WASTING SOME MONEY AT THE FLEA MARKET - PART 1: RANDOM JUNK

DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES BEYOND MY CONTROL I DID NOT GET TO GO TO THE FLEA MARKET ALL SUMMER LONG. KIND OF A DICK MOVE BECAUSE ONE OF THE SELLERS HAD SEALED COPIES OF TOPPS MAGAZINE AND I TOLD HIM I WAS INTERESTED IN MORE AND THEN GHOSTED HIM. I FINALLY GOT BACK AT THE BEGINNING OF NOVEMBER AND IMMEDIATELY DROPPED TWENTY BUCKS ON RECORDS. MY RECORD PLAYER DOESN'T EVEN WORK AT THE MOMENT. I SAVED A COUPLE BUCKS FOR SOME WEIRD JUNK AT THE CARD BOOTH THOUGH. HERE'S THE ODDBALL STUFF THAT DIDN'T FIT IN WITH THE REST

1960 FLEER JIMMY FOXX

ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS I LOOKED AT WAS A COUPLE BOXES OF OLD HALL OF FAME CARDS. ONE BOX WAS FILLED WITH STUFF THAT WAS 50 CENTS A POP, YOU'LL SEE A LOT OF THAT IN THIS AND THE NEXT POST. THERE WAS ANOTHER ONE WHERE CARDS WERE PRICED AS MARKED. JUST ABOUT EVERY CARD IN THESE BOXES WERE FROM LEGENDS SETS FROM THE 80S TO 00S. ONE CARD HOWEVER WAS FROM A 60'S LEGEND SET

I'M NOT GOING TO BE ARROGANT ENOUGH TO CONSIDER MYSELF AN EXPERT AT AUTHENTICATING VINTAGE CARDS. I'VE SEEN A TON OF THEM THOUGH AND I HAVE A PRETTY GOOD FEEL FOR WHEN THEY ARE REAL. PRETTY SURE THIS ONE'S AUTHENTIC, IT'S GOT THE LOOK THE FEEL AND THE SMELL OF A VINTAGE 1960 FLEER CARD, ALTHOUGH I DON'T SEE MANY IN DECENT CONDITION LIKE THIS ONE. FOR SOME REASON THIS WAS PRICED AT TWO BUCKS. NOW, PRICES AT THIS PLACE ARE CHAOTIC AT BEST BUT I STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY IT WAS THAT CHEAP 

2011 TOPPS THE LOST CARDS STAN MUSIAL '55 AND '57

IN 2011 TOPPS HAD A SMALL INSERT SET FEATURING MOCK UPS OF BIG NAME CARDS THAT WERE MISSING FROM VINTAGE TOPPS SETS OF THE 50S

IT'S A PRETTY NICE LITTLE SET, FILLED WITH BIG NAMES ALTHOUGH 40% OF THE SET IS STAN MUSIAL. STOOPID BOWMAN

MIXED IN AMONG THE LEGENDS CARDS WERE THESE TWO LOST CARDS OF STAN MUSIAL. I KNEW I HAD SOME OF THESE CARDS BUT HAD NO IDEA WHICH ONES I WAS MISSING. I THREW CAUTION TO THE WIND AND GRABBED THEM BOTH

GOT HOME, TOOK A LOOK AND NEEDED THEM BOTH. THINGS WORK OUT SOMETIMES!

1996 SCORE SELECT TEAM NUCLEUS - GARY SHEFFIELD, CHARLES JOHNSON, ANDRE DAWSON

I'M A SUCKER FOR ANY 90S INSERTS, ESPECIALLY ONES THAT ARE SHINY AND FOILY AND PLASTIC. THIS HAD BEEN HIDING IN A DIFFERENT 50 CENT BOX FOR A VERY LONG TIME AND I FINALLY RESCUED IT. THIS IS A HEAVY LINEUP OF PLAYERS FOR THE MARLINS, CHARLES JOHNSON WAS THEIR FIRST DRAFT PICK AND AN ALL-STAR, SHEFFIELD WAS AWESOME EVEN THOUGH NO ONE LIKES HIM BUT ME, AND HAWK IS A HALL OF FAMER. IT'S KIND OF BITTERSWEET SEEING THEM ALL ON A TEAM NUCLEUS CARD AS DAWSON WOULD RETIRE AFTER THE 96 SEASON AND SHEFF AND CHARLES WOULD GET TRADED TO THE DODGERS IN THE FIRE SALE TWO YEARS LATER

1996 UPPER DECK RUN PRODUCERS TIM SALMON

90S INSERT: CHECK. DIE CUT: CHECK. WEIRD SUPER THICK TWO TIERED DESIGN: CHECK. BOTTOM LAYER IS RED FOIL: CHECK. TOP LAYER HAS SPOT COATING OF A WEIRD WAXY PLASTICY SUBSTANCE THAT KINDA SORTA HAS THE TEXTURE OF HOME PLATE: CHECK. ALSO IN THE RANDOM 50 CENT BOX THAT IS 90% BASE CARD OF MINOR STARS FROM THE EARLY 90S: CHECKITY CHECK CHECK CHECK

I BOUGHT A LOT OF UPPER DECK IN 1996 AND I'M GOING TO BE HONEST, THE COMBINATION OF A SUPER THICK CARD THAT WAS ALSO DIE CUT MEANT THAT THESE INSERTS WERE SUPER EASY TO FIND USING ILLICIT MEANS. AS A RESULT I HAVE QUITE A FEW OF THEM AND I PROBABLY ALREADY HAD THIS ONE. I COULDN'T PASS IT UP JUST FOR THE NOSTALGIA VALUE HOWEVER. BY THE WAY THE WEIRD PLASTIC TEXTURE IS ALSO ON THE HOME PLATE ON THE BACK. YOU'RE ONLY GETTING THAT ATTENTION TO DETAIL ON AN INSERT CARD IN THE 90S, THAT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN TODAY

2021 ALLEN & GINTER MASCOTS IN REAL LIFE MARLIN

I NO LONGER HAVE THE MEANS TO BUY A CRAPTON OF ALLEN & GINTER PACKS EVERY YEAR TO ACCUMULATE A GOOD MIX OF MINI INSERTS BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN I DON'T STILL LOVE THEM. THEY ARE VERY TRICKY TO FIND THOUGH AND I TRY TO SNATCH THEM UP WHENEVER THEY CROSS MY PATH. THIS IS MY FIRST MINI INSERT OF ANY KIND FROM 2021 GINTER, WHICH IS GOOD. IT ALSO MEANS I NEED TO FIND A NEW SHEET TO PUT IN THE MINI INSERT BINDER, WHICH IS BAD

ALLEN AND GINTER HAD ALREADY DONE A FULL SIZED INSERT SET OF MASCOTS IRL A COUPLE YEARS EARLIER BUT I SEE NO PROBLEM WITH REPEATING IT FOR THE MINI CROWD. I AM SAD THAT MY OWN TEAM'S MASCOT IS ENTIRELY INAPPROPRIATE FOR SUCH A SET. IF YOU IGNORED THE HISTORICAL LOGO AND USED BLOOPER AS THE MASCOT IN REAL LIFE HE IS BASICALLY A BEIGE SHAG CARPET SO THAT'S NOT A GREAT SUBJECT FOR A MINI CARD. BIG FISHIES ARE COOL HOWEVER, EVEN THOUGH I HAVE A GREAT DISLIKE FOR THE ACTUAL TEAM. I DID NOT NEED TO KNOW THAT THEIR FISHIE NOW HAS BUSHIER EYEBROWS, THAT JUST SEEMS ODD

STAY TUNE FOR PART TWO: THE IMMORTALS

The Lost Box of Total Awesomeness - Almost forgot about these

Venezuelan Topps cards from the '60s is pretty awesome but I have much more awesomeness in store. Here's some oddball stuff from the '60s to lay the foundation and prepare you for the ultimate awesomeness that is ahead. Oddballs ahoy!

1968 Topps Game Al Kaline

Topps oddballs from the '60s are great ways to find cheap cards of stars. Some of them look great, others not so much. This set from 1968 is cool in many ways. They are unique, they look pretty good, they are not scarce and they can be found fairly cheaply. Even the Mantle is affordable. Plus you can play a baseball game with them if you are so inclined.

This card might be one of the first cards in my collection. My mom traveled for work a ton when I was a kid. On a trip to Boston, she found a couple of sheets of Al Kaline cards at an antique store and brought them home for me. I was pretty stunned by all these old cards from the' 60s and '70s and even moreso when I found out Al was a Hall of Famer. As a nerdy little child, I was also bemused that his name was a chemical term. One of the cards in the lot was a game card like this. I have two of them, so I don't know if this one the original one or one I picked up later, but it's a cool reminder of the cards that first got me fascinated by old Topps cards.

1963 Jell-o Roy Sievers

1963 Post Robin Roberts

Here's a couple of food oddballs. Post Cereal and Jell-o cards are another great way to get stars from the early '60s for cheap. The jagged edges from the scissors of spazzy kids all hopped up on sugary cereal and Jell-o scare away the gem mint PSA crowd and they are just ugly enough to be ignored by the mainstream. I love cards that you have to cut off boxes. These from the '60s, Hostess cards from the '70s, box bottom cards from the '80s... The soul of card collecting died a little bit when there were no cards to cut off of other things in the '90s and today. These two cards look almost exactly alike, so how can I tell which is the Jell-o and which is the Post card? Here's a scan of the two together:

As you can see, the Sievers card is just a tiny bit smaller than the Roberts. Post cards came on large boxes where four or five cards could spread out. Jello boxes are tiny and they had to squash the card to fit on that little box. The other giveaway is the red line in the stats. On the Jell-o box it ends abruptly, while on the Post box it extends almost to the border. Just looking at these cards makes me want to pull out some scissors and cut some cardboard really bad.

1960 Fleer Warren Giles

1960 Fleer Harry Heilmann

These are two more cards I've had forever. I don't remember where I got them, I just remember them always being around. Heilmann is a Hall of Fame outfielder for the Tigers from the Ty Cobb era. He was a great hitter, but no one seems to remember him at all today. He also has the honor of being the first player to hit a home run in every major league stadium during his career (granted, there were only 16 stadiums at the time). Heilmann is cool to anyone familiar with baseball history, but Warren Giles is not a card anyone would be really interested in. Who wants a card of the National League president? When I was a kid I was torn between the coolness of having an old card and the lameness of it having an old fat guy in a suit on it. It doesn't help that the 1960 Fleer set is among the ugliest of all time. The border "corners" are just stupid. The pictures look like they are all black & white photos that were tinted after the fact, so the colors on them can be quite bizarre. Also several of the old timers have photos on their cards that were taken in the '50s and not during their playing days. As a result there are several geezers on trading cards that look like they should be playing bridge instead of baseball. Still, they are old dang cards and some good history for one of the hobby's great manufacturers.

UP NEXT: You'll see...