Flea Market Finds #174a: A Solid Appetizer

The end of the school year might have been a little busy and stressful, but I try my hardest to set aside the first and third Saturdays of the month for flea markets.  This post is going to focus on half of my purchases made back on May 17th at the Branham High School Flea Market.

That day I spent the majority of my time with one vendor and everything I'm about to show off came from him.  It was the first time I had seen him out there and the first thing I stumbled across was a box of one dollar items.

Purchase #1:  Playing Cards  $5

My friends and I run a board game club at school, so these decks of cards will be added to our collection of games.

Right next to the dollar box were three boxes filled with two dollar items.  There were a bunch of sealed action figures, Funko Pops, and other miscellaneous toys with beat up packaging.  Imagine the toy section at Ross or Marshalls.

Purchase #2:  Stranger Things Comic & Figures  $2

McFarlane Toys Page Punchers Stranger Things

I had never seen these before, but I'm a big fan of the Stranger Things franchise.  The main thing I wanted was the comic and the packaging was in poor condition, so I opened it up.

The item is meant to be displayed:

I don't have the space for that, so I tossed the comic into my collection and gave the figurines to my co-worker's son.

Purchase #3:  Graphic Novel  $2

Batman The Killing Joke Hardcover

I bought a 1st printing copy back in 2013.  But since it's kind of a valuable book... I never opened it.  This copy is a hard cover and it's not in the best condition, so now I'm going to read it.

The vendor also had some boxes of cards.  One of them was a monster box full of relics, autographs, and numbered cards for two bucks each.  I stood there and flipped through every card.

Purchase #4:  An Encapsulated Card  $2

2024 Wild Card Decades Preview National Exclusive

21st Century Green Rainbow Foil #2D3-F3 (#'d 3/10)

I put together a stack of eight or nine cards... hoping he'd take off a buck or two.

He didn't... so I just grabbed this card of Jean Grey.

By the time I was finished with the two dollar box, the guy looking through the three for a buck boxes was finished.  I spent the next thirty minutes digging through them.

Purchase #5:  Three Cards for a Buck  $20

The boxes were filled a lot of sleeved rookie cards and parallels.  That was the bulk of my purchase:

But I also found some interesting non-sports singles:

Not sure if they're worth 33¢ each, but I don't come across Japanese Star Wars or Steve-O cards very often.

I also picked up this run of Jordans from the 1992 Skybox USA set.  What can I say?  I like junk wax Jordans.

The final purchase from this vendor is by far my favorite...


Purchase #6:  Box Bottoms  $3

While digging through the card boxes, I noticed he had some empty boxes under his table.  Inside were three empty 2014 Panini Golden Age boxes with three card panel box panels:

I opened up three boxes of this product myself back in 2019.  I'm hoping I saved these panels, because I'd love to build both panel sets (red and black).

Well that wraps up the first half of my Branham High School Flea Market finds.  I titled this the appetizer, because the next post contains one of my favorite finds of all-time. 

Until then...

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Hanger Pack Prophets

Ten years ago... the Seattle Seahawks were one yard and twenty-six seconds away from a Super Bowl victory when Russell Wilson threw an interception to Malcolm Butler to hand the New England Patriots their 4th Super Bowl title in franchise history.  That was the last time I was super excited about the Super Bowl.

Ever since then... I'll either root for a team because I have a friend who roots for them... or root against a team I really dislike.  This year... I'm faced with a conundrum in the sense that I don't really hate either of the Super Bowl participants... nor do I have any friends who are Chiefs or Eagles fans.

Ultimately... I decided to root for Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, because I'd love to see them become the first team in NFL history to win three Super Bowls in a row.  Plus there's a part of me that wants to see Mahomes match Joe Montana's four Super Bowl wins.

My gut tells me Saquon Barkley and the Eagles are going to end Kansas City's run, but honestly I only watched eight to ten games this season and most of them involved the 49ers, Seahawks, or Packers.

That's why I decided to let these two 2022 Mosaic hanger packs predict the next Super Bowl champion:

The scoring will be based on the 36 (there were actually 21 cards in the first hanger pack) cards.  Each card will be worth at least one point using the following scoring system:

AFC or NFC Base Cards = 1 Point

AFC or NFC HOF Base Cards = 2 Points

Kansas City Chiefs or Philadelphia Eagles Base Cards = 3 Points

Mahomes, Kelce, Hurts, or Barkley = 2x Multiplier

Unnumbered Inserts or Parallels = 2x Multiplier

Numbered Inserts or Parallels = 3x Multiplier

Autograph or Relic = 5x Multiplier

Let's get it started...

First Quarter:

 

Jalen Hurts scores six points to give the Eagles a comfortable lead.

Second Quarter:

Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs bounce back in the second quarter with help from Antonio Gates who just received the call to Canton this week.  They enter halftime with a slim two point lead.


Third Quarter:

Patrick Mahomes and some help from random AFC inserts/parallels help the Chiefs pad their lead in the 3rd Quarter.  Let's see if they can hold onto it.

Fourth Quarter:

The Philadelphia Eagles fight until the final card... but end up falling two points short as the Kansas City Chiefs become the first team to win back to back to back Super Bowls.

Unfortunately for Mahomes fans, he doesn't win his 4th Super Bowl MVP Award.  According to the cards, that honor is going to go to Taylor's boyfriend:

2022 Mosaic Reactive Orange Prizm #97

I'm 100% okay with this outcome.  But honestly... whether or not this hanger pack prophecy comes true or not... today is all about the food and company.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!  Stay safe and sayonara!

No Fireworks, Just Fleas and Obligatory Cardboard

Every year on the 4th of July, the town of Aptos (located a few miles south of Santa Cruz) hosts the "World's Shortest Parade".  I haven't participated in decades, but back when I was a kid... my parents would take me and we'd participate with their friends as The Flea Patrol.  According to my brother, it was a group started by my parent's close friend who owned a vet clinic in the town.  We'd carry bottles of flea powder (actually talcum powder) and squirt it in search of fleas.

After the parade, we'd all head back to the vet's house and enjoy the festivities.  I'm grateful my brother brought it up, because I hadn't thought about that fond memory in years.

Yesterday I didn't attend that parade, but I did end up going to one over at my friend's house.  Her neighborhood hosts an annual 4th of July parade where different streets create themed floats.  This year's theme was music and it was extra special, because their street decided to participate for the first time in several years.

They went with the Barbie theme and played music from the movie:

One of the other streets focused on The Beatles:

Another did Taylor Swift's Super Bowl Halftime Show:

But my personal favorite, was the Grease float:

There were also a couple of older cars rolling along in the parade:

My friend and her dog walked with her street's float at the start of the parade... but it was super hot and eventually they found some shade and hung out.  Meanwhile her mom and I had front row seats to the show.

Overall... it might not have the honor of being the World's Shortest Parade... but for being a neighborhood thing... I was pretty impressed by the effort each street put into their floats.

Okay... here are some cards I feel obligated to include:

1988 Panini Album Stickers #212

Why did I include a card of Mark Eichhorn?  Well... he's the biggest baseball name out of Aptos.  He was born in San Jose, but went to college in Aptos.  Currently he is the Aptos High School pitching coach.

Next up is the 2023 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest winner:

2012 UD Goodwin Champions Autographs #A-JC

Joey Chestnut didn't participate in yesterday's competition on Coney Island due to sponsorship issue, so he went down to Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas and competed against four soldiers instead.  He finished eating 57 hot dogs in five minutes beating out the four soldier team by 8 hot dogs.

Patrick Bertoletti won the 2024 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest by consuming 58 hot dogs, however he had five more minutes than Chestnut.

And I'll wrap things up with my favorite United States flag card:

1956 Topps Flags of the World #1

One of these days, I'll write a post about it.  But I already missed the 4th of July deadline and want to wrap things up.

I hope all of you enjoyed your 4th of July celebrations.

Did anyone watch or participate in a parade?

If not, have you ever participated in a parade? 

Happy Friday and sayonara!

Same Family, Different Spelling

Seventy-two years ago... Eddie Gaedel made MLB history.

1961 Nu-Cards Baseball Scoops #426

I'm sure many of you are familiar with Mr. Gaedel and his pinch hitting appearance with the St. Louis Browns that made him the shortest person to ever appear in a Major League game.

If not, you can read about it on the National Baseball Hall of Fame website.  Just click here.

Today's post is about his much lesser known grandnephew:

2011 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Franchise Futures Signatures #76 

Back in April, Jeff over at Wax Pack Wonders showed off some new additions to his Lesser Known collection, which consists of baseball players who have family members who tend to be much more famous or guys who share their name with someone more prominent.

While reading his post, I remembered an ESPN article featuring Kyle Gaedele and his family ties to Eddie.  You might be thinking... the last names aren't even spelled the same.  But trust me, same family.  Different spelling.  Don't believe me... click here to read the article for yourself.

Unfortunately they never had the opportunity to meet each other.  Kyle was born nearly thirty years after Eddie passed away and didn't really know about his famous granduncle until he was invited to a special ceremony honoring the famous at-bat in Cooperstown.

As for me and the autograph, Wax Pack Wonder's post motivated me to grab a copy on COMC for $1.23.  Now I own the autograph of a lesser known guy related to the shortest player in MLB history.  The seller was probably just glad to unload the autograph of a minor league player that never made it past AA.

i might not write as much as before, but I'm truly grateful for all of the card bloggers out there for their dedication, passion, and hard work they put into their posts which open my eyes to hobby news, interesting ways to collect, collection additions, and every once in a while... inspiring me to add a card to my collection.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!