Summer Goals

It's been a few years since I have sat down and hammered out some hobby goals.  But since I won't be teaching this summer, I wanted to get three hobby related things accomplished before the start of the 2026-27 school year.

#1:  Target a handful of set builds.

Whether or not I actually complete any sets this summer, I want to at least make the effort to cross as many numbers off of my set needs as I can.

#2:  Inventory my collection.

Two to three times a decade, I like to go through my collection and update my inventory.  This project will wreak havoc on my back, but when I'm finished... I have a better understanding of what I've been hoarding the past few decades or so.

#3:  Clean up my office and catch up on blogging.

I have stacks of cards all over my office.  Some are sitting on my desk.  Others are laying in 5,000ct. boxes.  Plus I have unopened mailers dating back months.  The goal is to sort, scan, and blog as much as I can over the next two months.  Sundays will be reserved for farmer's markets, laundry, cleaning, and sorting.

Being the first Sunday of my summer break, I'm going to hammer out this sorting tray filled with the remaining cards from Reader X's January care package.

Let's start with some baseball players I collect:

Next up here are some PC additions for my favorite team collections:

Xavier always sends some San Francisco Giants, San Francisco 49ers, Las Vegas Raiders, and Golden State Warriors for my students:

Plus he tossed in some San Jose Sharks and a few other hockey cards:

I'm honestly not familiar with any of these guys, but the three Las Vegas Knights autographs are dedicated to my mother who rooted for them in their inaugural season.

Xavier also tossed in some football stars, rookies, and inserts:

Most of these will eventually be passed along to one of my students, but I did end up holding onto the Select rookie card of Caleb Williams.  

Thank you Xavier for another generous care package.  Sorry it took me six months to document it on here.

And thank you to everyone who took the time to read this post as I document the first Sunday Sort of The Summer of 2026.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #180a: A 15 Pound Collection

September has been rough.  But things at work are starting to settle into place... which means that I should be able to spend more time doing hobby related stuff like sorting cards, writing posts, and sending out some care packages that I've been sitting on.

In the meantime, here's a recap of my trip to the De Anza Flea Market back on September 6th.

Purchase #1:  A Box of Cards  $20

 

The flea market was packed with new vendors and tons of people walking around.  I even ran into an old friend while walking down the first aisle.  As luck would have it, he spotted this box of cards under a vendor's table.  He's not into cards, but knows they're my favorite thing to collect.

I probably could write an entire post on this box, but it took me about a week to sit down and sort it... so I'll just show off some of the highlights.

There were four stacks of inserts, parallels, and rookie cards from 2018 to 2022 baseball products.  Nothing too crazy, but the box helped me fill about forty slots in my star binders.  I also found some football and basketball cards scattered in the box.

2018 Topps Chrome 1983 Topps #83T-1

2018 Topps Chrome Pink Refractor #1

1994-95 Ultra Premier Pad Men #2

Under the scattered semi-rigid and top loaders were several rows of Pokemon cards.  I didn't bother counting, but there were probably two hundred hologram cards:

There was also an unopened pack with Will Clark in the box as well:

1993 Milk Bone Super Stars

Here's a peek at the back:

But there were two cards that stood out and made this purchase and me walking with a 15lb. box of cards around the flea market worthwhile.  The first one stood out immediately:

1990 Leaf #300

I have loved the look of this Frank Thomas rookie card since 1990.  This might not be worth the entire twenty dollar purchase price, but it's about half.

This card made the purchase worth every penny:

1988 Pro Cards Vermont Mariners #NNO

I wasn't exactly sure what this card was, but apparently it was a promotional card handed out after the 1988 Pro Cards Vermont Mariners set had already been released.

It sounds like there's a counterfeit version in circulation, but based on this blog post, they are usually well-centered and feature different fonts.  This particular copy appears to be legit.

I'm sure I'll sprinkle some of the other cards from this purchase into future posts, but this post is already starting to drag on.  In fact, I think I'll end up splitting this trip into two posts to keep these recaps a reasonable length.

But before I wrap up this part, here was my second purchase of the day...

Purchase #2:  Baseball Card Game  $3

1991 U.S. Games Systems Inc. Baseball Legends Card Game

The early 90's saw the release of a bunch of baseball related decks of playing cards.  I wasn't familiar with this one, but a quick search on COMC revealed that there are thirteen legendary baseball players featured.  Haven't decided if I'll keep this deck sealed or put the singles into my hall of fame binders.

Well that's it for today.  I'll try to get the second half written up and posted by the end of the week.  Plus I need to recap last Saturday's trip to the Branham Flea Market, but I'm that probably won't happen until next week or later.

Until then...

Feel free to share your thoughts on either of these purchases down below.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Bo Knows

Some collectors focus on a specific player.  Others focus on a specific team, theme, sets, or everything in between.  The latter would describe me.  I love it all.

Sadly... this sometimes poses a problem.  You see... I tend to focus on two, three, maybe even four PC's at a time.  Pair that with poor memory... and it sometimes leads to certain collections sitting on the back burner for months... sometimes years.

Luckily there are bloggers like Bo (@ Baseball Cards Come to Life) who remembers and knows what I collect.  He sent me a PWE a while back and inside were some cards for two collections I haven't paid much attention to.

The first were two new additions to my Middle Finger PC:

1973 Topps #307

Back in August, sg488 and Bo pointed out this card which depicts Tito Fuentes giving Boots Day the finger.  Here's a closer look:

My eyes are nearly as bad as my memory... so I'll have to trust their judgement.  The other "middle finger" card that Bo suggested was this one featuring The Big Hurt:

1991 Upper Deck #246

I had seen this card a bunch of times over the years, but never noticed Frank's finger.  Not sure what his deal was... but this is the second card in my collection where he's flippin' the bird.  You can see the other one in my original post.

The other collection he targeted was one I started years ago... but hadn't added to it in over three years.  It's collecting cards featured in The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading, and Bubble Gum Book.  In 2021... I had 8 out of the 241 cards pictured in the book.

These two take me up to 10:

1961 Topps #100

1967 Topps #79

The book talks about Haddix being the only pitcher in MLB history to lose a perfect game:

While Morton is one of the three Bubba's highlighted:

Thank you Bo for the care package and for reminding me of two forgotten PC's within my collection.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #154: Smorgasbord of Stuff

If you're a fan of variety, then this post is right up your alley.  If you're only interested in sports cards... just scroll down to the 3rd purchase.

The De Anza Flea Market is held on the first Saturday of every month.  This is now the third month since it has reopened and they are still struggling to fill up with vendors and visitors.  I think part of the issue this month was the flea market took place on a holiday weekend, so hopefully next month will be better.

The good news is there were a bunch of new vendors who I wasn't familiar with.  five of my six purchases were made from people I've never seen before.

Purchase #1:  70's Map of Mariott's Great America  $3

I'm sure nobody else cares about this map, but this was easily my favorite purchase of the day.  The week leading up to the flea market, Bay Area residents were informed that Great America will be closing its doors sometime in the next eleven years.

This was the theme park I grew up at.  This is the theme park a lot of locals grew up going to.  In a nutshell... this was pretty sad news for a lot of people.

That's why I was super excited to see this folded up map sitting on this guy's table just waiting for me to buy it.  Without seeming too giddy, I asked him how much he wanted.  I couldn't hand over the three bucks fast enough.

The first thing I noticed is that The Demon (one of my favorite rides) wasn't on it, so I knew it was pretty old.  After some research, I discovered that the ride was originally called Turn of the Century, but it was modified and renamed in 1980... which means this map is from 1979 or earlier.

Sorry I blabbed so much about a map nobody cares about.  I'll try and keep the rest of the flea market finds brief and straight to the point.

Purchase #2:  The Famous Baseball Card Book  $2

The Great American Baseball Card Flipping,

Trading and Bubble Gum Book (1st Edition)

I already own two copies of this book (paperback & hardcover), but this copy's dust jacket is a nice upgrade.  Even if it wasn't, I still would have bought it for the price.

Purchase #3:  Pack of Predators  $1

2003 Top Trumps Predators Pack

No idea what this game is, but it's a pack of cards and the price was right.  Don't worry, here come the sports cards...

Purchase #4:  Bag of Cards  $10

This bag was sitting on a tarp partially covered by a paper fan among a bunch of oriental style home furnishings and fishing reels.  Luckily I took a few extra seconds to browse this vendor's stuff, because I never would have spotted the bag if I weren't standing right over it.

After pulling out a small stack of cards, it seemed to contain a mixture of new and old baseball and football cards.  The guy said I could have the bag for $10, which I thought was fair.  When I got to the end of the row, I sat down and pulled everything out to organize the purchase.  That's when I found this card:

1991 Topps #333 (2016 Topps 65th Anniversary Buyback)

I love me some rookie cards... especially when they are stamped as a buyback and depict a first ballot hall of famer.

I would have paid $10 for this card alone... even though it's far from being mint.

Honestly... I could have dedicated an entire post to the contents of this bag, but this post is dragging on long enough.  I'll trim the fat and share five other cards that caught my eye:

1975 Topps #400

There was a small stack of vintage football cards that were in top loaders consisting of three players: Fran Tarkenton, Franco Harris, and Bob Griese.

2016 Topps Gypsy Queen MVP Mini #MVPM-FT

2012 Topps A&G World's Greatest Military Leaders #ML-8

2019 Topps #100

2001 Pacific Paramount Sample #NNO

This Maddux is a mystery.  Pacific didn't release a Paramount baseball set that year and when I searched Beckett and COMC, this card didn't pop up.  Not sure the story behind it, but according to this eBay listing... it's rare.

Rounding out the scans are two memorabilia cards...

In an age where condition is valued by everyone from flippers to grading card companies... it is hard to imagine someone tossing stacks of cards into a bag and dumping them at the flea market for $10.  But I'm sure glad they did.

Purchase #5:  MJ Rookie Card  $6

1994 Collector's Choice Silver Signature #661

Although I didn't know the guy who sold me this card, he was set up with some of my buddies.  He had a few dollar boxes, but there wasn't really anything that stood out.

I found this Jordan in his display case.  It was a little more than I would typically spend.  But I wanted to buy something to support him and this fits my collection.

Purchase #6:  Heritage Error Cards  $5

After tossing the MJ into the backpack, I walked over to my buddy's booth.

He showed me a stack of 2021 Heritage that contained a few wrong back error cards.  I like this kind of stuff and wanted to support him, so I picked out six of them.  He originally wanted $2 per card, but he settled for a crisp five dollar bill.

If you're trying to wrap your brain around who is paired with who, here's a breakdown:

A.  Guerrero (front) / Hader (back)

B.  Riley (front) / Eflin (back)

C.  Arenado (front) / Yelich (back)

D.  Hader (front) / Guerrero (back)

E.  Eflin (front) / Riley (back)

F.  Turner (front) / Sanchez & Kilome (back)

First off... these aren't rare.  There are plenty of listings on eBay at very affordable prices.  But they are a little mysterious.  Typically Topps changes the code at the bottom for variations.  Yet all of these have the same code as the regular base cards.  If anyone knows the story behind these, feel free to comment on them down below.

Well that wraps up another trip to the flea market.  Sorry it took so long to get this post published.  I'm still playing catch up after a very busy start to the summer.  I'm hitting up another flea market on Saturday, so hopefully I'll have some more finds to write about next week.

Until then...

Did you have a favorite amusement park when you were a kid?

Do you have multiple copies of the same book sitting on your bookshelf?

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!