There were a pair of card shows in San Jose on Saturday, October 17th. One was about 20 to 30 minutes away. The other was less than 3 miles from my doorstep. Both charged admission, so I hit up the Branham Flea Market instead. Free parking. Free admission. Fresh air. I'll choose that over a card show every single time.
The obvious downside to flea markets is the lack of card vendors... especially on the day of a local card show (or in this case... shows). Thankfully there were a pair of regulars with cards and I purchased stuff from both of them.
Purchase #1: Vintage TSN's $5
If you collect sports memorabilia and you walk around Branham on the third Saturday of every month, then you know Rich. I've purchased tons of stuff from him over the years. His inventory ranges from bobbleheads to beer bottles to sports periodicals.
He recently purchased a collection of The Sporting News papers from the 60's and was dumping the excess for a dollar each. Honestly, I'm not really interested in stuff like this... because I don't have the space to store them. However the price was right and while flipping through his stacks, I immediately stumbled across this:
The Sporting News (4/4/70)
My father's favorite golfer was Arnold Palmer.
The third week in October will always be sentimental for me and my siblings, because it's the anniversary of my father's passing. When I saw Arnold smiling back at me in the stack, I immediately set it aside in honor of my pops. I spent another twenty minutes looking through stacks of these periodicals and pulled out four more:
The Sporting News (8/2/61)
The rest of the issues had cool cartoon drawings. I grabbed this one, because it featured Ted Williams and Babe Ruth.
In 1961, Major League Baseball added four new teams: Los Angeles Angels, Washington Senators, New York Mets, & Houston Colt .45's. This cover features the updated MLB map:
The Sporting News (4/12/61)
If you zoom in on New York, you'll notice there's a "?" instead of the Mets. According to Wikipedia, the team didn't officially announce their name until May 8th.
The Arnold Palmer issue would have been my father's favorite. Here's mine:
The Sporting News (2/22/64)
I'll never own a 1964 Topps Pete Rose, but this will suffice. The artist did a great job of capturing Charlie Hustle's likeness.
The final issue I purchased has some pretty big names on the cover:
The Sporting News (3/14/64)
Five pitchers. Five hall of famers. But the Rawlings ad on the back was the main reason I added this issue to the stack:
A Mickey Mantle ad from the 60's for a buck? Yeah, I couldn't pass this up. The protective sleeves I ordered on Amazon cost more than the issues themselves.
After putting the TSN's into my car, I started walking over the the other card guy who set up at the end of the first row.
Purchase #2: 50¢ Bin Cards $3
This guy is another regular. Sometimes he has dime cards. Other times he has dollar cards. On Saturday, he converted one of his dollar boxes into a 50¢ bin. The Baby Jordan was the card that caught my eye first. It's one of those Jam City inserts that are currently very popular among basketball collectors. It's hard to tell from my scan, but they're popular... because they're attractive.
2005 UD Arena Football AFL Jerseys #RD-J
Anyone else miss the AFL? The San Jose SaberCats spent nearly two decades as our local arena football team. Tickets were cheap. The game was fast paced and exciting. And there are a handful of diehard fans who miss them... myself included. I already have a copy of this card, but I couldn't pass up this piece of history at that price.
2020-21 Skybox Metal Universe Star Rubies Auto #PP-45
I've never heard of Mr. Quinney, but I've been meaning to start a small collection of Las Vegas Golden Knights in honor of my mother. She enjoyed watching their games during their inaugural and sophomore seasons.
The guy also had dollar comics... so I grabbed a few of those as well.
Purchase #3: Dollar Comics $3
1991 Marvel Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey #1
I like picking up comic book adaptations of popular movies. I don't remember seeing this comic book back in the day, but I remember going seeing this movie at the drive-in theater with some friends.
1987 Comico Star Blazers #1
Any one else watch Star Blazers? Before Transformers, GI Joe, and Robotech came along... it was my favorite cartoon. I can still remember the opening song.
1995 Dark Horse Star Wars X-Wing Rogue Squadron
I'll buy any 90's Dark Horse Star Wars comic in good condition for a dollar. However after I got home I was surprised at how thin it was. After some research, I discovered it was a special mail order issue from Apple Jacks.
Purchase #4: Hawaii Mug $1
This was another Papa Fuji inspired purchase. My parents were born and raised on Oahu. That's why I will pick up Hawaii related stuff when it's cheap. Found this on a lady's dollar table.
Purchase #5: Stack of 45s $9
I ran into a familiar face about halfway through the flea market. Ten to fifteen years ago he was one of the largest toy vendors at the other monthly flea market I walks around. At the time, I was really into collecting figures and bobbleheads. A large percentage of them were purchased from him.
He had a bunch of random toys this time too. But I locked in on his box of 45's which contained a bunch of songs I listened to back in the 80's. After pulling out a few, I asked how much he wanted. Two for a buck was his response, so I went to work and pulled out 18. It's a mixture of stuff ranging from Ghostbusters to Styx to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer to Welcome Back Kotter to Cyndi Lauper.
After packing them into a bag, I started walking away when he asked me if I wanted this as well...
Freebie #1: STARR Record
1980 Mattel Starr
I don't know much about the toy line, but this record (33⅓) was included inside of a Starr doll back in the early 80's.
It was in the box of 45's that I was going through and set it to the side. It looked interesting and the flimsiness reminded me of a record you'd find in a magazine or something. Anyways... I put it back on top of a stack of records. The vendor must have known that I really wanted it, because he gave it to me for free.
Purchase #6: A Halloween Magazine $1
Sports Illustrated for Kids (October 1990)
There's a vendor who is a regular at both flea markets I attend that sells old periodicals. His booth is always crowded, because people love rummaging through his boxes looking for cool stuff. I usually walk on by, but every now and then there's a box nobody is looking through so I'll hop on in. I found this 90's issue of SI for Kids. The 9-card sheet had been pulled out, but the four card panel was left intact:
If this panel looks familiar, that's because I purchased two copies of this Halloween issue back in 2025 from by buddy Tony at the De Anza Flea Market.
I kept one of the issues intact. I removed the sheets of cards from the second one. I will be breaking down this sheet for my Jordan binder.
Branham is much smaller than De Anza, so I always walk around it at least a couple of times. As I was about to head out, I stopped off at Rich's booth. By this time he had completely unpacked his truck and had cards on his table.
Purchase #7: Quarter Bin Cards $3
Most of you don't care about football, but I was really excited to add that 1996 Topps Favre. At some point, I will be working on his complete Topps base card run and this will be a part of it.
1990 Pepsi Canseco
He also had a big box filled with 1990 Pepsi Canseco sets. I think he was asking a buck a piece on these sets, but he had hundreds of them. So I asked if he'd let me grab three to round out the purchase at $3 and he accepted.
I might have missed out on two card shows, but choosing to walk around the flea market ended up working out for the better. Until the next one...
Happy Tuesday and sayonara!
