Flea markets, antique stores, Goodwill, etc..
 

Like many of you I'm sure, I can't help but hit antique, flea markets type places looking for baseball stuff, particularly when I'm in some off the beaten path kind of place. What I've generally found are occasionally a few old baseball cards priced stupidly, and maybe a few rifled through cases of modern era cards.

I know there have been numerous threads of "have you ever found something cool" in one of these type places. But has anyone ever found something particularly valuable? Let's arbitrarily pick $1000. Has anyone found an item in one of these type joints that cost only a few bucks and was worth over $1000?

Guessing highly unlikely. But won't stop me from the free entertainment of walking through these places and poking around. Always a great way of killing a few hours. My version of walking along the beach with one of those metal detectors. . . . .

An auction, yes. Antique store or flea market, no. Though like you, I still love going through them and finding the occasional 'reasonable' (or cheap) item.

However with the advent of my wife's recent rise in participation, this has increasingly become a money losing proposition. :D

finds
 

Oh, thats so true of those Flea markets..cards priced so high..its silly

Picked up these 3 for a song at small Antique Mall back in 2015.

At the time the Starr Drum was the only one to have received a numerical grade.

*edit* I paid more than a few bucks, but I still got a very, very great deal on these!

http://www.net54baseball.com/picture...ictureid=27635
http://www.net54baseball.com/picture...ictureid=27636
http://www.net54baseball.com/picture...ictureid=27637

I have built the majority of my collection at those venues. A few weeks ago I found three 1945 California Winter League scorecards with Jackie Robinson in the lineup. I paid 25.00 each and I sold them for 400 each. My best 19th century bat (circa 1865, 41.5 inches long) was also found at an antique store, as well as my best glove, best baseball tintype, and much more.

If you just look for cards it is difficult to make great finds. There are a lot more potential finds in the memorabilia side of the hobby. In the past year, I have found tintypes (including an amazing one with an umpire, a fielder, and a guy sliding into a base), 19th century and early 20th century scorecards (two weeks ago I found a 1916 Brooklyn Robins scorecard from the last game of the season), a baseball CDV, rare gloves, a melon football, a lemon peel baseball, and an early figure eight style baseball among many other things.

To me it is more exciting to find things at these venues as opposed to clicking on a website. I do make mistakes at times but I think my good finds far outweigh the mistakes I make. Overall I am astounded at how much there is available still at flea markets, antique shows, and antique shops. Granted, I do live in one of the best areas of the country for antique shopping. Sometimes I think there can't possibly be any more good items out there and that my luck will run out soon. Until then, I will keep going.
Alan


Alan

Not any single item worth $1K but I have found quite a few items or lots of items in the $50-$400 range that were worth a pretty good multiple of what I paid for them.

Whenever I see boxes of old postcards I love to thumb through them . . .but always walk away the feeling that anything old that had a baseball player or theme was the first out of the box and sold years ago.

Like Alan E......I have made many, many purchases at antiques stores, flea markets, etc. in last 30 years (not cards...memorabilia). The only one over a $1,000 was at a local antique store. I paid $100 for a 1896 baseball program (I think it was the Giants and Cardinals) and sold the program for $1,100 on eBay.


Jeff

Flea Market find
 

Just found a Frank Leahy 10" bronze sculpture maquette ( small version ) by artist Jerry McKenna at an indoor flea market on Cape Cod for 120.00 and flipped for 1425.00. Deals are still there, happy hunting

Yes,found many items at antique stores &
flea markets, but 70's, 80's, 90's , not anymore though

Wow. That's sweet.

Flea markets, rummage sales, sometimes garage sales... looking at vendors that sell "Ephemera" items. Photos, postcards, etc. Sometimes you can find something cool that way.

But in my experience, baseball items are not something I have yet run across. Just other things in the non-sports area. Like those tobacco cards with the birds on them.

Only one time I got lucky and found a tri-folder from ~1895. I had posted about it at that other network54 forum that doesn't seem to be around anymore.

always on the lookout
 

I grew up going to auctions and antique shops, my parents were collectors and then later, dealers. I still have luck from time to time on both. I picked up a '33 Goudey Ruth a couple years back at an auction for $325, which graded out at a 1.5. This last year I picked up a couple of 1940 Superman cards, more because I love the character, and loved the look of the cards. Turns out 1 of the 3 was the last card in the set, and the highest valued. I bought it on sale for $45, and it graded out at a 3. My dad, who is always hitting the shops just grabbed 8 E91a, b, and c series cards at $15 a pop. So the deals are still out there if you are looking for them, but it is getting harder and harder to find them.

Ted
 

My best find to date. 1959 ted williams gamer compliments of a salisbury MA thrift shop

These days, the internet allows any flea market or antique dealer info on names and values. They also overprice anything old baseball. I am not even inclined to flip through thousands of postcards anymore. Balls signed are overpriced too - even if they don't know who it is. Flea markets are still some fun.

The catch of that statue is very awesome!!

QFT. I bet Ive thumbed thru 100,000 postcards in my life at antique stores and flea markets. The best thing Ive ever found sports related is postcards of Yankee Stadium from the early 50s.

Many times but there are literally a hundreds or more antique shops within an hour to an hour and a half of my house. Probably more. I live between reading Allentown and philly. An area with tons of history and a passion for antiques. One such buy an e125 Wagner for 2-400 about 4-5 years ago. A board member bought it from me in Cleveland two years ago at national.

I think the recurring theme is....
 

Less usual to find something baseball related these days and the more specialized the collecting category and more knowledgeable you are, the better shot you have.

I would have walked by the earlier shown statue all day at $125

I did take a shot years ago at "Atlantique city" on a group of 5 "Spicy Detective" pulp magazines at $5 each (knew nothing about them at the time). Consigned them to an auction where I netted over $1k for the group. Also bought a Charlies Angels doll display in its original box at a baseball card show (of all places) for $35 - sold on ebay for $2500

Can't recall a similar find on baseball cards or memorabilia.

We had a restaurant where I live that had a huge Charlies Angles display. It closed down in the early 90s. Cheryl Ladd(Stoppelmoor) is from here. I don't ever remember her but I went to school with her younger brother.

Cheryl was definitely easy on the eyes! :cool:

Am I the only one that was wondering if the fire extinguisher shown had an ABC rating?

Brian

I had to go back and look at the pic again because I did not see a fire extinguisher the first time I looked.:o

That Ted Williams gamer is the winner of this thread...holy SH$T!!!!!!!!

No huge scores for me...but I was ecstatic to find this 1915 CJ WAJO at an antique show here in the twin cities a few years ago for a fraction of it's worth!

Maris
 

I've since sold it via auction, but I found this Maris gamer in a pile of bats at a local antique show back in 2016 for $20. I didn't even haggle the asking price. There's still great memorabilia stuff out there, keep looking.

Best I ever found really was an unopened Lou Gehrig deck of Brown and Bigelow cards for $5.

No sports stuff that good, but loads of smaller finds.

Closest I came was a Fred Harvey restaurant plate I got from a thrift store for 25 cents that brought 600+ on ebay.

The stamp guy I go to found a Mucha postcard in a dollar box at a show and got either 500 or 1000. It eventually ended up in a European auction where it brought 25K - It was previously unknown.

I picked up a few southern leaguers
 

On the cheap at a flea market. The lot in luded Shag Shaunessy before he picked up in popularity due to his vampiric haircut.

Dang . . . . .

I love threads like these....I found a pretty good amount of stuff at flea markets and yard sales. Some of my better flea market finds include: Joe Jackson Zinn Beck bat for $3 (The guy had it in the wheels of his trailer to keep it from rolling away). 1800s Reach ring bat, Jim Gilliam GU bat, Oakland Larks (West Coast Negro League) game worn hat, Kent Hrbek GU bat for a $1. They are probably the best items Ive picked up over time. I've had a lot of luck and find more junk than baseball goodies but that's why I go every weekend.

I am an antique store vendor in a small town in Northern, Michigan. We boast having three traffic lights. In just over three years that I have been there, I have bought and sold many vintage gloves and bats. My prices for sports cards are about the lowest around. I figure, if they did not cost me much, I can pass on a savings to my buyers. On several occasions, I have sold in misc. Cards alone, over 500 dollars in one day. Not long ago, an elderly couple came in with two shoe boxes of cards and they said they believe they are worth a Thousand dollars. My wife would not let me take the money out of the bank, so I contacted a collector who comes in ofter and told him what I saw at a glance was several 50s Mantle cards, a 57 Mantle, several Mays as these cards all appeared to be from 1955 to early 1960s. He was there almost immediately after I hung up the phone and paid the money they demanded. Turned out there was nearly a complete set of 1957 cards,along with a total of 5 Mantles, a Jackie Robinson, numerous Mays, Aarons, and on and on. I have never found out what the final value may have been, but the cards were in beautiful condition. My guess, the collection was three to five times in value.
I have several collectors names on hand and what they are looking for. With the cards I have left, they bring up conversations with strangers who give their stories what they have. Some expressed interest in selling some day, some cards have turned out to be a bust, but once in a while, those shoe boxes come in. My wife now regrets her decision to not let me spend the money, but if the value is beyond my means, I call my friends who have the deeper pockets. So don,t just cruise thru those antique store, it does not hurt to drop you name and number and what you are looking for.

Not baseball. But I stopped at an antique shop in upstate New York once and was looking at some old track & field memorabilia. The guy at the front yelled back, "That's the 'Chariots of Fire' guy." Turned out it was British sprinter Harold Abrahams' stuff: an original photo album (with several track photos), two leather bags (one with his initials), some awards, cards, etc. Very cool. I think I paid around $600. Consigned it to an auction house in London and it sold for close to $8,500. We were kind of broke when I bought the stuff and I had to talk my wife into letting me put it on a credit card. She was glad I did. It was so cool to think that he likely took those bags with him to the 1924 Olympics.

Here's the link to the auction:

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/196...?category=list

A few years ago, at a pretty bad flea market in the northeast, I found a nice 1930s scrapbook from a teenager. Really nicely made, I don't collect scrapbooks but this one had some personality and then I saw there was a Cab Calloway autograph in it, so I paid the $15.

An hour later, when I was back home, I found it also contained a Babe Ruth-signed 1938 world series ticket stub.

In 40 or so years of collecting and picking, that was my most jaw-dropping moment. Almost unbelievable.

Here it is; I think it sold for way too little, but I couldn't bear to take it off the page and get it encapsulated.
https://sports.ha.com/itm/baseball/1...ription-071515

At a tag sale a couple years ago I bought a rare, sealed Aurora model (related to the monster models) for $10, it brought $1100 on ebay.

15 years or so ago I was in a marginal auction house that was selling stuff that maybe hadn't sold at auction; bought a set of 3 paintings by the California artist Ed Moses for about $100, sold them later for $3k.

Few and far between -- but they are out there.


David

best I have ever done was an estate sale, picked up a bunch of 1968 Topps baseball, all divided by teams in #10 envelopes, paid $35 bucks and was happy till I got to the stars envelope and they where all there. The Ryan, Bench, Mantle, Clemente , pretty much all the stars, it was a great day !!!

I like buying boxed lots at auctions and estate sales, hoping that there will be a few small items of value that make the price for the box worthwhile. Best one I ever bought contained a Babe Ruth locker tag that I flipped for $300 at a local card show (this was in the late 1990s).

My stroke of late 1990's antique store luck has been mentioned before on this board but I think it is worth a repeat. A case in an antique store mall in Northern California had plastic sheets of what was labeled as 'black and white cards' in a display case. I checked them out, and decided to make an offer on them. The person at the front counter called the owner, and I was able to get the price down from $3.00 a card to $2.00 a card.

They were mid-1920 Zeenut cards, about 100, the vast majority of them 1925, and overall in above normal Zeenut condition, with the position of the player written on their backs. At the time they were probably worth $7 to $8 each (thus qualifying for this thread), and now are worth 2 to 3 times that amount. It kickstarted me into collecting Zeenuts, starting of course with the 1925 year.

Brian

As far as sports items goes nothing big in the last 20 years or so but back in the day I found a quilt made with tobacco felts. The inner felts were flags but around the outer edge were 170 B 18 blankets. I paid $600 for the piece and then consigned it to a sports auction where it sold for $3600.

Now the one that REALLY hurts.

About seven years ago, I was at a local Goodwill and found a nice looking vase the was different than every vase I usually see. I took it off of the shelf and looked at the bottom and saw what looked like the letters O D K. I called my mother and had her look on eBay for something with these initials and she didn't find anything.

I put the vase in a cart and walked around for awhile looking for more stuff. After not finding anything else to buy, I decided that since mom couldn't find anything on eBay about the vase, I didn't want to risk the $7.99 they were asking and I put the vase back on the shelf and left.

Fast forward a few years and lo and behold, Antiques Roadshow was in Indianapolis and this vase was on the show. What I thought was O D K on the bottom of the vase was instead O B K and stood for Overbeck Pottery. The vase was from the 1920's and was appraised to be worth between $50,000 to $100,000 dollars.

Makes me sick every time I think about it.

David

I have a hard time passing a thrift shop or flea market. Love vintage clothing stores too. Found my best score ever in 2011 here in Vancouver - a 1965/‘66 Max McGee Packers home game worn jersey. Paid $26 and sold it the same year through Heritage for almost $9k.

I stopped by a random tag sale and picked up a 1951 Bowman Mantle Both and 1951 Mays Rookie. Mays got a psa 6 and Mantle got a psa 4.


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I've been pretty lucky at flea markets and garage sales... recent pickups included 1906 World Series postcards of Cubs and White Sox...an 800 count box of 90 Donruss with about 400 72 Topps mid to high numbers sandwiched ion the middle including multiples of Mays and Aaron, a Bruce Lee scrap book filled with clippings and a complete set of 1966 Green Hornet cards... etc etc etc.

While there were some baseball items in this find from a local antique store, the choice piece is the 1930s Miller light, which is worth $2000+. The whole lot cost me $210. I can't remember what they were now, but I even left 6-7 football pennants from the same era as the baseball with plans to go back after I could research them. They were gone when I returned the next day.

http://www.vintagecans.com/baseballcards/find.jpg

At one vintage paper fair I went to I found what I figured out was a late 1960s sportswriter's photo archive. It was a banker box full of material. The dealer sold me a bunch of mixed stuff for a few bucks an item. They are some of my favorite sports photos, including this one:

http://photos.imageevent.com/exhibit...ll%20Cousy.jpg

For those of you not familiar with the subjects, that's Wilt Chamberlain handling the ball with Bill Russell coming in to defend and Bob Cousy behind him, taken in 1961. I also found this:

http://photos.imageevent.com/exhibit...ebsize/014.jpg

An ABA Minnesota Pipers 1968 team issue of Connie Hawkins. It is a 4 x 5 card (not photo, it is printed). Last one I saw, which was several years ago, sold for $350.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...239d8026c9.jpg

Not $1000 but a cool find. I got a box of cards. Just throw in the box. These cards and another 200 cards for $15.




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And this is why i don’t ask my wife I just do it. She won’t be mad when the profits roll in. In fact she’ll have her hand out.

Great Thread!

Best was at a library book sale! General MacArthur numbered and signed volume and slipcase. 5.00. Got near 700 trade/cash

In NC, the antique malls and flea markets are scant compared to the northeast, but they exist. My general experience is few vintage baseball cards, and when they do appear most are horribly overpriced. Beat up 1953 Topps commons for $50 a pop. I do have one down the road from me that had some fairly priced vintage graded, but it was a very small selection. I picked up nice PSA 7's of Clemente and Willie Stargell. In another section of the same store, there is a single dusty pack of 1994 Topps that they want $15 for.

I love going to antique malls and flea markets (but haven't been to them nearly as often as before my wife and I had kids) and the only cool baseball item I found was this Pedro Ramos cigar box. It didn't fit my collection so I offered it on the BST for the asking price plus shipping and found a collector who wanted it. Then I got messages from others that were pissed that I let it go so cheap and that they would've paid much more for it. I don't know what I could have gotten for it or what it's actually worth. I just wanted to help out a collector, not make a profit.


.

Now that is a cool oddball item.:)

I have found a lot of cool oddball stuff but nothing baseball. The only sports item any good was a Dr J autographed picture.

Back in the 1990's before eBay, my wife and I would regularly set up at the monthly Civitan Flea Market at Arlington, VA, to sell stuff we picked up at yard sales, garage sales, church sales, etc. In the afternoon when things slowed down, we would take turns checking out what the other flea market dealers had for sale. One time, a dealer had a few 1950's baseball cards on his table, including a very scarce 1953-54 Briggs Meats Mickey Mantle card that he did not realize was a baseball card - his price sticker read "$50.00 As Is, Not a Card" (see card below on right). He was most happy to quickly accept my $20 offer for it. Some years later, I got it slabbed by SGC and traded it for about $2,000 in cards I needed. Subsequently, in May 2011, Mile High sold it for $1,549, and in December 2011, Goodwin sold it for $2,160.

I have had numerous great finds through the years as I grew up going to auction sales, garage sales, flea markets and antique shows. I picked up this Clemente button which is extremely tough to locate a couple of years ago for $20.00 at a show and sold it on eBay to a member of this forum for $700.00 - $800.00. I can't remember for sure. I also picked up at a small show a massive hoard of original snapshot photos. There are a couple thousand at least. I have sold off a small amount but still have many left. An example of some I still have. This happened a number of years ago but I was at an Antique show in Superior, WI. A dealer had some rusty 1964 Topps coins and he wanted way to much for them. I saw one 1955 Armour coin in the bag and it turned out to be a 1955 Armour Mickey Mantle (correct spelling) coin. I asked how much and the dealer said "for the plastic one" 50 cents. I ended up selling it to Mr. Mint at one of the old State Fairgrounds shows in the cities for $200.00 if I remember correctly.

Finds
 

Picked up a Nolan Ryan rookie at a flea market for $125..it graded out PSA 8.. That's my best antique/flea market find I think. I did buy a misc. lot on Ebay that had a Jerry Rice rookie that graded PSA 10... That was the best Ebay find.

Total Items: 43
Date Received: 5/7/2013
Date Shipped: 5/22/2013

Line # Item # Cert # Grade Description Type

36 1 21467184 GEM MINT 10 1986 Topps 161 Jerry Rice Card