Flea Market Finds #185: Taro, Terry, & Talkin' Baseball

Mother Nature helped California with their drought concerns by dumping a lot of rain throughout the state over February Break.  It cleared up on Saturday enough to motivate me to check out the Branham Flea Market.

The ground was dry and the skies were fairly clear, but I think the cold temperatures scared away a lot of the regular vendors.

I did manage to purchase a few items for my collection though...

Purchase #1:  Sports Related LP's  $13

There's one vendor with sports memorabilia that you can always count on to be there.  I've purchased plenty of stuff from him over the years.  He's the guy that sold me the uncut Mother's Cookies sheets last month.

He had a box filled with sports related record albums, but only two were still sealed in cellophane:

Terry Cashman One Stop Along The Way

The Ballad of Johnny Bench (1983)

Terry Cashman Talkin' Baseball

American League (1982)

Sometimes I buy record albums because I enjoy the band.  Other times I just think it's a cool piece of history that fits into my collection.  These two LP's fall into the latter category.

I'm sure most of you are familiar with Cashman's Willie, Mickey, & The Duke found on Talkin' Baseball.  If not, it's a classic you can listen to here.  I wasn't familiar with the other song, but I found it on YouTube.  If you want to hear a slow jam about The Little General, click here.

Purchase #2:  A Classic from my Childhood  $1

My second purchase was from a vendor I hadn't seen before.  He had a bunch of old books.  I'm always on the lookout for books I read as a kid.  I might have struck out on finding baseball cards, but I did find this:

Taro and the Tofu by Masako Matsuno

I don't remember owning this book when I was little, but I was very familiar with the cover.  It's one of those books I checked out during our weekly trips to the library.

It's a story about a boy who received too much change from the tofu salesman and is faced with the decision to keep the money or give it back.  Not going to try and convince you that this is a timeless piece of literature, but I will say that it's a tale that stuck with me all these years.

That wraps up my flea market finds for this past Saturday.  I still have some free time, so I'm going to continue sharing some gifts from Ryan's advent calendar.

Let's start from the beginning with his Day 1 haiku:

There were two parts to this present.  The first part is a vintage trading card that pictures Mt. Fuji rising above Katase Beach on Enoshima:

Here's a look at the card back:

Thanks to Google... I was able to translate the card back which essentially talks about Enoshima and Mt. Fuji being in perfect harmony and beauty.

The second half of the Day 1 present was this Christmas card from 1912:

The cover features another great look at Mt. Fuji.  Here's a peek inside:

According to Google, this image shows off Itsukushima Shrine located on Miyajima Island in Hiroshima Bay.  I'm super impressed at how well crafted this Christmas card was for being 114 years old.

Both of these items are huge additions to my Mt. Fuji PC.

Well that's it for today.  Hopefully the weather is nice in two weeks for the De Anza Flea Market, because this recent trip to the flea market wasn't very memorable.

And thank you Ryan for these two vintage Mt. Fuji items.  They're awesome!

Everyone else, here is your question of the day:

When you think of sports, are there any songs that immediately pop into your head?

I've got two:

#1:  Celebration by Kool & the Gang (1980)

Whenever the A's won at the Oakland Coliseum, this song played.  Can't hear this song without it taking me back there.

#2:  Winning It All by The Outfield (1992)

I was a huge basketball fan for decades and I watched as many NBA Finals games as I could.  This song played after the Chicago Bulls won the NBA Title in 1996.  It's a great song by an under-appreciated group.

I look forward to reading and responding to your comments.  Until then... 

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #176: Cards & Stuff

The third Saturday of the month means another trip to the Branham High School Flea Market.  On Saturday, I walked around... but this post isn't about that trip.  It's a recap from my purchases on June 21st.

There's a bunch of random stuff, so let's get to it...

Normally I usually hit up the regular card guy that sets up on the end of the parking lot, but he had a crowd of people around him.  So I skipped him and continued down the row.

Purchase #1:  A Roman Coin  $3

Inquisitive Minds: Coins of the Roman Empire

That's where I found this item on a table.  I'm guessing this was a family doing some summer cleaning, because they were very organized and had everything labeled with price tags.  I'm not really in the market for blenders or tools, but I have always wanted to own a Roman coin.  I'll definitely conduct the dig at some point... and share the results in a future post.

Purchase #2:  Lego Brickheadz  $5

I met a guy who is part of the Lego Ambassador Network, who receives free sets from Lego to review.  He ran out of space to display all of the sets, so he brought the excess stuff out to Branham.  His prices were really good, but I resisted the urge and bought the cheapest thing he had: a bag of Brickheads:

Lego #75317

I actually already own this set, but haven't built it.  Now that I own it, I probably will just give away the new set to my co-workers kids.

Lego #40630

The Mandalorian and Grogu will be displayed at home.  As for Frodo and Gollum, I'll take them into my classroom in a few weeks.

Purchase #3:  70's & 80's Vinyl  $10

Not sure if the vinyl market is starting to cool off, but I've been able to find some good deals on albums from my childhood.  This guy had a bunch of them for $5 each, but I asked him if he'd take $10 for three and he accepted.

Here's what I grabbed:

Men at Work: Business As Usual (1981)

This album has some classics.  I memorized Down Under and Who Can It Be Now... which eventually became my go-to karaoke song.  Be Good Johnny was another favorite.

Pat Benatar:  Get Nervous (1982)

Pat Benatar is one of my favorite female artists... right up there with Stevie Nicks.  This was the first Benatar tape I ever owned and it contains my favorite song of hers:  Shadows of the Night.  I'm very happy to add the album to my collection.

Steve Miller Band:  Greatest Hits 1974-78

Grew up listening to my brother's copy of this album (which I inherited a few years ago).  It contains a ton of classics.  I added this to my stack, because the cover was in such good condition and the price was right.

Purchase #4a:  Dollar Cards  $2

When I walked back down the first aisle, everyone who was hanging around the card guy cleared out.  I stood around and chatted with him, while digging through his boxes.

Here are a pair of dollar cards I grabbed:

1996-97 Finest Bronze Refractor #162

I will never pass up 90's refractors of stars for a buck.  Oakley was part of those star studded New York Knicks teams of the early 90's.  The only downside to this card is the obvious "greening" that plagues 90's refractors.

2003 UD Authentics #102 (#'d 594/999)

The other card I grabbed was this numbered rookie card of Godzilla.  I was out of the hobby in 2003, but was still watching baseball.  Gotta imagine this card was a nice pull back in the day.

Purchase #4b:  Cheap Bin Cards  $1

The vendor also had cheap bin.  He had all three of these cards marked at 50¢, but gave them to me for a buck:

These are the kind of cards I'd prefer to find in dime or quarter bins, but this guy has given me some good deals over the years.  I figured I should buy more than a pair of dollar cards.

Purchase #5:  Baseball Masks  $7

1990 MLB All-Star Masks: Hot Rookies

This book contains four masks that can be punched out and put together.  I should have done a little more research, but I saw the word "rookies" and Ken Griffey Jr.'s face and wanted it.

It ended up being manufactured in 1990, so it's not a rookie item.  Then again... even if it was... I doubt many collectors would care about these masks.

Purchase #6:  New Movies  $2

I've started stock piling new VHS tapes and DVD's of movies I love or ones I think I'd love.

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

This is one of my all-time favorite movies.  I could watch it once every few years and not get bored with it.  I still own copies of my original VHS tape and DVD.  Now I have a sealed copy too.

The Jackie Robinson Story (1950)

I've never seen this movie, but I do own a collection of sports related VHS tapes.  This one has been added to it.

Well that wraps up another trip to the Branham Flea Market.  Like I mentioned earlier in the post, I just went again this past weekend.  I promise it won't take me a month to complete my write-up post this time around.

Until then...

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #175: Cheap Sets, Cards, and Other Stuff

I just can't seem to catch up on these Flea Market Find posts.  Today's covers purchases I made at the De Anza Flea Market back on June 7th.  It had been three weeks since my previous trip to the flea market and the weekend before my final week of school, so I was excited to get out there and find stuff to buy.

Well... it wasn't quite as memorable as the trip to the Branham Flea Market, but I did find a few things for my collection.

Purchase #1:  Pair of Kobe Rookies  $30

1996-97 Fleer Metal #181

It took about thirty minutes before I came across anything worth buying.  The gentleman with these two cards is a regular who has a variety of items ranging from trinkets to sports cards.  I hadn't gone through his boxes in a few months, so I flipped through them and found these.  He knew exactly what these were and offered me the pair for $40.  I countered with $30 and he accepted.

Purchase #2:  80's Comic Books  $4

I sort have been on a comic book binge.  Anyways... there was a guy with a 2 for $1 box.  I started with pulling out the Double Dragon and Samurai Squirrel books, but ended up grabbing seven more.  I'm starting to think I have a problem.

Purchase #3:  45's from the 1980's  $5

Another item I just can't seem to pass up is cheap vinyl.  This woman had a bunch of 45's from the 70's and 80's with different prices.  I grabbed five of the dollar ones:

Foreigner:  Feels Like the First Time

Gary Numan:  Cars

Timex Social Club:  Rumors

Salt-N-Pepa:  Push It

WHAM!:  Careless Whisper

I like the first four songs, but I'm not the biggest fan of WHAM!.  Pretty much picked this up because it reminded me of this guy:

2013 Topps #316

Reddick used Careless Whisper as his walk-up song back in the day.

Purchase #4:  Star Wars Blu-ray  $1

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

I had just finished watching Andor when I stumbled across this Blu-ray.  Figured for the price, it was a good deal.  Unfortunately, when I got home... I noticed that I already own a copy.  It's not a problem, because I'll just bring it to my classroom.

Purchase #5a:  Magazine Lot  $5

My final purchase of the day was actually three small purchases wrapped into one from a lady I previously dealt with at the other flea market.

Back in April at the Branham Flea Market, I ran into a lady selling her son's card collection.  I bought two basketball sets along with an unopened box of 1989 Bowman.

This time she set up at De Anza and she brought out some new stuff including these magazines.  I sort of have a mini-obsession with the Topps Magazines from the early 90's, so when I find them cheap, I'll grab them.

I bought the entire box for $5, but should have taken the time to count them out, because I pretty much only wanted these ten issues.  There were some water damaged Sports Illustrated issues that I recycled when I got home.

I also discovered this cool Beatles print from the early 90's tucked away in an envelope:

Unfortunately if you look closely there's a crease above John's head.

According to the note inside of the envelope, this print was a Disney Channel sweepstakes prize.

Purchase #5b:  Cheap Sets  $5

She also had a bunch of sets at 1/2 off her sticker price, so I grabbed the 1984 and 1989 Topps Glossy Mail-In sets.  While looking over the others, she told me she'd give me a good deal if I bought more.  I packaged these six sets for five bucks.

I'm hoping to do a set showcase post on the 1982 Kmart boxed set.  If you'd like me to scan and show off any of these other sets, leave a comment down below.

Purchase #5c:  Cheap Cards  $1

The lady also had a nickel box.  Most of it was early 90's basketball commons, but there was a small stack of 1984 Donruss (maybe 40 cards) and some random cards like a McDonald's Shaq rookie card.

There were also six unopened food issue packs that I snatched up right away.  I only grabbed fifteen cards from the box, so technically these were closer to 7¢ each... but that's a price tag I could live with.

Well that wraps up another trip to the De Anza Flea Market.  I have one more flea market post to write up and then I'll officially be caught up with them.  I'm hoping to finish taking photos and writing up that post over the weekend.

Until then...

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!