Cheap Cool Cards #23: 1991 Stadium Club Nolan Ryan Bronze Card

Last Saturday, I wrote about my less than memorable flea market experience... where I ended up taking $47 out of my pocket and had nothing to show for it.

Well... almost nothing. While my buddy watched our stuff, I took a quick stroll around the flea market and found this sitting in a box:

It's a 1991 Stadium Club Charter Member Nolan Ryan Bronze card that I picked up for $1. The card is a solid piece of metal and is surprisingly heavy. A gentleman had a box full of matchbooks, postcards, and random "junk wax" era commons that were in top loaders. I sifted through the cards and came across this heavy chunk of metal... that made me flash back to the early 90's.

When Stadium Club baseball, football, and hockey first hit card shops in our area, the stuff was on fire and was definitely on most collector's HOT list. At the time, it was considered a premium product with borderless, glossy photos. Topps inserted a "club membership" advertisement card into their Stadium Club packs and those who joined received a special Stadium Club Charter Member box.

(image borrowed from: www.blujay.com)

The contents in the box included the following: a special 50 card set, a key chain, and the Nolan Ryan Bronze card.

Back in the day, I signed up to be a member and somewhere at my parent's house there's a black Charter Member box with my name on it. But... I figured if the price was right, I could always use another one in my collection.

In my head, I figured the vendor would want $5 for the card, but I'd counter with $3. So when he said, "a buck"... I was all over it.

Vendors on COMC, sell these for $6.95 and $9... while a quick eBay "completed" search shows that these cards still fetch between $6 and $14 (shipping included).

Although this card doesn't begin making up for last weekend's losses... I guess my flea market adventure wasn't a complete failure.

It seems like I haven't done this in weeks... but here's today's question:

Do you miss Topps Stadium Club?

I'm one of the collectors who feel that card companies should limit the number of product releases... but there's not a doubt in my mind that Stadium Club should be one of those. Sure... the concept of high gloss, borderless photos may have run it's course in the hobby. But what if they released this product once every three or four years? If they marketed it as an "entry level" product with a $1 to $2 price tag... I'd actually consider busting a box or two.

Have a great holiday weekend everyone. Stay safe & sayonara!

PC Addition - Tim Hardaway Bobblehead

I've been to plenty of Golden State Warriors games in my lifetime... but Monday night marked the first time I entered Oracle Arena as a Warriors fan.

This past summer, I made the decision to transfer fan loyalty from my childhood team to the local team and honestly it feels good. As a Lakers fan, I got used to them winning 3 out of 4 games on a routine basis... and after so many years of cheering on Magic, Kareem, Worthy, Byron, Van Exel, Eddie, Shaq, Kobe, and Pau... you sort of get spoiled. So spoiled... that the playoffs are expected... which happens to take the enjoyment of the game away (at least for me).

On the flipside... the Warriors have made the playoffs just once in the past seventeen seasons. Yet... each time I attend one of their games, I lose my voice. In short... it's more fun rooting for a team who have little, if any expectations put upon them.

And it looks like I chose the perfect time to switch teams... because this year the Warriors are celebrating their 50th Anniversary in the Bay Area... and one of the promotions is handing out bobbleheads of Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, and Chris Mullin... also known as... Run TMC.

The promotion is spread out across three different games... the first being on Monday, February 13th, when the Warriors hosted the Phoenix Suns and gave out Hardaway bobbleheads to the first 10,000 fans.

Next month, they'll be passing out the Richmond bobbleheads on March 7th and the Mullin bobbleheads on March 19th. If things go as planned, I'll be attending both games and complete the Run TMC bobblehead set.

Happy Wednesday everyone. Enjoy the rest of your week. Sayonara!

Let's Make A Deal!

Between giving cards to my students as incentives and selling cards at the monthly flea market, my Bay Area inventory is definitely depleted. Anyone interested in trading? I've been stocking up on tradebait for the past 12 months and now it's time to make some deals.

Wanted: Regular Issue Base Cards (cards that have the player's stats on the back, not subset or checklist cards), Memorabilia Cards, Autographs, & Rookie Cards of the following ahtletes:

Tim Lincecum

Brian Wilson

Buster Posey

Matt Cain

Pablo Sandoval

Old School A's (60's & 70's)

80's A's (memorabilia & autographs only)

Derek Jeter

Frank Gore

Patrick Willis

Vernon Davis

Aldon Smith

Justin Smith (49ers only)

Ken Stabler

Fred Biletnikoff

Jim Plunkett

Bo Jackson

Howie Long

Tom Brady

Aaron Rodgers

Monta Ellis

Stephen Curry

Chris Mullin

Tim Hardaway (Warriors memorabilia & autographs only)

Joe Thornton (Sharks only)

Patrick Marleau

Antti Niemi

Logan Couture

Joe Pavelski

Cards must feature athletes in their MLB, NFL, NBA, or NHL uniforms. I CAN'T use minor league or college products like: Press Pass, Sage, Just Rookies, TriStar, etc. If you have any of this stuff, check my Trade Lists below and email me (sanjosefuji(at)yahoo.com).

Trade Lists:

Baseball Autographs

Baseball Memorabilia Cards

Baseball Inserts & Parallels

Basketball Autographs

Basketball Memorabilia Cards

Basketball Inserts & Parallels

Football Autographs

Football Memorabilia Cards

Football Inserts & Parallels

Hockey Autographs

Hockey Memorabilia Cards

Hockey Inserts & Parallels

Trading Rules:

I'll pretty much play the "game" however you feel is fair. If you go by "Beckett BV", I'm okay with that. If you go with "eBay value", that works too. I also trade by the "everyone's happy, who cares about BV" philosophy.

My only request is that you don't ask for my Drew Brees jersey card for your Lincecum, Posey, and Sandoval base cards. I've been collecting long enough to understand that a good trade is one where both parties walk away happy.

And if you happen to be a member of Sports Card Forum and/or Card Collector's World, please let me know. I'd love to set up our trade through them, so we can leave each other positive feedback.

Thank you to everyone who has emailed me already. I apologize for the duplicate post, but I deleted the Thursday post because of formatting errors, plus I wanted to add my "trading rules".

Happy Sunday everyone... I hope we're able to help each other out. Sayonara!

An Epic Flea Market Flop

Some days... you're just better off staying in bed. Today was one of those days.

My buddy was setting up at the San Joaquin Delta College Flea Market in Stockton and invited me to come out and join him. It was an opportunity to clear some more stuff out of my garage, plus get to hang with my friend. So this morning I woke up at 4:30, loaded my car, grabbed some much needed coffee, and was on the road by 5:05.

Ninety plus miles and an hour, twenty-five minutes later I arrived in Stockton... ready to sell my junk and add some extra spending money to my wallet. There were a couple of small bumps in the road, but by 7:15 we were set up and ready to "rock & roll". And within 10 minutes, I made my first sale: a 1990 Pro Set Bo Jackson & a 1991 Pinnacle Marcus Allen for $1. Things were definitely looking good.

I'll spare you the boring details and fast forward to 2:05: clean up & count the money time.

Let's see...

Total Sales: $4

Total Expenses (Flea Market Space Rental, Food & Beverages, and Gas): $51

Total Profit: -$47

Essentially... it cost me $47 to load my car this morning, spend 85 minutes on the road, unload my car, hang out with my buddy for seven hours at the flea market, load up my car (again), spend another 90 minutes driving home (where I heard the sad news that Whitney Houston passed away), and then finally unloading my car for the second time today.

LOL. Now do you understand why I should have just stayed in bed? I hope everyone enjoyed their Saturday more than I did. Sayonara!

Have graded cards lost their luster?

Graded cards... like a lot of things in the hobby... you either like them or you don't. But we've covered collector's opinions on this topic before: HERE.

Nope... today we're going to branch off and focus on graded cards and their values.

In the last six months, I've picked up a bunch of PSA 10 graded rookie and insert cards for less than the actual grading fee price.

2001 UD Collectibles Playmakers #SE2 Ichiro Suzuki RC $2.83

1998 Bowman's Best "Refractors" #60 Greg Maddux (#'d to 400) $5.38

1995 Studio "Platinum Series" #8 Cal Ripken Jr. $3.75

1995-96 Ultra #274 Kevin Garnett RC $7.50

1992-93 Ultra #328 Shaquille O'Neal RC $3.36

1992-93 Hoops #442 Shaquille O'Neal RC $3.36

1998 Stadium Club Chrome "Refractors" #SCC6 Emmitt Smith $3.75

1998 Stadium Club Chrome "Refractors" #SCC14 Jerry Rice $5.38

1999 Finest "Refractors" #80 Barry Sanders $5.38

2009 Topps National Chicle #151 Michael Crabtree RC $2.69

2001 Pacific Dynagon "Retail" #108 LaDainian Tomlinson RC $4.03

1998 Stadium Club #182 Hines Ward RC $5.38

1995-96 Select Certified #114 Shane Doan RC $2.25

These are just the ones I spent under $7 for. I have a bunch of others I picked up in the $7 to $10 range.

Aren't the grading fees $6 to $7 alone? I don't get it.

Why even bother getting these graded if you're going to sell them so cheap?

Am I missing something?

Am I buying fakes?

Are graded cards a fad... and if so, is the fad officially over?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Happy Wednesday everyone... I hope all of you enjoy the rest of your week. Sayonara!