A Flea Market Tale

Yesterday, weather wise, was just about a perfect day around here. Warm and sunny with a breeze blowing and for the first time in four weeks I didn't have to work. I still get up early every morning, about 6-6:30, and find something quiet to do until everyone else is awake. My wife came onto the den around 9:00, she had been up about 1 hour, and wanted to know if I wanted to go to the flea market.She mentioned we hadn't done anything spontaneous for fun lately and it was a nice day to get out. Well, everyone else had the same idea! We had never seen as many outside vendors as there were yesterday. There are also large buildings with permanent, inside spaces.Things started out well, as we pulled into the parking lot and saw about 200 yards worth of cars in front of us waiting to get to the rear parking areas, when a car in the front lot was leaving early and we were the only ones able to get to that spot! That actually worried me a little as I wondered if the rest of the day would turn out really crappy since we had such good luck parking. My fears were abandoned though, as we started to look around. The following are some of my "finds" of the day.

These books actually came from two different Goodwill stores we stopped at on the way home.

Yeah,yeah,I know Derek Jeter is a Yankee! I am a big fan of baseball history and he will be a big part of that. My baseball book collection easily fills a full size bookshelf and covers many topics and authors.

Now to the flea market!

The first baseball related items I saw turned out to be starting line-ups. One seller had a table covered with them.The first one that caught my eye was a 1996 Hideo Nomo. Now, there's a well known blogger out there who usually reads my work and loves Nomo. He was the first person I thought of. I don't know if he has this or is even interested but the seller wanted $15.00. I just kept walking! Good thing. About 8-10 tables down the line, another vendor had a whole box full of SLU's including the two above. The same Nomo and a Frank Thomas. The box was marked $3.00 each or 2/ $5. It sure pays to look around!

This Albert Belle came from another table. No, that's not Jacob's Field Albert is standing on. It's old Veteran's Stadium, sight of the 1996 All-Star game. There were several different players in this series, " Stadium Stars ". This box was actually still factory sealed but I'm not one to keep items, I intend to keep, in their original packaging. Albert will be out on display with the rest of his SLU friends!



One inside vendor had a special going on. He had 3-4 3200 ct. boxes full of cards priced at 2 cents each. There were no Indians, but a lot of nice cards. Hopefully for trading or helping someone with want lists. I may have to go back as there were a lot of late 1970's -early 1980's Topps. Mostly commons but very good condition.




Back to the fresh air sellers. One of the regulars was also having a sale. Team bags filled with a wide variety of cards. The best part was, he would let you open them to see all the cards. He was very confident that you would like what you found. The older gentleman was right. Above you can see Michael Jordan, Derek Jeter, Pete Rose and others. There were also pretty good cards inside. Price: $.50 a pack. 15-20 cards each.

The same guy had these packs for $.25 each. The 1995 Donruss Team Sets pack is the Boston Red Sox. I only bought one but may be able to get more if anyone is interested.

Moving on down the line, I came upon a woman with an old revolving, table-top comic book rack.It was full of these binder pages full of various cards. Again, mostly commons, but some stars. She was asking $.25 a page. 30 in all and would have been $7.50. She also had two of the three albums shown below, plus a 1992 white album like the red one.The white one (not shown), the red one and the 2005 were all stadium give-a -ways and measure 6x8" with 10 four-pocket pages. The larger green album measures 9x12" and has 10 nine-pocket pages.None of the albums were full but all had some cards.She sold it all to me for $8.00. Just the loose pages were worth $3.00.

The final sports card item came from the older gentleman again. 1994 Post cereal , 30 card set. Unopened-- $.50 on sale !

Even though there is nothing really earth shattering here to most people , I was thrilled with what I got for what I paid as I'm on a pretty tight budget!

One last inside item. Those of you who saw my Baseball Christmas decor last year will see something new ! My wife and I were together when I ran across this. I was debating, but my wife "made" me buy it.If I didn't, she was going to !!

In case anyone wondered about the back drop for my photos today,this was it.

A week ago yesterday, the Tribe won their last game. We were there. Yea !!!!

This fleece, depicting all the Indian logos, was the give-a-way. It is pretty large. It's shown on our full size, double recliner sofa and almost covers it all. That ,on top of the win,made the game very enjoyable!

If I build it, will you come?