Flea Market Report

Last Sunday I again went to the flea with my good friend Dennis and again I made some good and cheap finds. Again it was a perfect day outside and we were ready to make some interesting finds at the Capitol flea market. Dennis also gave me a gift of a badass Back To The Future DeLorean toy that I wanted, check it out!



You usually find all the best stuff early on and at first this didn't seem to be the case as I was coming up empty early on, that was until I saw something that I wanted. What I saw was an old Oakland Invaders pennant. The Invaders were part of the USFL a league that tried to compete with NFL from 1983-1987, the Invaders had a really good and classic symbol that stands the test of time. I remember seeing a similar pennant a lot when I was a kid and once I saw it I knew I wanted it because it is somewhat rare and took my back to my childhood. Dennis said he asked about the pennants before and they wanted like $5, but when I asked they said $2 so I took that without any hesitation.





I was pretty happy with my find and willing to leave but Dennis was on a search for something nearby and I circled back to the same seller and saw a Mad magazine that had a Jaws spoof which intrigued me. I looked at the date and it was from 1976, so it was an original. Since I'm a huge Jaws fan I thought it would be cool to have this somewhat older piece. Right next to the Jaws magazine were a bunch of older NFL stickers. I saw a 49ers sticker from 7-11 as well as a bunch of other teams. I wanted the 49ers sticker as well, I could immediately seeing it being on my car somewhere. The other teams they had were: Dolphins, Bills, Chiefs, Giants, and Cowboys which I decided against. Now that I wanted the stickers and Jaws magazine I had to negotiate a price. They lady said everything was a dollar each so she was looking to get $7 or so, I said how about $5 and a deal was made. Some of the stickers appear to be from the bottom of cups of 7-11 sodas, I would say most are from the mid to late 70's. The 49ers one is really cool because it looks like that somewhat vintage look and is sticky on the front, I have already put it on my car.






The Mad magazine is really a nice piece as well. You can see the cover yourself below. I read the story which they called Jaw'd. It is about Chief Brooding, Captian Squint, and Clod Hopper on their search for a shark who has its own theme music. The other movie featured in the magazine is Mirthquake aka Eathquake.




After that massive score I hit a cold streak. It seems like a lot of the deals are found in one area of the flea market, usually sellers who are not there a lot. The ones who are there every weekend are on the other side and usually have the same old shit because they will not sell unless they get the exact price they want. We were almost done with the entire middle section when we came around to a seller who was super crowded. We wondered why everyone was at this one guys place and decided to check it out further.

Dennis saw some Nintendo games in a box on the floor and after he said something I knew he had something good. He came out with Contra for NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). I was sorta bummed because I am an avid NES collector and always like to collect the classic games. Lucky for me the guy had a few more games that I wanted, one that is long considered a classic NES game, Metroid! I was able to get it for $2 bucks, a steal for what this game is worth. Dennis got Contra and Three Stooges on NES. It appears the seller was someone who buys out old storage units and sells them off at flea markets. I was happy to add a classic game to my collection of NES games.





Well after that not much else was found by me. I know Dennis scored some VHS movies but the weather was getting hot so it was time to go and get some Taco Bell. Next weekend i am going to the flea market in Pasadena with my brother, so i hope to have another flea market report up soon. Thanks for reading, see you at the flea!