  Here's my haul broken down into five parts...

Purchase #3a:  Football Relics  $30

The first box I flipped through was a box of $5 autographs, relics, and inserts.  

As soon as I saw the Favre jersey cards, I asked if he'd give me a discount if I purchased a stack.

After some haggling, we settled on $3 each if I purchased 10 or more cards.

Purchase #3b:  Dollar Box  $10

He also had a box of dollar rookie cards, autos, relics, and inserts.  I was stoked to find another Favre jersey card for my collection:

2003 Fleer Mystique Shining Stars Jerseys #SS-BF

I rounded out the stack with these nine cards:

I also found this really cool insert sitting in the box:

1999 Donruss Preferred QBC Passing Grade #10

If you're not familiar with this insert set, each card contains two parts.  There's a sleeve:

And a football that slides into the sleeve:

I asked if he'd take $10 for these eleven cards and he accepted.

He also had about twenty binders with basketball cards.  He told me they were $10 each except for the Warriors one.  He wanted $30 for that, because it contained a bunch of memorabilia cards and autographs.

Well I pulled that one out first.  Then I found another one full of Jordans, Kobes, and Lebrons.

I didn't have the time to scan everything, but here's a peek into each binder...

Purchase #3c:  Golden State Warriors Binder  $30

I didn't end up counting, but there were around seventy-five memorabilia cards and autographs.  Obviously there weren't any high-end Curry relics, but I did find a couple of cool cards:

2012-13 Elite Court Kings White Canvas Autographs #40 (#'d 01/99)

2013-14 Panini Innovation Foundations Ink #96

The Bogut went into my Prime # PC and the Sleepy Floyd was added to my Golden State Warriors PC.  There was also a nice stack of Curry base cards and low-end inserts.

Although I was excited about this binder, I was way more excited about this one...

Purchase #3d:  Jordan, Kobe, & Lebron Binder  $10

Back in the 90's, I was a huge Jordan collector.  I kept most of the nicer inserts from back then, but sold off his base cards when I left the hobby in the early 2000's.  Adding them back into my collection has been a challenge due to his popularity.

That's why I was super excited to buy several hundred Jordans for less than a nickel each.  Granted... the majority were part of the 2007-08 Fleer Michael Jordan box set:

But there were some base cards, subset cards, and low-end inserts as well:

Here are five of my favorites:

1991-92 Upper Deck #44

1991-92 Upper Deck Award Winners #AW1

1991-92 Upper Deck Award Winners #AW4

1992-93 Stadium Club #1

1992-93 Topps Archives #52

The second half of the binder contained Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, and a ton of other 90's stars and rookie cards.

I was especially happy to add these three Kobe cards to his Topps base card run:

2004-05 Topps #8

2005-06 Topps #69

2006-07 Topps #8

I'm down to only needing four more to complete the run.  The good news is I have his rookie card and the overpriced 2008-09 card.  I just need four from the late 90's and early 2000's.  The bad news is his base cards can sometimes be hard to find in bargain bins, so I'll have to be patient with this project.

Purchase #3e:  Non-Sports Factory Set  $10

2004 Upper Deck History of the United States Set

The last thing I grabbed off this guy's table was this factory set filled with cards featuring U.S. Presidents, states, and historical events from our country's history.  There are a few cards from this set that I have been meaning to add to my collection, so I was happy to find a complete set for a decent price.

Well that wraps up my latest run to the flea market.  This may or may not have been the final one of 2025.  I'll leave that up to Mother Nature.  Regardless I've purchased some awesome stuff this year at the flea market.  In fact, it's arguably my best year.  I have always wanted to do a Top 10 list of favorite flea market finds and this might just be the year I do it.  We'll see.

Until then...

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!