Another start to a new month and another trip to the De Anza Flea Market.
Last month at the flea market, my childhood buddy texted me and asked if I was out walking around. He told me he saw me, but that I blended into the crowd and he lost me. We decided to meet up this time around.
It was cool to catch up with him since it had been a couple of years since we last hung out. Unfortunately whenever there's someone with me, I feel obligated to match their pace (which is usually faster than me), so I may or may not have missed out on stuff.
For example, this vendor had some packs and boxes. Do I really need a box of 1988 Donruss or 1990 Topps? Of course not. But if they were $5 each, I would have grabbed them. The problem is I didn't have a chance to ask, because my buddy was already a few vendors down and I didn't want to hold him up. There were at least two other vendors with cards that I barely checked out, but I did manage to make two purchases.
Purchase #1: Magazines w/Cards $20
Last month... my buddy Tony sold me two SI for Kids issues from the early 90's. He mentioned that he might have more at his house, so when we were coming up to his booth... I warned my friend that I might need a few minutes with him.
He indeed had another SI for Kids issue:
Sports Illustrated for Kids (September 1991)
Here's the sheet of cards that were inside:
This is a solid sheet of athletes. Seven of them are in the hall of fame for their respective sports.
Tony also had one of these Alan Kaye's Sports Cards News & Price Guides:
Alan Kaye's Sports Cards News & Price Guides (July 1992)
If you're familiar with this magazine, the cover doubles as an oversized card:
Depending on the condition of these magazines, I will either keep them intact or cut them up. This particular one had some water damage, so I went with the latter.
Each issue also includes two nine-card sheets (similar to the SI for Kids magazines). The first one included The Bash Brothers, The Great One, and a second year Thome:
The other sheet had cards of Bo, Boomer, Barry, Morris, Mully, and Ryno:
In addition to those two sheets, there was another sheet with an oversized card of Mickey Mantle and five tobacco sized cards of Negro League stars:
And if that weren't enough... Mr. Kayes tossed in these two Rookies of the Year holograms:
Next up is a 1989 issue of Baseball Cards featuring The Kid:
Baseball Cards (November 1989)
This magazine was pretty beat up, but the rookie year card of Griffey was pretty clean:
Here are the other three "rookie cards":
The final magazine was the only issue I decided to keep intact:
SCD Baseball Card Price Guide Monthly (November 1990)
I thought about cutting out the cards... especially the Jordan baseball card. But the magazine was in nice condition, so I kept the issue intact and grabbed some images off of eBay:
Twenty bucks probably seems like a lot for four magazines from the 90's, but the Jordan issue by itself can often sell for that amount. I figured the rest is gravy.
Purchase #2: TMNT Graphic Novel $10
1989 First Graphic TMNT (5th Printing)
Found this graphic novel sitting in a crate. The vendor had a bunch of toys and comics. I probably would have dug around a little longer had I been alone. Anyways... saw this and figured I'd grab it for my co-worker's daughter. She's a huge Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan.
Well that's it. Two purchases and only one of them was for myself.
It was nice catching up with my friend, but if we do this again... I'll probably go back and walk around the flea market a second time on my own. Either that or I'll have him show up an hour or two later.
Well that's it for now. There's another flea market in ten days at a nearby high school, so stay tuned.
Until then...
Happy Wednesday and sayonara!
Extra Innings
Last year Dennis over at Too Many Verlanders sent me some programs and magazines. Since they relate to today's flea market post, I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone.
Let's start off with this issue of Legends from 1991:
Legends (May/June 1991)
This issue comes with a really cool sheet of cards that includes Michael Jordan, Rickey Henderson, and Barry Sanders. There's also another sheet containing Reggie Jackson, Gayle Sayers, and Nolan Ryan postcards.
I've been slowly building a collection of Legends issues for over a decade now and needed this one, so I didn't have it in me to cut out the cards.
Luckily, Dennis included some examples from other issues:
Legends Postcards
Here's a closer look at the Gwynn:
And here's a look at some cards that were carefully cut from other Legends issues:
1990 Legends #20
1991 Legends #53
Dennis also sent me this Rickey Henderson:
1990 Topps Magazine #TM30
1990 was the first year Topps released their magazine. They published four issues and each one contained eight cards. This Rickey came out of the final issue of 1990. They would go on to produce Topps Magazine for three more years with a total of sixteen issues. If you're interested in reading a little more about them, I showed off my collection back in 2013.
Dennis also tossed in a pair of sports programs:
1987 MLB All-Star Game Program
This is a pretty cool piece of history, since 1987 was the only year the Oakland Coliseum hosted the MLB All-Star Game.
This program honored another stadium...
Before Petco Park, the Padres played at Jack Murphy Stadium. This program honors their thirty-four year tenure there. If the hobby gods are looking down on me, then you might see this program make an appearance in a future post. It has to do with tracking down two more cards mentioned on the back cover:
Thank you Dennis for these really cool additions to my collection!
