Box #2

You may remember me going through 30+ boxes in a thrift store a couple of weeks ago, filling up a 5,000 count box. That day as I was walking out I noticed a few boxes in a different part of the store (place is a bit of a maze) and thought it might be fun to go back and check those out. I decided not to go the next weekend, but last week I saw the owner put the whole store up for offer on FB Marketplace, so I decided to go this past weekend just in case the place might not be around much longer. 

I got there around 11:30 on Saturday morning. Sure enough there was the pile of about 10 5,000 count boxes that I saw last time. However, right nearby were easily another 40-50 3-row, 4-row and 5-row boxes! (3,200, 4,000, 5,000?) At first I thought they had just moved the other boxes over, but it turns out these were completely different! I don't know if they weren't there two weeks ago or if I just missed them. I ended up staying for six hours (was pretty hungry and thirsty by the end, though my back was OK, probably because I was standing the whole time). I wanted to make sure I hit every box so I wasn't tempted to go back a third time.

Maybe half the boxes could be dismissed with a cursory glance - all basketball, all 1990 Fleer, etc. But there were still dozens of boxes worth pawing through. At first there were a couple of other people there, but I mostly had the area to myself and was able to fill another $30 5,000 count box! I didn't have to compromise due to time last time, so I was able to make this a much more targeted box. Though by the end it was getting near closing and I was getting a little woozy (no AC either). So toward the end I was throwing in a lot of stuff like 1996 Zenith and 1998 Studio, but pretty much everything I picked was a card I would likely need.

Some of the many highlights:

Like last time, there was a heavy Phillies presence, I'm guessing these boxes came from that area. Some more team sets of Phillies and their minor league teams. Plus a random Cubs team issue. I thought I had picked up a small handful of a Steelers team-issue, but they turned out to all be the same Larry Brown card. 

Like last time I found a lot of '83 OPC. Found a lot of '84 OPC this time, all with identical chew marks in one corner. A few scattered OPCs from other years too.

Some Mattingly oddballs! Had most of these already.

There were some cards in binders, most of which were pure junk wax, but one was a binder of just about every Gregg Jefferies card, or so it seemed! Lots of Broders and other obscure stuff like SLUs. I picked out any card I might have needed out of the binder. There's also a wrapped package of Jefferies Broders with childhood and personal photos of Jefferies.

Lots more Broders I found during the day!

This is an interesting set. It's a Broder set called 1990 Sport Cards. Looking at TCDB there are two cards missing, Michael Jordan and Derrick Coleman. Oddly on TCDB the Fielder card is a reverse negative, this one is not. Also weird to see Henderson wearing #22; looks like it was only for a few games in 1989, but made it onto a couple other cards - see this Reddit post. Nicklaus and Gretzky are available for trade.

Odds and ends - an interesting Fleer promo card. It's not terribly rare but not common either, maybe a $5-10 card. The back has a dateline of New York, NY even though the photo is clearly at Fenway Park. Meanwhile the two '86 Topps shown here are blank backs. I don't collect those so they are available.

Some "hits"! Maybe not quite the Hector Lopez bat card of last time, but not shabby either. The Olerud is one of those self-produced religious cards.

I quickly found that it was often better to sort through the backs of the cards then the fronts. This looks like an ordinary pile of junk wax.

But they are all Leafs, not Fleers! For some reason found just a group of most of the '88 Leaf DKs, no regular cards. Missing the bigger stars. Also the two Canadian Greats cards.

Once again just a ho-hum pile of junk wax.

Wrong again! I've never seen so many Tiffany cards before. Lots of stars in there too - Mattingly, Ripken, Boggs, Gwynn, Ozzie, etc.

There were a lot of San Bernardino Spirit cards. I think someone was pulling the Griffeys and dumping the rest. Duplicates of most of these. The biggest name here was probably Jeff Nelson.

RIP Dave Parker.

I thought this looked old. I was guessing 1950s. Turns out it's a 1942 Cameron Sales Airplanes R10 card (TCDB).

Here's the back. Interesting card but I'd be willing to send it to someone who collects these.

Speaking of vintage I found some more this time. Like last time there was a smattering of vintage oddballs. I already had the Wilhelm but needed the rest, including the thin-stock 1976 checklist giveaway card. Nice that the one minor league card is a local Long Island guy.

Like last time I found a few early 70's high numbers but it turned out I had them all.

These were too goofy to leave behind. Available if anyone wants them.

But I definitely had some better vintage luck last time. I wasn't finding 1960s cards last time but I did this time, and grabbed the few I saw. Of the five Topps cards I just needed the '65 Bearnearth. The two stamps, both of which are stuck to some thick paper, I assumed were Topps stamps, but they are actually my first two 1964 Bazooka stamps!

Finally, the oldest baseball cards I found! The tops were pretty much destroyed from years in a box with regular sized cards. I already had the '53 Ashburn but that makes for some pretty decent trade bait. (I'd be willing to trade the better-conditioned copy.) Had the '54 Mel Clark too but needed the '55 Hal Naragon!

That was a lot of fun, lots more modern baseball, 80s-era oddballs, even some more football, but I feel good about what I got and don't feel the need to go back for more.