Flea Market Finds #187: Superfluous Stuff

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)

It's often remembered for the Loma Prieta Earthquake that was captured on live tv about thirty minutes before Game 3 was about to start.

San Jose Mercury News (10/29/89)

The Argus (10/29/89)

And it's the last time the Oakland A's were World Series Champions.

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.

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 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.

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:

There was a ton of Japanese wrestlers:

My favorite?  This shiny yellow parallel of Asuka:

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!

Flea Market Finds #181: Dime Box Cards

This year has been one of the best in regards to flea market finds, but after two poor outings in a row... I'm starting to think the hot streak is over.

Two weeks ago, I walked around the De Anza Flea Market and didn't purchase a single item.  A friend of mine made a big purchase involving hundreds of packs and as a consolation prize tossed me one.  I'll share its contents in a future post, because I'm too lazy to run out to my car.

Two weeks before that, I walked around the Branham Flea Market and had it not been for a guy with a dime box, I would have walked away with nothing again.

Although all of these items were purchased at the same time, it's easier to split them up into two categories...

Purchase #1a:  The Oversized Stuff  $3

They're a pain in the butt to store, but I will happily purchase any box topper I come across if the price is right.  Ten cents works for me.

Here are a few of my favorites:

2020 Topps Holiday Ornament #WHO-MB

Some of you might remember my metal Christmas tree.  Well I've slowly been accumulating some of the Topps Ornament box toppers from the past five years.  Just need a few more to decorate an updated version of it. 

2021 Heritage Box Topper #OB-VG

In the midst of preparing this post, Vladito was having a monster series against the New York Yankees.  Unfortunately he hasn't found the same success against Seattle's pitchers.

2011 Topps Lineage 1964 Topps Giants Box Topper #TG9

The 1964 Topps Giants is one of my favorite vintage oddball sets.  I'm a huge fan of the simple design and was very lucky to add the full sixty card set to my collection a few years ago.  I'm not building this box topper set, but I'll happily add affordable singles when I stumble across them. 

2013 Panini Golden Age Exhibit Box Topper #25

This is probably the least interesting card for the majority of you, but it's my favorite from the bunch.  I can't tell you much about Mr. Johnson that you can't look up on Wikipedia... but this card makes me think of my father who was a huge boxing fan in his youth.

Okay, let's check out the rest of the dime box purchases...

Purchase #1b:  The Standard Stuff  $7

Here's a heads up... there wasn't a lot of baseball in this guy's dime box and the stuff he did have I wasn't interested in.  That being said, there were a bunch of other sports represented and some non-sports too.

I was a pretty diehard San Jose Sharks fan for their first thirty seasons, but I haven't really followed them, the sport, or hockey card industry in several years.  I'll still buy some Sharks, hockey autographs, and 90's inserts from time to time.  But if they started skating in the past ten years, I have no idea who they are.  That being said, I know that the Upper Deck Young Guns are popular among hockey card collectors.  At 10¢ each, I figured I'd grab every copy this guy had.

The same 10¢ rule applies to any shiny Pokemon cards I come across.  The hidden treasure in the box is political trading card of Mark Takano.  Never seen these before, but it's an interesting addition to my Japanese Pc.

There were a bunch of these Disney cards in the guy's dime box.  I picked up a bunch for one of my co-workers who is a huge Disney fan.  However I held onto a few including the Beagle Boys and Goofy cards above.

I was also happy to find a bunch of new Jon Jones cards for my collection:

I don't consider myself a huge MMA fan, but I did enjoy following Jones in the UFC Octagon.

Here are a few more singles I found in the dime box.  Honestly there wasn't anything too mind blowing in this guy's box... but I had fun flipping through it.  Hopefully he'll be out there again this Saturday.  If not... I'm hoping to find at least something card related to purchase out there.

Until then...

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

The Annual Advent Calendar

Every year since 2021, my good friend Ryan (aka SumoMenkoMan) has hooked me up with a custom advent calendar for the holidays.  It's literally twenty-five individually wrapped gifts shipped in a giant box.  In an effort to give you an idea of the size... I laid out some cards across the top of the box:

Here's what I saw when I opened it up on Monday night (yeah, I was a day late):

And here's a look at the advent calendar in its entirety:

Now in a perfect world, I'd sit and hammer out a daily post... just like Nacho Grande does with his Lego City Advent Calendar over on his blog.  Huge props to him for managing his time wisely as he's a husband, father, college professor, group breaker, Lego set maker, Barry Larkin super collector, and board game (and baseball card) blogger all-in-one.

Ryan is in a similar situation... where he's a husband, father, YouTuber, author, sumo card super collector, and proud member of our armed forces.

While... I'm just this single dude who teaches and periodically blogs about cards.  Sadly... I still don't have their time management skills... so I will be taking a slightly different approach.  

Although my plan is to open up Ryan's presents on a daily basis... this year's SumoMenkoMan Advent Calendar will be presented in four parts.  The first three will be published on the first three Saturdays of this month with the fourth part coming out on Christmas morning.

Let's get the ball rolling...

Day #1: Sealed Samurai

Ryan kicked things off with a gorgeous greeting card featuring a samurai in his armor.  He wrote his note on a Post-It note, so that I could use the card for someone else.  That someone else ended up being my father:

In addition to being a greeting card, it's also marketed as a display piece with a special stand.  I chose this route and added it to my father's shelf.  I could probably write an entire post on this display, but for now I just want to point out the greeting card on the right and the PopFuji beer can on the far left... which was part of last year's advent calendar.  

Day #2:  Speeding Tickets

Some of you might be wondering why he would send a pair of Formula 1 Grand Prix of Long Beach tickets from 1980.  Well I collect things related to the Toyota Supra.  And printed on the back of each ticket is an image of the Celica Supra which was the first generation of that car.

Another thing that Ryan knows I love... are unopened packs... especially the Japanese ones.  

Get ready, because the next few days are filled with packs.

Day #3: Three Packs of Terror

2024 is the 70th Anniversary of Godzilla and here are three packs celebrating it:

2024 Ensky Godzilla

I opened one pack to review.  The contents were two acetate cards and one piece of gum:

2024 Ensky Godzilla #04

The first card features an awesome battle scene from Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966).  I haven't seen this film, but I just added it to my Max watchlist.

2024 Ensky Godzilla #31

The second card is a scene from Godzilla: Tokyo SOS (2003).  Another movie I haven't watched yet.

Did you know that there are thirty-eight Godzilla films?  I probably have seen only four or five of them, but Max has a bunch of them... so I'll try to start crossing them off.

The last item in the pack is this individually wrapped piece of gum:  

If you ever tried Japanese gum, there's this fruity flavor that I've never been able to figure out.  The only words to describe it are "sweet", "yummy", and "unique".  Unfortunately the flavor only lasts for a few minutes.

What happens to the other two packs?  Well... one will be reserved for A Pack To Be Named Later... and the other will go into my unopened pack collection.

Day #4:  Four Packs of Calbee

Calbee is a Japanese snack company who is well known for their trading cards.  If you've never seen how they are distributed, the packs come attached to bags of their snacks.

Ryan hooked me up with four bags/packs of 2024 Calbee Series Two.  Each pack contains two cards.  I opened up three packs and pulled these for my Japanese binder:

Toshiaki Imae, Gregory Polanco, & Shota Watanabe

Hiroya Miyagi, Natsuki Takeuchi, & Soichiro Yamazaki

Here's a closer look at the Gregory Polanco:

2024 Calbee Series Two #100

After spending over a decade with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, Polanco crossed the Pacific to play in the NPB.  He's spent the past two seasons with the Chiba Lotte Marines.  Based on the image on the back of his trading card he doesn't seem to be too excited.

But I was excited to see these four packs.  The fourth and final one is going into my unopened pack collection.

Day #5:  Five Packs of K-1 Fighters

Back in 2017, Ryan wrote a review on one of these 1997 Bandai K-1 Fighters packs over on APTBNL.  A few months later, he sent me a bunch of unopened packs... including one of these.  You can check out the contents here.

Yesterday I sat down and opened one more pack.  Here's what I pulled:

I didn't recognize any familiar names, but these will also be added to my Japanese Athlete PC binder.  As for the four remaining packs... one will go to my unopened pack collection, while the other three will go into my rainy day pack stash.

Day #6: Six Packs of Formula Nippon

The popularity of Formula 1 racing seems to have skyrocketed over the past few years.  I have a buddy who loves collecting the trading cards and I even know students who follow the sport.

I honestly don't know much.  But that's not going to prevent me from treasuring these six packs of 1997 Epoch Formula Nippon.

Each pack contains eight cards.  Here's what I pulled out of the first pack I opened:

As with the K-1 packs... I'll set one aside for my collection... and toss the rest into my rainy pack stash.

Day #7:  Seven Snack Packs

Ryan definitely knows what I like, because whenever I go to the Japanese grocery stores in my area... I look for stuff like this:

Each of these items are Japanese snacks that come with some form of trading card.  Based on my previous purchases, they're usually wafer cookies, but I've also seen chocolate or "milky" taffy.

I'm still snacking on the Calbee chips from Day #4... so I won't be tearing into these right now.  However as I eat them, I'll set the cards aside and show them off in a future post.

Until then...

Thank you Ryan for this very generous advent calendar.  Truly appreciate the thought and consideration put into each of these gifts.  I'm still waiting on your "big" present to arrive.  However if it doesn't arrive by early next week... I will just ship your Christmas presents out separately.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!