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!

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!