Flea Market Finds #191 : A Kitty, a Signed Ball, & some Comics and Cards

I'll start off this post by pointing out that I skipped #190 in my Flea Market Finds series., because I'm reserving the spot for purchases made back on May 2nd at the De Anza Flea Market.  One of the purchases was a large collection that I have not touched in months.  It's one of those things that I'm excited to document, but it's a project that will likely take one to two weeks of dedication.  

In the meantime, I have decided to skip ahead to the purchases I made on August 1st at the De Anza Flea Market.  I remember it was a pretty hot day, so I only made one pass through.  It was also my first time walking around that flea market in three months, so I was in the mood to shop.  Luckily, I found some interesting items to add to my collection...

Purchase #1:  Hello Kitty Bobblehead  $3

2015 San Francisco Giants SGA (6/28/15)

Okay.  Maybe a Hello Kitty bobblehead isn't considered interesting, but even with damaged packaging... $3 was too cheap to pass up.

Purchase #2:  Signed Baseball  $3

A few minutes later, I saw this baseball sitting on a lady's table:

Rawlings MLB-L Baseball

Anyone recognize this type of baseball?  Although it says official, I'm guessing these were not used in official MLB games.  Anyways... I decided to buy it because it was signed on the side panel:

I realize the odds of this being a legit Mickey Mantle signature is low, but I beat the odds back in 2015 when I purchased a Willie Mays signed baseball for $8.  I eventually had it authenticated by PSA/DNA and it passed.

I no longer have any connection to any autograph certification companies, so most likely this ball will just sit in my baseball collection as a mystery.

Purchase #3:  Decks of Cards  $10

About halfway through the flea market, I had only seen a handful of vendors with trading cards.  Most had the late 80's overproduced stuff at outrageous prices.  My friends set up too, but I didn't find anything in their cases either.

However a few spots down from them, I found a guy with a collection of card decks.  I ended up grabbing these five:

1988 US Games American Authors Card Game

1994 Bicycle San Francisco Giants

2003 Hoyle Iraqi Most Wanted

2000 Action Publishing Politicards

2004 Action Publishing Politicards

2026 has been the year of purchasing playing cards for me.  These were more affordable compared to the 2004 The Real Deal John Kerry Presidential Deck I purchased back in March.

Purchase #4: Star Wars Comic Run  $23

Seems like every vendor with trading cards believes their sitting on a gold mine.  That's not a good thing for bargain bin collectors like myself.  Although I did find a few cool cards like another 1990 Score B&W Bo... I just can't justify spending $20 for a card that will sometimes pop up in dollar bins.

That's why I've started targeting a few other items in recent months like cassette tapes, playing card decks, and comic books.

One vendor had a long box filled with 90's Dark Horse Star Wars comic books.  Not sure if I have ever mentioned this, but I'm a huge fan of these books.  Unfortunately this guy wasn't blowing out his collection, but his prices were slightly lower than eBay comps.

I was interested in a few different runs, but ultimately I went with the Shadows of the Empire story line:

1996 Dark Horse SW: Shadows of the Empire #1, 2, & 3

1996 Dark Horse SW: Shadows of the Empire #4, 5, & 6

This comic book series fills the gap between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.  I never actually read the comics, but my friends and I played the N64 game back in the mid 90's.

Purchase #5:  Football Sets  $25

With temperatures rising, I came close to leaving early and skipping the final two rows.

I'm glad I didn't, because I finally found some reasonably priced sports cards.  This couple had several three row monster boxes filled with 90's cards, but they were asking $100 per box.  Two guys were sifting through them and wanted to buy all three until they heard the price.

I'm not a fan of digging through boxes that someone else is already going through, so I looked into their 660 and 800ct. boxes that were off to the side.  Two stood out to me.  One had a complete 1987 Donruss baseball set.  The other looked like this:

The lady wanted $25 for each, so I put the baseball set down and asked her if she'd take $20 for this box.  She countered with $23.  Then I offered her a coin flip challenge.  If they win, I pay $25.  If I win, I pay $20.  Yup.  I lost.

That being said, I was pretty shocked at the going rates for the 1990 Score Supplemental set:

1990 Score Supplemental Factory Set

Can you believe that these sets are selling in the $100 to $140 range on eBay?  Emmitt Smith's most popular rookie card is main draw, but it also contains rookie cards of Lincoln Kennedy and Junior Seau.

There were also a bunch of these 1990 Pro Set Update sets inside the box:

1990 Pro Set Update Set

There's also a rookie year card of Emmitt in these sets too, but they haven't quite boomed in value.

Purchase #6:  A New Album  $5

The final purchase of the day was a new copy of this 70's record album:

1972 Fleetwood Finley's Heroes LP

I already have a framed copy hanging up in my office.  However for five bucks, I couldn't pass up it up.  If you'd like to listen to the album, click here.

Sorry there weren't more cards in this particular flea market haul, but I did find two vendors with bargain boxes at last weekend's flea market.  Depending on how hectic things are around here, I should have a recap of that trip up sometime next week.  As for recap of the De Anza Flea Market back in May, that could be posted in a few weeks... or a few months.

Until then...

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!

The Street Sale

This story begins back in early April when I purchased a set of golf cards at the De Anza Flea Market.  The lady who sold it to me explained that it belonged to her friend who had recently passed away.  The gentleman collected a variety of items and she was helping his family with the estate sale.  She asked if I was interested in seeing more of his stuff and invited me to attend a street sale she was setting up.

Unfortunately it was the same day as the Branham Flea Market, so I arrived a little later than I would have liked.  Most of the sports related items she brought out had already been picked through, but I did managed to find a few items for my collection.

Let's check them out...

Purchase #1:  Baseball 33 1/3RPM Records  $20

1977 Scarab Sports Challenge Record #NNO

Although these 6" records seemed familiar, I have never actually seen these before.  Based on the price tags on some of these, they were sold individually back in the day for 69¢.

After I got home, the Mays made me realize these records are similar to another sound and sports related collectible from the 70's: 1971 Mattel Instant Replay vinyl discs.

Here's a side by side comparison, so you can see for yourself:

The shape and artwork resemble each other, but the 1971 disc is smaller and mounted to a thicker vinyl.  On the other hand the 1977 records are printed on flimsy plastic.

They remind me of those records you'd find inside of kid's magazines back in the 70's.  If you know, you know.

This lot contained 9 out of the 12 records produced.  Unfortunately, the three I need to complete the set are all hall of famers:  Johnny Bench, Frank Robinson, and Nolan Ryan.  I have added them to my saved eBay searches, but I doubt I will ever actually complete this set.

Purchase #2:  Ron Ferdinand Lot $20

The gentleman who passed away was a big fan of Ron Ferdinand's work.  I have read a few Dennis the Menace Sunday comics over the years and I'm a huge fan of of original art.  So purchasing this lot was a no-brainer:

There were actually ten items in this lot.  The other three were personalized, so I didn't bother scanning them.  Anyways... can't imagine there's a lot of interest in Dennis the Menace sketches anyways.

Purchase #3:  The Beatles Postcard Lot  $12

There were a ton of Beatles related items like magazines, plates, and pins.  I personally locked in on the cardboard related items, like these postcards:

1964 The Beatles Exhibit Series Postcards #1, 2, 3, & 4

This lot was advertised as a complete set.  However when I got home, I discovered #5 was missing.

1964 The Beatles Exhibit Series Postcards #6, 7, & 8

There are a couple of copies on eBay, but the cheapest one listed is more expensive than what I paid for this lot.  For now... the set remains incomplete.

Purchase #4:  Another Beatles Lot  $12

Next to the postcards, there were two 9-pocket pages with Beatles trading cards.

Nine of them were from the 1964 Topps 3rd Series set.  Here's a closer look at one of them: 

1964 Topps Beatles 3rd Series #121

The other six were from another Topps set from the same year:

Here's a closer look at my favorite card in the lot:

1964 Topps Beatles Color Cards #31

I've already added a few of my favorites into my vintage binder.  The rest went into my vintage box.  Unfortunately half of these had writing on the back.  As soon as I go back into my classroom, I'll grab an eraser.

Purchase #5:  Atari Artist Autograph  $5

One of the other vendors that set up at the street sale was a gentleman who had done some art for Atari back in the 80's.  He was selling these greeting cards that featured different games he had created cover art for.

Pole Position was one of my favorite arcade games back in the day, so I picked that one.  Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Atari actually used this artwork on the 2600 box or manual covers.

No complaints though.  Five bucks was well worth the ten minute conversation I had with him.

Purchase #6:  Water Damaged Wax Box  $10

1981 Topps Raiders of the Lost Ark Wax Box

I saw this box on another vendor's table as I was leaving.  The box obviously suffered from water damage, but a part of me hoped that some of the packs were okay.  They weren't.  Not sure what I'll end up doing with it, but at the very least, the wax wrappers are worth holding onto.

Before I left, the woman explained that this was only a fraction of her friend's collection and invited me over to her house the following weekend for a private and personalized garage sale.  I happily accepted her offer.

But that's a post for another day.  Until then...

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!