The Final Flea Market Finds

    You know something I love doing? I like going to the blogs I follow and reading the first post they ever made. I dunno why, but I guess I like seeing how the blogging greats got started. I also don't know why I'm posting this for a completely non-related topic. Aaaaaaaanyway... 

    The last couple weeks have been really busy, so I'm getting this post out a bit later than I would have liked. I think I only have one really long post on queue for awhile though, so I'm hoping to crush my projection of 50 posts this year.

    This is part two of my flea market grabs from a week or so ago. This vendor sold a lot of packs, as well as the entire wall of individual cards I spoke of last post. 

    His dollar packs were all in a giant bowl, which I sifted through for about ten minutes before taking a quick look at his extensive collection of individual cards for sale. I left his booth with seven dollar packs (buy five get two free), and one lovely individual card.

    

    I divided the highlights of the seven packs into three subsequent packs, which I named according to what they contain.

    

    SHINY PACK:

    Here we have two really nice-looking 2022 Panini Select baseball cards. The light captured the design of the Matt Brash card wonderfully. Vladdy's card didn't show up too well, but I didn't want to change it. The slashes on Vladdy are on the penny sleeve and not the actual card, thankfully.

    Another nice shiny card. Panini typically doesn't get much love, but I kinda like this design.

    This is my second-favorite card from the shiny pack. The back left corner is slightly damaged, but I can't complain. The back of the card references Giolito's 2020 season, where he finished 7th in Cy Young Award voting. In 12 starts he went 4-3 with a 3.48 ERA and 97 strikeouts in 72.1 innings pitched. That certainly was a mighty fine season.

    The Rockies' colors are well represented here. The back of the card describes his mashing of my Texas Rangers in July of 2020...

    A colorful pair of Panini Prizm cards from 2021. 

    Of all the cards featured in the shiny pack, this one is the shiniest. I can see why Panini called this 'Mosaic.' Sixto Sanchez had a brief major league career from 2020-2024 where in 21 games (14 starts) he threw to a 3-5 record and 4.70 ERA. I thought he might be around in the minors, but I guess he's retired.

    Next up are a couple of Bowman Chrome Prospects, from 2020 and 2024, respectively. I hadn't heard of either of these players before. Bayron Lora last played in the minors in 2021 when in 47 games he hit .218/.413/.401 with 48 walks! Middle infielder Mitch Jebb is still around with the Pirates. Last year in AA the 23-year old batted .265 in 122 games with 33 stolen bases. Interestingly he hit no home runs, but his on-base/speed combination seems to be doing him well in the minors.

    And finally, my favorite card of the shiny pack. This is just a really cool card. I wonder how much time Sean will get with the Braves in 2026 with Rookie of the Year catcher Drake Baldwin playing. Both those guys have a lot of talent; Braves catchers are gonna be tough to pitch to this year.









    DONRUSS PACK:

    This time my favorite card of the pack comes first. Waino presents a strong Hall of Fame case, and I hope to see him get in when he's eligible. 

    I don't have many Skenes cards, so this is 2025 Donruss card is a welcome addition to the collection.

    Speaking of 2025 Donruss...

    ...we have a few retired greats. 

    And here's an Optic Circles Pudge card from 2025 Donruss. It's a bit less shiny, to the point that I didn't notice it was different from the other Donruss cards until I saw them under light. Otherwise it may have been included among the shiny cards.

    I put the packs for this post together about 2 1/2 weeks ago, and this card was included the Donruss cards. I dunno why I put it in here since it's obviously the wrong brand, but it's a card I would highlight due to its serial-numbering:

(432/2023)

    Though it makes no sense for it to be put with the Donruss pack, it wouldn't make sense for this card to be included in the final pack either

HOLIDAY PACK:

    When I saw an Evan Carter card I needed at the front of the pack, I knew I needed it. The Holiday set Topps put out in 2025 was a good one. I like the wreath going up the side of the card, though it makes the team name even harder to see 🤣

    I think I might make a 'Mouth Agape' PC that this Dylan Cease card would fit nicely into.

    We wrap up this pack with a couple really nice horizontal shots.

    And finally, the single card I purchased at this booth. 

    Drumroll please.....

    It's nice when you can hit a flea market not even expecting to pick up any cards, and leave with two new Evan Carter cards to go along with two autos. A couple bucks landed me this 2024 Topps Chrome Future Stars card. 
    Evan hasn't lived up to his 2023 hype yet, but I've still got faith for him this coming season. Maybe I'm a little bit naive? Well, I'll find out soon enough.

    I haven't been collecting Carter's cards as fiercely as I was a year ago. My PC continues to grow slowly, though it's still a bit smaller than I would like. It's only a matter of time before that collecting flame bursts up in me again and I spend way too much money on his cards lol. 

    I also got a handful of 2021 Topps Update cards in these dollar packs. If anybody is working on completing that set, and if I have any of your needs (or if you just want a card), let me know and I'll send them out to you. These are:

 #US-19 Chase Anderson
#US-72 Aledmys Diaz
#US-113 Aaron Civale
#US-120 Seth Brown
#US-123 Kolby Allard
#US-134 Charlie Morton
#US-137 Trevor Cahill
#US-233 Nick Anderson
#US-254 Cole Tucker
#US-291 Eric Sogard
#US-311 Jake Arrieta

    That'll do it for the flea market additions of a few weeks ago! Hopefully I'll be able to hit another flea market soon and make some more finds to add to the collection.

    Thanks for stopping by the blog today! Make sure to have an amazing week, and happy collecting!

    Also, Fuji won my Super Bowl Pick 'em! If you could shoot me an email confirming your address, I have a pack of  2025 Donruss football cards to send you. Thank you to all who played the pick 'em!

Who Doesn't Love a Good Flea Market?

     About a week ago I visited a flea market with the family. I haven't been to one in years, and boy was I missing out! There was a huge variety of really cool stuff there, from antiques to candy, power tools to wartime mementos. I enjoyed looking around at some of the awesome things people were selling; really old swords that were extremely cool, as well as coins over 100 years old, to name a couple. I'm afraid I don't collect swords (though a vintage sword collection would be pretty sick) or coins, but there were a couple booths selling baseball and football memorabilia, which caught my attention immediately.

    The assortment of items these booths had for sale was most impressive - there were thousands of cards, some slabbed, some autographed, as well as packs and signed bats, balls, and photos. It felt a lot like my LCS actually.

    I know from reading The Chronicles of Fuji that you can make some great card finds at the flea market, and I felt like a kid in a candy store staring at all the memorabilia that was displayed before me. I can't quite say I went crazy, unfortunately, but I came home richer in cardboard than I began with.

    This post and the next one are dedicated to the purchases I made at each of the two booths. I think this is appropriate because of the difference in cards I acquired. I'll start with the first vendor I visited.

    The man running this booth had a huge collection of baseball, football and hockey cards, and had a ton of autographs for sale, including two Mickey Mantle balls! Those were a little bit out of my price range that day, but I did come away with two pretty cool autos that were pretty well in my wheelhouse.

    I don't have a super ton of autos in my collection, but this one is in the top two in terms of how cool it is. From 1999, Spahn signed this card just four years before his death in 2003 (may he rest in peace). At 78 years old he still had a pretty nice-looking signature. The case this card is in needs to be replaced, which I'll pick up next time I go to the LCS. Definitely one of the coolest adds I've made to the collection.

    Mr. Carpenter was right behind to Mr. Spahn in the box of cards, so I picked his card up as well. From 2013, it's a little bit younger than it's neighboring card, but still a cool auto. I guess signing this card was good luck for Matt, who had one of his best seasons in 2013, when he batted .318 with 11 home runs and scoring a league-leading 126 runs. He finished fourth in MVP voting.

    It was certainly a pleasant surprise to find these two cards at the flea market. Somehow I didn't consider until I showed up the possibility of finding some additions to my collection there, and these two are a welcome sight into it. 

    I said 'cool' a lot in this post, but that was exactly what the visit to the flea market was. I enjoyed myself there much more than I initially thought, and it's definitely a place I'd like to visit again.

    By the way, I think I might have lied when I predicted 50 posts this year....my eight posts in January is the most I've published since March of last year, and I have eight more posts ready to go as it stands lol. Oh well, I'm liking it. Thank you all for checking out the blog! I hope y'all have a great rest of the week, and happy collecting!