The flea market keeps me sane

Don't spread this around, but I wasn't really sick when I called off work this past Sunday.

For lack of a better term, I simply needed A Day: A Day to relax, A Day for my sanity, A Day for myself -- anyone who's ever worked a menial job knows what I'm talking about. Naturally, I chose to spend the afternoon of my Day at the local flea market, despite -- as I recently discussed -- the apparent demise of its once-great glory days.

For the first hour I was there, I felt the same disappointment all over again. A couple of my usual card guys weren't there, another had nothing of interest in his small quarter boxes, and my favorite regular vendor didn't have any cards at all this week. Like the last time, he told me: Man, you should've been here last week, I had a whole bunch of vintage! (WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME, DUDE?!)

But after all hope seemed lost, a small glimmer of hope presented itself at an unlikely table: I found an older woman with a large shoebox full of '80s cards, priced at 12/$1 and rubberbanded in stacks according to team.

The vast majority of cards in those boxes were your typical early/mid '80s commons, nothing I haven't seen dozens of times before.

But I'll say one thing: digging through all that old, dusty cardboard was pretty darned therapeutic. In an instant, that lone box made my Day worth taking, made the trip to the local flea market a success. I would've loved it even if I wouldn't have found a single card of note in that box just for the pure visceral experience of it all.

But there were quite a few keepers: in fact, I found well north of 100 cards for the bargain price of $9, including this early Iron Man I needed for my growing collection of his.

I've collected for long enough now to where I think I'm pretty much set on your run-of-the-mill '80s commons.

But then a box like this comes around and shows that a few select cards have indeed slipped through the cracks all these years, as these four somehow did.

I tend to write off '82 Topps as my least favorite Flagship set of the '80s, but these are doing their best to convince me that there's greatness to be found in the otherwise nondescript checklist.

Hard to beat oddballs at 12/$1, especially a Boggs box bottom beauty.

These two rookies were probably the biggest of the shoebox finds.

I've actually owned copies of the Strawberry at different points during my collecting lifetime, but this one's staying with me since I've recently decided to induct him into my player collection ranks.

And while I'll never collect Roger Clemens -- he's right up there with Barry Bonds on my Baseball Hate List -- I couldn't pass up a chance to own his (fairly iconic) '85 Topps rookie for eight cents, because how often does that happen?

And so the my Day at the flea market was saved...but there were still a few aisles left to go.

A little later, I stumbled upon a guy with a few newer cards in a glass case, including this neat melting insert of Miguel Sano which I decided was worth the dollar price tag.

The vendor also had a small snap case filled with random cards that were priced at fifty cents a pop.

Among the gets were that shiny Diamond Kings Heyward (numbered to 99 copies) and a rookie refractor of Nolan Arenado, quite a steal for two quarters when you consider he's one of the top stars in the game today.

From there, I moved over to a small pile of unopened wax the guy had off to the side. At first, nothing jumped out at me. A box of 1989 Topps, another of 1991 Upper Deck, another of 1992 Fleer. Pass, pass, pass.

But then I saw something that just about made my heart skip.

AN UNOPENED BOX OF PACIFIC ONLINE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

FOR SIX DOLLARS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sure, there are many reasons not to like this set.

1) The design won't win any awards.

2) The concept is sorely outdated: the whole Internet thing was still a fad when these were released in 1998.

3) The individual player websites don't even exist anymore -- and neither does Pacific, for that matter.

But even with all that, I still love, love, love this set, and I couldn't believe my eyes that I had an opportunity to bust a whole box of the stuff -- considering that the singles alone are painfully tough to come by.

The box added a whole bunch of hits to my various player collections that I likely would've never seen had this box not fell into my lap.

Bonus: many of them feature said players in unfamiliar uniforms, such as Shawon Dunston as an Indian and Dennis Martinez as a Brave.

And because Pacific was so generous with its checklists -- Pacific Online is a 750-card set -- we get, yes, MIDDLE RELIEVERS!

The likes of Paul Quantrill and Steve Kline make up some of my more obscure player collections, and I don't often get a chance to add new cards of theirs to my binders since middle relief is the most ignored profession in the hobby. For that, I thank Pacific Online with all my heart, and that's why opening this box was such a thrill for me.

For (I repeat) six dollars, I got to bust 24 nine-card packs that brought me right back to my childhood of slow modems and screeching dial-up connections.

Apparently, all the card vendors chose to hide in the last few aisles, because I found a guy with even more cardboard as the day was winding to a close.

His main cards of interest were priced at $1 each or 2/$1, and while a lot of it was nothing more than dime box fodder, I did manage to salvage a few gems I felt were well worth the two-quarter price tag.

I think we'd all agree that any Mini Willie (get your mind out of the gutter) is a steal at fifty cents, especially one that features his brief stay with the Mets.

A couple modern oddball-ish finds from the fifty-cent box, including a transparent Gracie and a Jeets CD (how '90s!) with a bonus double dip.

Pre-fame minor leaguers and OPCs for loose change? Sure!

This was the lone card I found from the guy's two-dollar vintage box.

Most of it was, again, comprised of cards I could probably find for dimes and quarters elsewhere. But I jumped at the chance to own this Jerry Koosman because it's one I've been wanting for a while with that glorious Rookie Cup and all.

This brought my total purchases up to twelve dollars, slightly less than the $15 I had remaining in my wallet.

That's when my eyes fell to one of the guy's glass case cards: a 1983 Fleer Tony Gwynn rookie.

It was priced at $5, but since I only had three dollars of wiggle room in my budget, I asked the vendor if he'd take $15 for everything I'd previously picked out and the Gwynn. And he did! Now only '83 Donruss separates me from owning all of Mr. Padre's major-brand rookie cards.

So that was it. My self-professed Day had been well spent, but I had to face the facts: I was fresh out of money. Sure, there's an ATM on the flea market grounds, but that's only for use in case of emergency, like glass on a fire extinguisher.

Since there were only a few tables to go, I figured I'd at least wander by to make sure I wasn't missing anything...

...and then I found this.

I normally hate cliffhangers, but consider this a cliffhanger.

Frankenset Redux, Page 8: Numbers 64-72

Page #8 (Numbers 64-72):

Completion Status: 9/9

Numbers Needed: None.

The Players

2015 Stadium Club #64 Brett Gardner

I think the reason(s) I love these "at the wall" shots so much are the fans' faces. 

1994 Leaf #65 Jose Lind

Talk about a perfectly timed photo: look at the laces on that baseball.

1993 SP #66 John Jaha

John Jaha, seen here sitting on the quad during his days as a college hipster. 

2013 Topps Opening Day #67 Marco Scutaro

Double dipping with funny cars in the background. 

1995 Stadium Club Virtual Reality #68 Wilson Alvarez

Wilson Alvarez pictured in (what I assume is) his native Venezuela. 

1999 Just #69 Chin-Feng Chen

A rare crossover mini-collection hit, with both my "anthemic" and "cards with kids" themes represented. 

1993 Stadium Club #70 Casey Candaele

Taking flight while turning two. 

1995 Upper Deck Minors #71 Ryan McGuire

There's something highly postmodern about photographs of people taking photographs. 

1973 Topps #72 Ron Reed

Crooked photo, wicked follow-through: the off-kilter nature of this shot is so quintessentially '73 Topps.

Stats

Cards By Decade:

1970's -- 1 (Running total: 7)

1990's -- 6 (Running total: 40)

2010's -- 2 (Running total: 15)

Mini-collection Hits:

Double Dips -- 3 (Running total: 14)

At the Wall -- 1 (Running total: 6)

Cards with Kids -- 1 (Running total: 4)

Anthemic -- 1 (Running total: 1)

Behind the Camera -- 1 (Running total: 1)

Best Cameo

I'll go with the young fan taking the field for the San Bernadino Stampede(?) here.

This Magic Moment

Marco Scutaro wasn't yet a Giant during the team's lone regular-season homestand against the Reds in 2012, so it seems likely that this double dip comes from that year's Giants-Reds NLDS.

Specifically, I'm almost confident in pinpointing this moment to Game 2 of the 2012 NLDS -- played on October 7, 2012 -- when Joey Votto's 5th-inning single was negated by a ground-ball double play by the next batter, Ryan Ludwick.

Though the Reds pounded the Giants that night, 9-0, San Francisco would get the last laugh, winning the NLDS in five games on their way to their second World Series crown in three years.

Kick Out the Jams

I'd say about 95 percent of my Spanish vocabulary is made up of the lyrics to "La Bamba" (the other five percent are mostly curse words).

Lessons in Card Backs

Once again, '73 Topps proves educational: longtime pitcher Ron Reed did indeed play two seasons with the NBA's Detroit Pistons, averaging eight points a game as a power forward before committing to baseball full-time in 1968.

Best of the Rest

2015 Topps Update #US-72 Brett Gardner AS

A terrific post-ASG high-five shot (despite the ugly-as-sin pillbox caps), and a fitting one considering this year's Midsummer Classic took place earlier this week.

Toughest Draw

 1984 Fleer #67 Rudy Law

While the Scutaro is a fantastic postseason double dip, Rudy Law maintains his stranglehold on the #67 slot in my inaugural frankenset...in no small part because I'm scared Law might personally come to my house and strangle me if I replaced him.

Second Guessing

1998 Collector's Choice #72 Eduardo Perez

The Perez has a lot going for it: it's a terrific multiple-exposure shot from the nostalgia-inducing days of Collector's Choice.

But I sometimes wonder if '73 Topps is like that freakishly tall and/or strong kid most of us played against in Little League, the kid who'd have to hold something back in order to not completely destroy us mortals. Am I easing back on the '73 Topps -- a set that could almost be a frankenset unto itself -- in order to give other cards a fair shot?

Perhaps so, perhaps not, but Eduardo Perez gets the #72 slot in my inaugural frankenset.

Favorite Card

For now, Ron Reed will have to live with being my favorite from this week's Frankenset Redux group of nine, the second straight week in which the lone '70s card of the page has earned the crown.

That's another frankenset page in the books.

Thanks for reading!

(P.S. -- In honor of National Give Something Away Day, the first person to leave a comment on this post (US only, sorry) with their favorite card from this week's page will receive a little something special from me.)

Sorted

As any collector knows, the act of physically obtaining cards is just half the battle.

Trouble is, this is usually the only side of collecting we get to see on the Internet: the acquiring. The other half -- the sorting -- is often done behind the scenes, in private. It's much less glamorous than the HEY LOOK WHAT I GOT! excitement of acquisition.

But just for kicks, I thought I'd provide a sneak peek at what goes on in the aftermath of a trade package in Dime Boxedonia, and I have a stack I recently received from my buddy Jeff of "2x3 Heroes" fame at the ready for an example.

Jeff is one of the few fellow Golden Age fanatics I know of, and he kicked things off with this mini of Ernie Banks as a Kansas City Monarch, still the only card I've ever seen of Mr. Cub as a Negro Leaguer.

When it comes to sorting, minis simultaneously amaze me and annoy me.

I keep all my Negro League cards in the same binder, sorted somewhat haphazardly by player. Here, you can see the full-size Golden Age Banks with his new mini counterpart housed with a few other Negro League greats.

I've long had a love affair with minis despite the fact that they look clunky in a standard nine-pocket page. I don't own any of those mini pages I often see around the blogs, and besides, they wouldn't really work with my player-based sorting system.

For now, I'll have to live with the slightly off-putting sight of bite-sized minis in full-sized pages.

Some more minis of all makes and models from Jeff, including another Golden Age gem with the Curt Flood.

Here's a quartet of 2016 National Baseball Card Day singles.

I've noticed that these have been quite easy to find on the secondary market following last year's NBCD -- so easy, in fact, that I'm pretty sure I'm nearing a complete set at this point.

Standard cards are housed within my many team binders, and here's an inside look at one of the Matt Harvey pages inside my Mets binder (new NBCD single included).

Cards within each player section are basically strewn around randomly apart from the fact that I like to keep parallels/variations from same sets together (as seen with the dueling Gold Labels here). As of this writing, I own 77 different cards of Harvey, which takes up just over four full double-bagged pages in my Mets binder.

And yes, I double-bag my pages, because I don't have the money, space, or sanity not to.

A couple oddballs from Jeff, including that far-out Gale Sayers which threw me for a bit of a sorting loop.

The Sayers -- like most of what I have from recent Goodwin Champions sets -- doesn't fit in with anything currently in my binders, so off it goes onto my nightstand in one of my many snap cases of off-brand and/or non-sport cards.

Ben McDonald isn't a binder guy for me, but this is a fun, quirky card, which makes it eligible for inclusion in either of my two Dime Box Frankensets.

Sadly, after much deliberation, McDonald didn't crack either of the frankensets.

It's still a treasured card, however, which means it'll go into one of four boxes I have of frankenset cast-offs...because you never know when I'm going to want to start a third frankenset.

A couple "at the wall" mini-collection hits, including hitting-coach extraordinare Kevin Long and Glenallen Hill trying his best to leapfrog that atrocious Donruss logo.

Jeff closed things out with the first new card I've received for my Casey Kotchman collection in a long, long time.

Kotchman was one of the first guys I decided to full-on player collect. Why? Good question: truth is, I'm not exactly sure apart from the fact that I was a big fan of the Angels when I returned to baseball cards around 2006-07, right around the time Kotchman was the starting first baseman for the club.

I'm long past the days of specifically hunting for relic cards, but I'll certainly take them whenever they come my way.

It wasn't until I consulted my relics binder (stored apart from my individual team binders) did I discover that Jeff sent what is my very first Casey Kotchman bat card.

There it is next to eight other swatches I'd accumulated during the days when I used to hoard jersey cards. For better or worse, I bet I'm the only person alive who can say they have a full page of Casey Kotchman relics.

Sorting may seem inane to a non-collector, but I think most in the hobby will tell you that they enjoy structuring and organizing their collection. I know I still get a huge kick out of sorting my baseball cards.

It brings a sense of sanity to this insane collection of mine.