Flea Market Finds #148: Fresh Air and Five Cards

Before this past Saturday... it had been 546 days since I last walked around a flea market and purchased some cards.  Obviously... a lot has changed over that time.  I thought about listing some things, but honestly... it was a little depressing.

Instead... I wanted to keep this post positive and focus on my first trip back to the Branham Flea Market in nearly 18 months.  One look at the photo above reveals that over 50% of the spots were vacant, but the good news is the high school is hosting flea markets again and there were three vendors with cards.

The bad news is that prices are pretty inflated right now, so I only made one purchase.  But one is better than none.

Purchase #1:  Sports Cards $1

On the right side of the above photo, you'll see a guy with some Wheaties cereal boxes.  He's a regular who I've purchased cards from on numerous occasions.  In the past, I've referred to him as Box Bottom Guy.

He had several boxes of cards that were marked at 25¢ to 50¢ each.  As I was digging he told me they were five for a buck, so I purchased these five...

1997 Donruss Limited #53

There were a bunch of Hideo Nomo cards, but I had no idea if I needed them or not.  I pulled this one aside, because I didn't recognize this card.  Luck was on my side, because when I got home I discovered I needed this card.

1995 Zenith #149

When I saw this card sitting in the box, I knew owned a graded copy of this card... but wasn't sure if I had one for my Nomo binder.  This time I wasn't so lucky.  Oh well... it was only 20¢.

My favorite card in the stack was this rookie card of Andy Van Slyke:

1984 Donruss #83

He might not be a household name, but if you followed baseball back in the late 80's or early 90's, then I'm sure you recognize this 3x NL All-Star.

2008 Rittenhouse WNBA Promo #P1

Collecting promo cards have been a side PC for over a decade.  I don't remember seeing this one, but haven't had time to check my promo card box.

1996 Zenith Mozaics #17

Actually I had pulled out eight cards, so I needed to trim the fat and get the stack down to five cards.  I opted for this Montreal Expos insert to represent the fifth and final card.  It's all about that Dufex technology.

My friend Tony also brought out cards, but he's currently taking advantage of the 2020-21 Hobby Boom and doesn't have any bargain priced cards.  I can respect that.  These people have to strike while the iron is hot.  Although based on my recent eBay sales... things seem to be cooling off quite a bit.

The last guy with cards had some 90's sets.  One of them was a 1994 Stadium Club Member's Only box set that was shrink wrapped.  He was asking $30, which seemed fair considering one closed on eBay back in April for $74 + shipping.  The pre-lockdown collector in me would have grabbed it, but I'm starting to realize I don't need to buy one of everything.

In fact... I currently have several stacks of cards sitting in my office that need to be organized, scanned, written about, and put away.  Some are from care packages.  Others are from my card show haul that took place a few weeks ago.  Plus... there's my recently arrived COMC package.  I will be sprinkling cards from each of these stacks into blog posts over the next month or so.

Today, I figured I'd wrap up this post with two Montreal Expos cards from the COMC order which pair well with the 90's insert I picked up at the flea market...

2002 Topps Chrome Refractor #T109

I'm not the kind of guy who typically searches for Montreal Expos inserts or parallels on COMC (well at least not anymore), so I'm guessing these were blog inspired purchases.  Unfortunately... if that's the case... I can't remember when or who to give credit to.

1997 Bowman Chrome Scout's Honor Roll Refractor #SHR3R

However thanks to the great bookkeeping at COMC, I can tell you that I spent $1.68 on the Frank Robinson and $2.17 on the Vladimir Guerrero.  No exactly the quarter bin prices I'd like to pay... but these were purchased during the 2020-21 Hobby Boom when discounted cards were more difficult to track down.

I'm not complaining though.  My COMC order arrived on schedule (I had to pay $16.49 for Economy Rushed).  I've got plenty of blog material sitting on my desk.  There are still four weeks left in my summer break.  And one of my favorite flea markets is back in session.

Vendors and bargains were scarce... but there was plenty of fresh air for everyone. 

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Hoops I Did It Again

 When my Little League career ended back in the mid 80's... my hoops career bounced and took off.  A few years after that my interest in collecting basketball cards followed.  This lasted throughout the 90's until I sold off my collection in the early 2000's and picked up right where I left off when I returned to the hobby in 2008.  Sometime around 2010 my interest in the NBA and buying basketball cards faded and hasn't bounced back.

These days I will still add them to my collection when I stumble across deals that are too good to pass up or when fellow bloggers send them my way.  I'd estimate basketball makes up less than 10% of my collection.  That's quite the fall from grace when you consider that they once represented 30 to 35% of my collection a decade ago.

That being said... I still have thousands of basketball cards sitting in boxes.  Two weeks ago I decided to sit down and organize a 5,000ct. box filled with stuff I've tossed in there over the past decade or so.  And since we're in the midst of the NBA Finals, I figured I'd show off some hidden treasures from my sort.

The first card is the newest addition to my Prime Number PC:

2009-10 Panini Basketball HOF #46 (#'d 001/599)

This is the 75th addition to my collection of cards that are the first serial #'d card in the run.  It also slides into the #2 spot in regards to size of print run.  

The only card serial numbered #1 in my collection with a higher print run is an Eddie George insert #'d 0001/1750.

Next up are a pair of Stephen Curry inserts from his rookie year.  Both are run-of-the-mill cheap looking, overproduced inserts:  

2009-10 Panini Generations #8

2009-10 Panini Rookies & Stars Studio Rookies #9

However the card on the left sells for around $40 and the one on the right fetches around $20.  Not bad for a pair of boring inserts.

The next card is probably the most valuable card I found:

2009-10 UD Greats of the Game #36 (#'d 30/50)

I might not follow hoops on a regular basis... but even I know The Beard.  It was pretty cool to find this rookie card #'d to 50 of this future hall of famer.

1997-98 Metal Universe Planet Metal #11PM

This insert set became popular a few years ago when Michael Jordan inserts started soaring in value.  It doesn't command triple digits like MJ, but it's still a cool card to add to my insert binder.

And last but certainly not least is this card of The Glove:

1998-99 Ultra Exclamation Points #13EP

The saying "they don't make them like they used to" definitely applies to modern day inserts.  This card is made of two parts... the sleeve (shown above) and another card that fits inside:

I was surprised that I wasn't familiar with this insert set, since 1998/99 was one of my peaks in basketball card interest (thanks to Vince Carter).  Part of it might have to do with the fact that these inserts were tough pulls (1:288 packs).

Basketball card posts are pretty rare on this blog, so I might as well kill two birds with one stone and feature some cards recently donated to my collection.

First up are some more cards from Reader X... also known as Xavier Higgins.  He sent me two large care packages which included a few Los Angeles Lakers cards.  I already showed off the Kobe cards here.  Here are the rest of the Lakers he sent my way:

2019-20 Panini Chronicles #75

2019-20 Panini Chronicles #162

2019-20 Panini Chronicles #176

I will happily accept any King James cards people want to send my way... especially ones featuring him with the Lakers.

2017-18 Panini Status Materials #M-BLP

Lopez already has a place in my Stanford PC.  Now he has found a home in my Los Angeles Lakers PC as well.

Next up are a quartet of basketball cards sent to me by Elliptical Man:

1996 Skybox Texaco USA Basketball #1

1996 Skybox Texaco USA Basketball #4

1996 Skybox Texaco USA Basketball #11

Food issues receive a lot of press on blogs.  Gas station issues need love too.  Here's the team card:

1996 Skybox Texaco USA Basketball #14

Team USA has some basketball fans worried as they prepare for this year's Summer Olympics.

That didn't seem to be the issue back in 1996.  That team featured eleven future hall of famers (sorry Glenn Robinson) and went 5-0 on their way to winning a 2nd consecutive gold medal.

Elliptical Man also sent me a few San Francisco 49ers cards... which for the most part will be passed along to my students.  However... I did add these two to my binder collection:

2019 Panini Black Friday #35

2011 Topps Super Bowl Legends #SBL-XXIV

Thank you Xavier and Elliptical Man!  I might have lost interest in the sport, but I still enjoy adding basketball cards to my collection.

What about you...

Are there any sports you've lost interest in over the years?

If so...

Do you still collect their cards?

I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend.  Mine was exceptionally busy and included my first trip to a flea market in over a year.  Stay tuned.

Happy Monday and sayonara!

Overtime

This weekend Papa Fuji celebrated his birthday.  I wasn't able to visit him in Las Vegas, but the family did sing him Happy Birthday over Zoom.

2009-10 Bowman '48 Locker Room Collection Autograph Patch #LRCAP-LB (#'d 12/24)

He's not an avid basketball fan, but he enjoyed rooting for the Celtics back in the 80's... while I supported the Lakers.  Good times.  Happy birthday Dad!

The Straight & Narrow

If you're a player or team collector... chances are you collect minis whether you like them or not.  On Thursday, Gavin over at Baseball Card Breakdown showed off a 9-pocket page of Dwight Gooden cards.  If you're a fan of Doc, click the link and check it out.

One of the cards he featured was a 2020 Allen & Ginter mini.  He created a custom frame-like thing to keep the card from sliding around and wondered if this is common for collectors who store cards in binders.

Well... it's common for me.  Until I saw a guy on YouTube use these:

What you're looking at is a BCW Tobacco Card Insert... which is a protective holder similar to a penny sleeve.  Sorry.  This scan isn't doing the product any justice.  Here's a look at the sleeve with a card inside of it:

Obviously this product is meant to protect your vintage tobacco cards and minis, but they can also convert your 9-pocket pages from this:

To this:

And if you're a top-loader kind of collector, they fit into those too:

Any downsides?  Yup.  A couple..  First thing is they aren't as cheap as penny sleeves.  BCW sells them in packages of 25 for $1.49 + shipping.

The other thing that kind of sucks is BCW's shipping isn't cheap.  Back in December, they had these on sale for 97¢ each, so I grabbed ten packs and they charged me $9.13 for shipping... which broke down to about $1.89 a pack/shipped (which is about 7.5¢ per sleeve).

Personally it was worth every penny to this obsessive compulsive collector.  What about you?

Does this product interest you?

By the way... 

#1:  I'm not sponsored by BCW.  This is just a personal product review.

#2:  A special thank you to Xavier (who is one of my blog supporters) for sending me the minis used in this post.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!