Jump Around and Get Down!

The past two days, I've been tearing through the grab bags I purchased at the flea market on Saturday.  As expected, there weren't any high dollar vintage cards or autographs of hall of famers.

But after opening ten to fifteen of them, I started noticing an abundance of cards featuring baseball players jumping and flying around... turning two.

I'm pretty sure there was a subliminal seed planted on Monday over at Johnny's Trading Spot.  On the other hand, maybe it was it was Mr. GCRL.  Or maybe it was the Night Owl and the beautiful 1953 Bowman Pee Wee Reese that resides in his collection.

Whoever the credit goes to... this post is dedicate to you.

I present to you the House of Pain, Jump Around collection:

Next up... the Van Halen, Go Ahead and Jump collection:

And finally... I'll wrap things up with the Daddy Mac Will Make Ya Jump collection:

If anyone is interested in these cards for your collection, just answer the following question:

Which song makes you wanna jump?

If more than one person is interested in them, I'll throw your names into a randomizer on Saturday and let random.org do the dirty work.  

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #54: Grab Bags and Busted Boxes

When:  Saturday, February 15th
Where:  Branham High School Flea Market
What:  Sports Card Grab Bags, Soccer Cards, and Non-Sports Cards
How Much?:  $10

After a brief hiatus, I woke up last Saturday and decided it was time for me to get back out there and walk around a flea market.  I took a few weeks off after being a little burnt out and dealing with a small cold.  The Branham HS Flea Market was the perfect place to get my feet wet before diving back in full throttle, because it's pretty small with a high percentage of vendors who are cleaning out their closets.

It took me less than an hour to walk around the seven or eight rows, but in that amount of time I discovered five people with trading cards.  In the second to last row, I stumbled across a guy who had a few boxes of sports and non-sports cards sitting on his table.  While sifting through his stuff, he proceeded to pull out three more storage boxes of cards from his truck.

We started talking and he told me about his recent storage unit purchase that contained all of these cards.  He really wanted me to take the whole collection off of his hands, but the last thing I need is thousands of cards from the Junk Wax Era, so I settled on these...

Purchase #1:  Sports Card Grab Bags  $5

I'm not sure if this was a great purchase or a terrible one.  On one hand, I gonna have fun digging through these over the next couple of days.  But from the looks of it, these bags are filled with overproduced 90's cardboard.


Purchase #2:  1988 Topps Fright Flicks Opened Box  $2

The majority of his collection was forty to fifty wax boxes that had been busted and thrown back into the box.  I grabbed two.  The first one was this 80's non-sports box that features a bunch of horror movies like:  A Nightmare on Elm Street and Poltergeist.

I had a stack of these from another non-sports card purchase, so I hoped to make at least one set from the two lots.  Unfortunately... I didn't.  Anyone have any singles from this set laying around?


Purchase #3:  1990-91 Pro Set England Opened Box  $2

I picked this box with one specific purpose... to finish my Pro Set soccer set.  One problem.   I'm building the 1991-92 Pro Set soccer set.  Looks like I'll be building both now.


Purchase #4:  1994 Upper Deck World Cup 'Toons Set  $1

After striking out on the first two boxes which left me with two incomplete sets, at least I walked away with one complete set.  There were also a bunch of cool looking holograms that were inserts for this product.  Guess what?  Another incomplete set.  I have sixteen of the twenty-four holograms, so I guess add another one to the list of sets I'm building.

Okay... so maybe this wasn't my finest flea market outing, but you can't win them all.  At least I'm motivated to get up and go out there again.  And the timing couldn't be better.  I have this week off and one of my favorite flea markets is the Capitol Flea Market on Thursday.  It's the same one I usually go to on Sunday, but on Thursdays there seems to be better deals.  I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Cheap Cool Cards #41: 1972 Topps U.S. Presidents #31 FDR

I've always had a soft spot for non-sports trading cards.  In fact, the first packs of cards I ever opened had pictures of Jedis and Wookies, not pitchers and catchers.

That's why I quickly grabbed this 1972 Topps U.S. Presidents card of Franklin Delano Roosevelt when I saw it in the weekly specials section at my favorite online card shop.  This forty-two year old piece of cardboard set me back a whole dollar and features one of the most popular presidents in U.S. history.

I really enjoy the set's simple design and beautiful artwork.  The forty-three card set features the first thirty-seven presidents (Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th President of the United States had only one card issued in the set), along with seven presidential candidates from the 1972 election.

You can typically find singles from this set in the $1 to $4 range, while the more popular presidents tend to sell in the $4 to $10 range.  In December there were two auctions for completed sets... both fetching less than $50 delivered.

So if you're looking for an affordable, vintage non-sports set with a great design and enjoy a piece of Americana, then you might want look into a few of these for your own collection.

By the way... if you're into collecting cards of U.S. Presidents here are some links to my past presidential posts:

1992 Mother's Cookies Presidents Set

My Ronald Reagan PC

My Barack Obama PC

Happy Presidents' Day and sayonara!

Sports Card Trifecta #22: Walter Jones

Walter Jones is one of the greatest football players in Seattle Seahawks franchise history.  The Hawks drafted him with the 6th overall pick in the 1997 NFL Draft and within a few years he was considered one of the best offensive tackles in the league.  He spent his entire career in Seattle, playing in 180 games and starting in each and every one of them.  During that time he allowed only twenty-three quarterback sacks and was called for holding only nine times.

The guy is a Seattle Seahawks luminary.

And although his Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement won't take place for another six months, this is something I should have done a long time ago.

I present to you guys the newest Sports Card Trifecta to my collection:

Autographed Card:  2007 Topps TX Exclusive Super Bowl Stub #WJ

This is the perfect example of a card company running ahead of the pack for the entire marathon... only to fall flat on their face at the finish line.  This set could have been one of the coolest autographed memorabilia cards in my collection had Topps decided to have the players sign the actual Super Bowl ticket stub, instead of using bandaids.  Oh well... they're still a cool collectible as they celebrate the Hawks' first Super Bowl trip.


Memorabilia Card:  2007 All Pro Relics #WJ

Unlike most NFL superstars... there aren't a lot of Walter Jones memorabilia cards for collectors to choose from.  There were a total of nine different cards produced from 2004 to 2008, so there's hardly any room for me to complain about this "player worn" card.


Rookie Card:  1997 Pinnacle Certified #134

Do you like bargains?  Then look no further, because you won't find a more affordable hall of fame rookie card around.  Outside of his silver Finest and serial numbered Totally Certified, you can typically find any of his other eighteen rookie cards for 25¢ or less.  Unfortunately offensive linemen don't get a lot of hobby love and 1997 was still part of the Junk Wax Era.  That's a lethal combination.

Congratulations Mr. Jones!  Happy Sunday and sayonara!

Domo Arigato: Wes @ Jaybarkerfan's Junk

After a few days of being under the weather, things are starting to turn around for me.

A.  I received my state and federal tax return on Valentine's Day.

B.  It's our President's Break, so I get next week off from work.

C.  After a three week hiatus, I finally made it back out to the flea market.

D.  And if things weren't good enough, I received a JBF package.

What's a JBF package?  That's slang for one of Wes's generous and amazing care packages that he floods our hobby with.  For those who aren't familiar with him... he runs Jaybarkerfan's Junk and he's one of the most generous bloggers out there.

I read at least two posts in the past few days related to his care packages.  His shipping tab must be through the roof.  But that's the kind of guy I've always known him to be.  He's always looking out for others.  That's why when I had the opportunity to Pay It Forward last month, the first person who popped into my head was Wes.

But today's post isn't about that.  Let's dive into what he sent:

Expos, Expos, and more Expos.  Gary Carter, Andre Dawson, Vladimir Guererro, Tim Raines, Jeff Reardon, Steve Rogers, Larry Walker, Tim Wallach, Dick Williams, and much, much more.  About 300 new additions to my Montreal Expos PC.  I have almost 1,000 different cards in that collection and more than half of them have come from Wes over the past three years.

He also sent me two cards for my Japanese Athlete PC:

Akinori Iwamura and Kazuhiro Sasaki both had several solid seasons in the MLB, but eventually went back to Japan to wrap up their careers.

Speaking of wrapping things up... I end it with this awesome 2007 Ultimate Collection autographed rookie card of my favorite former Oakland Athletic:

I already have one for my collection, but this one is definitely an upgrade.  Notice the serial numbering?  It's numbered 299/299... the final card printed.  I know that some people don't care about little things like this... but I'm not one of those people.  I think it's pretty dang cool.

Thanks Wes!  Looks like the ball is in my court.... AGAIN.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!