Flea Market Finds #192: Nothing Too Crazy

Sorry for the lack of flea market related posts.  It's not for a lack of trips or even purchases.  The big change is the amount of time I dedicate to writing posts... which has significantly declined.  Over the summer, I was focusing on itemizing and organizing my collection.  And the start of a new school year is always hectic.  The good news is things begin to stabilize in October.

The bad news is card related deals are drying up faster than ever.  That's why I've started targeting other items while walking around the flea market.  Two of these items are featured in today's post and were purchased this past Saturday at the De Anza Flea Market.

Here's what I purchased...

Purchase #1:  Pair of Sets  $1

I'm officially at the point in the hobby where I get excited to find cheap overproduced retail box sets from the 80's.  I have purchased stuff from this vendor a few times over the years, but like other card vendors... his prices are becoming unreasonable.

1988 Topps Woolworth Baseball Highlights Sets (x2)

However he had a plethora of these 33ct. box sets... and was asking a buck each or $20 for a case of 24.  He didn't hide the fact that he wanted to dump them, so I offered him a dollar for two and he accepted.  One of them will go into my boxed set collection.  The other will be opened up, possibly featured in a future post, and the singles will either go into player collections or added to care packages.

Purchase #2:  Cassette Tapes  $8

Outside of trading cards, LP's and cassette tapes are my favorite things to look for at flea markets.  Unfortunately, the competition is stiff in this area as well.  Luckily I found a guy with some tapes I was interested in and he had reasonable prices.  $3 each or two for $5.

I found three...

U2 Live Under A Blood Red Sky

I went through a U2 phase back in the 80's where they were one of my favorite bands.  Never actually owned this album, CD, or cassette... but I recognize most of these songs.  I was very happy to add this to the collection.

Steve Miller Band Greatest Hits 1974-78

My brothers are over a decade older than me, so we weren't exactly close when I was a kid.  In fact, they were more like uncles than siblings.  But they were definitely the cool kind who exposed me to classic rock of the 70's.  I've had this CD in my collection for decades.  My brother gave me his LP a few years ago.  I'm pretty sure I owned the cassette tape back in the 80's.  If not... I own a copy now.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Coming Out Of Their Shells

Never knew this cassette tape existed, but as soon as I saw it... I wanted it.  Based on a YouTube video, it looks like you could purchase a these at Pizza Hut for $3.99 back in 1990.  I'll never actually listen to it, but if I ever build a TMNT display in my office... I'll add this to it.

Purchase #3:  Charlie Hustle Autograph  $5

Yeah.  Yeah.  Yeah.  There's no guarantee that this signature is real.  And even if it is... his autographs are far from rare.  I don't care.  I wasn't going to pass this up for five bucks.

1984 Gateway First Day Cover

This first day cover silk cachet commemorates Pete's 4,000th hit on April 13th, 1984.

The vendor who had this had an entire table filled with old magazines, programs, and photos.  While flipping through the stacks, I came across a sleeve containing a few different commemorative covers.  Only two were signed.  The other featured Len Barker's signature.  Rose was worth the risk, but not Barker.

Purchase #4:  Dollar Cards  $2

After digging through the programs and purchasing the Rose, I started digging through the guy's dollar box.  This was one of those boxes where cards are literally tossed into it... half of which were completely unprotected.

Sitting on top was a small stack of 70's Hostess cards... which caught my eye.  Unfortunately there were poorly cut and the biggest name I saw was Davey Lopes.  But I did find this 90's parallel:

1993-94 Stadium Club First Day Issue #186

Karl Malone wasn't a good father and if you ask Magic or Kobe... he wasn't a good teammate.  But he was one heck of a power forward.  Not gonna lie.  When I saw this card in a heavily worn penny sleeve, my eyes lit up.  Anyone else miss the days when parallels weren't pulled from every pack?

I'm glad I continued to dig, because I found an even cooler card:  

1976 Kellogg's #19

Unfortunately this card was floating around in the box without a penny sleeve.  However somehow the cardboard gods spared it from any cracks.  The back is pretty stained though:

I'm not going to complain.  I'll buy uncracked 70's Kellogg's cards of any familiar name for a dollar all day long.

Purchase #5:  Box of Old Postcards  $20

Another side collection I have been building are vintage postcards... especially one depicting places I've been to.  I haven't counted, but I'd estimate you're staring at two to three hundred postcards.  I flipped through a couple of stacks, compared them to some purchases I have made online, and figured it was well worth the price.

If you'd like to see some in a future post, comment down below.  If not I'll eventually sort and file these away.

Purchase #6:  A Wood Box  $5

Last month, I saw this gentleman with a bunch of affordable handmade boxes.  I stopped at his booth to see if he'd be willing to make some custom boxes for my card collection.  Unfortunately he was busy with several customers, so I never got a chance to ask.

I was happy to see him again this month. but he doesn't do custom builds.  I pulled out a top loader and discovered that it fit perfectly sideways in this particular design.  I purchased one.  Haven't figured out how I'll use it.  But if I do within the next month... maybe I'll grab a few more.

Well that wraps up my most recent trip to the flea market.  Nothing too crazy, but I found some baseball cards to purchase.  That always counts as a win.

Positive or negative... I'd love to hear your thoughts on my finds.

Until next time...

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

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!

Flea Market Finds #189: Fill A Bag

In regards to views and comments, Flea Market Finds are the bread and butter posts on this blog.  Unfortunately it's been nearly three months since I've written one of these posts.  A busy end of the school year schedule along with prioritizing care packages from fellow bloggers essentially pushed these posts the back burner.

Now these posts are starting to pile up in my draft folder, so it's time to start recapping some spring trips to the local flea market.

Today's post covers a trip to the Branham High School Flea Market back on Saturday, April 18th.

Although I took notes on purchases, I completely forgot to write anything down about the weather, the crowds, or the vendors.  Not sure if that's important to anyone, but I usually like to include that info to help keep my memory fresh.  Oh well.  Let's get to what I found...

Purchase #1:  Cheap Cards  $4

The first vendor on the first row is a regular I have purchased stuff from on multiple trips.  While I was flipping through his card boxes, he was telling me about his mom who is battling cancer.  Normally, I would have walked away without making a purchase.  However I wanted to leave the interaction on a positive note by purchasing something.  

2024 Heritage Baseball Flashbacks #BF-5

1992 Leaf Gold #57

The first two cards were 50¢ each, while the final three were dollar cards:

2020 Bowman Prospects #BP-108 (x2)

1994 Topps Black Gold Redemption Winner A #NNO

Expired redemption cards are one of those collections I don't really talk about... but I truly enjoy finding in the wild.

Purchase #2:  Start of a New Collection  $2

Maybe it's because there weren't a ton of vendors with cards.  Maybe it's because I have a sickness when it comes to stuff I treasured as a kid.  Whatever it was, I was drawn to this table of cassette tapes.  There were a few I owned when I was a kid, but something in my brain told me rebuilding this collection could be a slippery slope.

So I grabbed the one that stood out the most:

Go-Go's Beauty and the Beat (1981)

This was the Go-Go's debut album which was #1 for six straight weeks on the Billboard 200 in March and April of 1982.

Purchase #3:  Cards & Cassettes  $22

That slippery slope I just mentioned... just go real.  I owned a copy of this cassette tape as a kid:

The Police Synchronicity (1983)

Honestly there's a good chance my childhood copy is sitting in a box somewhere in my garage.  But after purchasing the Go-Go's tape, I figured I'd add this to my cassette tape collection rebuild.

The vendor also had a bunch of cards and other knickknacks scattered on a table.  That's where I found these two Junk Wax Era hall of famers:

1987 Fleer Update #U-68

1996-97 Collector's Choice A Cut Above: The Jordan Years #CA5

And this 22 card lot of vintage cowboy cards:

1951 Post Hopalong Cassidy

Hopalong Cassidy is a fictional cowboy hero that was popular in films in the 1930's and 40's.  There was also a television show based on him that ran on NBC from 1949 to 1952.

The Google app on my phone helped me identify this set on the spot.  These cards were inserted into boxes of Post cereal back in 1951.

He packaged them up with the two cards and cassette tape for $22, which seemed like a solid deal.

Purchase #4:  Bag of Stuff  $10

The couple with this set up had a two tables filled with a variety of items you'd find at someone's garage sale.  Their deal was fill a Target bag with as many items as you wanted for $10.

The two Topps factory sets immediately stood out:

1991 Topps Baseball Set

1992 Topps Baseball Set

Both of these sets had already been opened, but at this price I couldn't pass them up.  I also grabbed these five items and tossed them into the bag:

At the left are two souvenir photo books which I thought were interesting.  They remind me of going to San Francisco with my parents when I was little.  These are the kind of items I'd bug them to buy me when we'd stop into souvenir stores.

The black thing is a Nintendo Switch case that I ended up giving away to one of my 8th graders.  Under that is a Mickey's Steamboats souvenir baseball.  And the final item I tossed into the bag was a package of Christmas cards that I'll use for future care packages.

As for the two factory sets, they weren't complete.  Both sets were missing a handful of Giants.  But I did end up pulling out the A's and Padres team sets.  Also pulled out some key stars (in case I end up building more Topps base card runs) and a few rookies like these:

1991 Topps #333

1992 Topps #156

I'm going to use the base cards for an annual art project I do with my students where they create trading cards of their favorite civil rights leaders.

Well that wraps up my first Flea Market Finds post in nearly three months.  I still have a few more trips I need to recap as well as a yard sale yield and a card show haul.  With only four weeks left in my summer break, I need to start hammering these out hopefully at a rate of one per week.  We'll see how things play out.

Until then...

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!