Flea Market Finds #191 : A Kitty, a Signed Ball, & some Comics and Cards

I'll start off this post by pointing out that I skipped #190 in my Flea Market Finds series., because I'm reserving the spot for purchases made back on May 2nd at the De Anza Flea Market.  One of the purchases was a large collection that I have not touched in months.  It's one of those things that I'm excited to document, but it's a project that will likely take one to two weeks of dedication.  

In the meantime, I have decided to skip ahead to the purchases I made on August 1st at the De Anza Flea Market.  I remember it was a pretty hot day, so I only made one pass through.  It was also my first time walking around that flea market in three months, so I was in the mood to shop.  Luckily, I found some interesting items to add to my collection...

Purchase #1:  Hello Kitty Bobblehead  $3

2015 San Francisco Giants SGA (6/28/15)

Okay.  Maybe a Hello Kitty bobblehead isn't considered interesting, but even with damaged packaging... $3 was too cheap to pass up.

Purchase #2:  Signed Baseball  $3

A few minutes later, I saw this baseball sitting on a lady's table:

Rawlings MLB-L Baseball

Anyone recognize this type of baseball?  Although it says official, I'm guessing these were not used in official MLB games.  Anyways... I decided to buy it because it was signed on the side panel:

I realize the odds of this being a legit Mickey Mantle signature is low, but I beat the odds back in 2015 when I purchased a Willie Mays signed baseball for $8.  I eventually had it authenticated by PSA/DNA and it passed.

I no longer have any connection to any autograph certification companies, so most likely this ball will just sit in my baseball collection as a mystery.

Purchase #3:  Decks of Cards  $10

About halfway through the flea market, I had only seen a handful of vendors with trading cards.  Most had the late 80's overproduced stuff at outrageous prices.  My friends set up too, but I didn't find anything in their cases either.

However a few spots down from them, I found a guy with a collection of card decks.  I ended up grabbing these five:

1988 US Games American Authors Card Game

1994 Bicycle San Francisco Giants

2003 Hoyle Iraqi Most Wanted

2000 Action Publishing Politicards

2004 Action Publishing Politicards

2026 has been the year of purchasing playing cards for me.  These were more affordable compared to the 2004 The Real Deal John Kerry Presidential Deck I purchased back in March.

Purchase #4: Star Wars Comic Run  $23

Seems like every vendor with trading cards believes their sitting on a gold mine.  That's not a good thing for bargain bin collectors like myself.  Although I did find a few cool cards like another 1990 Score B&W Bo... I just can't justify spending $20 for a card that will sometimes pop up in dollar bins.

That's why I've started targeting a few other items in recent months like cassette tapes, playing card decks, and comic books.

One vendor had a long box filled with 90's Dark Horse Star Wars comic books.  Not sure if I have ever mentioned this, but I'm a huge fan of these books.  Unfortunately this guy wasn't blowing out his collection, but his prices were slightly lower than eBay comps.

I was interested in a few different runs, but ultimately I went with the Shadows of the Empire story line:

1996 Dark Horse SW: Shadows of the Empire #1, 2, & 3

1996 Dark Horse SW: Shadows of the Empire #4, 5, & 6

This comic book series fills the gap between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.  I never actually read the comics, but my friends and I played the N64 game back in the mid 90's.

Purchase #5:  Football Sets  $25

With temperatures rising, I came close to leaving early and skipping the final two rows.

I'm glad I didn't, because I finally found some reasonably priced sports cards.  This couple had several three row monster boxes filled with 90's cards, but they were asking $100 per box.  Two guys were sifting through them and wanted to buy all three until they heard the price.

I'm not a fan of digging through boxes that someone else is already going through, so I looked into their 660 and 800ct. boxes that were off to the side.  Two stood out to me.  One had a complete 1987 Donruss baseball set.  The other looked like this:

The lady wanted $25 for each, so I put the baseball set down and asked her if she'd take $20 for this box.  She countered with $23.  Then I offered her a coin flip challenge.  If they win, I pay $25.  If I win, I pay $20.  Yup.  I lost.

That being said, I was pretty shocked at the going rates for the 1990 Score Supplemental set:

1990 Score Supplemental Factory Set

Can you believe that these sets are selling in the $100 to $140 range on eBay?  Emmitt Smith's most popular rookie card is main draw, but it also contains rookie cards of Lincoln Kennedy and Junior Seau.

There were also a bunch of these 1990 Pro Set Update sets inside the box:

1990 Pro Set Update Set

There's also a rookie year card of Emmitt in these sets too, but they haven't quite boomed in value.

Purchase #6:  A New Album  $5

The final purchase of the day was a new copy of this 70's record album:

1972 Fleetwood Finley's Heroes LP

I already have a framed copy hanging up in my office.  However for five bucks, I couldn't pass up it up.  If you'd like to listen to the album, click here.

Sorry there weren't more cards in this particular flea market haul, but I did find two vendors with bargain boxes at last weekend's flea market.  Depending on how hectic things are around here, I should have a recap of that trip up sometime next week.  As for recap of the De Anza Flea Market back in May, that could be posted in a few weeks... or a few months.

Until then...

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #188: A Classic Set & A Fidrych Food Issue

Spring Break has come and gone.  I already wrote about my road trip.  Now it's time to recap my trip to the De Anza Flea Market that took place two days earlier.

The flea market itself was a little less crowded than usual.  I'm guessing some people were traveling or spending time with their families over Easter weekend.  Luckily there were still plenty of vendors with collectibles.

Here's my haul...

Purchase #1:  Bin of Star Wars  $30

1977 Topps Star Wars

I've documented the significance of this set to my hobby history on numerous occasions.  I've also mentioned that I own a complete set with stickers.  Normally I wouldn't waste my time grabbing a box of duplicates, but sentimentality trumped frugality.

Haven't had time to decide if I'll start a second set build, but even if I do... there are plenty of duplicates to help others who are trying to complete this set.

Purchase #2:  Piece of Art  $5

2008 Rittenhouse Batman Archives Sketch Card #NNO

Not sure if this is Catwoman or Batgirl, but for five bucks I don't care.

I found this card a few vendors down from the couple with the Star Wars cards.  A gentleman was selling two 3,500ct. boxes worth of cards.  He had some pretty cool stuff like Barry Bonds and Buster Posey rookie cards, but his prices seemed a little high.  On the other hand, his asking price for this piece of original art was more than fair.

Purchase #3:  Odball Birdie  $1

1977 Hostess #46

The vendor had a binder of 80's and Junk Wax Era singles that I flipped through quickly.

Towards the middle was this random Hostess card of Mark Fidrych.  I was very surprised to find this card staring back at me.  He said I could have the whole binder for $20, but I was really only interested in this card.  I think we both walked away happy with the dollar sale.

Purchase #4:  Dollar Box Magazine  $1

Mad Magazine March 1959

Found another new vendor.  This guy had a magazine box filled with dollar vintage magazines from the 50's, 60's, and 70's.  There were probably fifteen to twenty different Mad Magazine issues sitting in the box, but this was the only one that really caught my eye.  It's pretty beat up, but it's also sixty-seven years old.

Purchase #5a:  A Classic Board Game  $30

Before I show off my favorite purchase of the day, I want to explain some details behind the purchase.  Some of you might remember a lady who was selling off her deceased husband's collection.  Last summer she sold me a 1990 Leaf Series 1 set and some San Francisco 49er oddball issues.  I have also purchased some cheap sets and an unopened box of 1989 Bowman from her on separate occasions.

Anyways, she was back and she brought her sons.  There were a few items I was interested on their table, so I gathered them up and worked out a package deal (so ignore the price tags).

Here's the main thing I wanted:

1987 Classic Baseball Board Game

When these board games were originally released, I was too busy opening boxes of 1987 Topps Baseball purchased from Costco.  I could buy three of them for the price of one of these board games:

Unfortunately, I completely missed the boat on ever owning the iconic Bo Jackson card featuring him wearing his Auburn football gear while holding a baseball bat.  By the time I realized how cool and popular this card was, card shops were jacking up the prices for the single and toy stores had sold out of the actual board games.

Well after almost four decades, I'm happy to finally add this board game to my collection.  It's still sealed with the original Toys R Us price tag, so I'm not going to open it up.  That means I'll still be hunting down a set of these cards.

Purchase #5b:  An 80's Box Set  $8

1988 Score Rookie & Traded Set

Plenty of us collected during the Junk Wax Era, so we remember when this set was a pretty hot commodity.

It's cooled off over the years, but it still contains some cool rookie cards.

I already have graded copies of three of the key rookie cards, so I'll just keep this set housed in the factory box.

Purchase #5c:  A Stained Set  $2

1986 McDonald's All Star Team Set

I added this set to the stack for pure nostalgic reasons.  Back in 1986, I remember going to McDonalds with my friends and receiving an Oakland Raiders or San Francisco 49ers card with each purchase.  The idea that I could get a complete set of 30 cards for less than the price of a Happy Meal was too hard to pass up.

Unfortunately this set seems to have been sitting in a box with some french fries, because they feature some staining.  Phil Simms took the brunt of the oil, but if you look closely to at the backs of the Montana and Payton, you can see some discoloration along the bottom edge:

I had offered the sons $35 for the three sets, but they countered with $40.  That seemed fair.

As I was about to leave, I was looking at some knick-knacks on one of the brother's tables.  It started a conversation that eventually led to one more purchase.

Purchase #6:  Atari Stickers  $5

1982 Atari Lenticular Discs

The gentleman who sold these to me had no idea what these are or where they came from, but that didn't matter to me.

I grew up playing Pac-Man and Defender on my Atari 2600 and was immediately interested in them.


Purchase #7:  Another Damaged Set?  $20

1998 Champions of Golf The Masters Collection Factory Set

Much like the 1988 Score Rookies & Traded set, there was a time when this set was pretty popular.  I have always wanted one of the Tiger Woods cards found in this factory set.  Unfortunately this set has a history of bricking and sliding around in the box, so I'm not sure if I'll be opening it up anytime soon.

Well that wraps up another trip to the flea market.  There's another one coming up this Saturday.  Hopefully Mother Nature cooperates and I'll have the opportunity to walk around, get some fresh air, and walk away with a few new finds for the collection.

Until then...

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!