Summer officially begins today as far as I'm concerned. My wife Shelley and I went to our first flea market of the year: The Antique Spectacular at the Fairgrounds in St. Paul, MN. The show takes over the inside of the grandstand and spills out on to the racing track. I would guess up to 500 dealers at the show. Shelley and I agree that the dealers who are located outside provide for the best deals. True again this year.
I spend my entire flea marketing time looking for baseball items. Gloves and bats mostly, but autographs, programs, cards, or anything baseball piques my interest. In general, I would say I was happy with the show because it hit right in my wheelhouse in terms of collecting--cheap. Not a lot of high end baseball stuff was to be found. I enjoy looking at that stuff anyway, even if I rarely buy that sort of item. Actually, there wasn't a lot of baseball items period, but the gloves I did find were generally inexpensive. Nothing makes me more mad than some dealer who has no idea what a glove is worth just marking it "Old Glove--$75". It could be a well-used, beaten up Jim Rice model from the 80s, but because it's baseball related they figure it's a gold mine. And you would think they would learn if the glove hasn't sold in a year. Or two. Or more. I've been doing this flea market stuff for many years, and I can still pretty much tell you the inventory of some dealers because it's the same every year. If this is what you do for a living, I suggest you take a few less rests swigging coffee from a lawn chair and study the types of things you sell. Nobody's an expert at everything, but to be completely clueless on things just shows a person to either be incredibly ignorant or just plain lazy. End of soapbox.
We began outside and I quickly found a Jack Brandt model glove. I think I have one in my collection, but I take a $10 flyer on it anyway because of the "USMC" marking on the wrist strap. This was Marine issue, which makes it a little more rare than the garden variety store model. The glove should clean up nicely, but it has it's problems. Another fellow had a large box filled with boxes of football cards. Three bucks a pop--seemed like a pretty decent deal for some Action Packed unopened packs. Football or not, I thought, this is nice. Well, later on I looked a little closer to each of the three boxes I bought and found that all the packs had already been opened, then re-inserted (I assume sans any stars). No biggie, though. I still could probably get that for them at a garage sale sometime. Or I just keep them.
Another beaten up glove caught my eye a moment later. For $10, I am now an owner of a Pete Ward model glove. Listed as "Very Rare" according to the most recent glove guide, the off-condition was still good enough for me to own one of the few known to have surfaced. Again, it should clean up nicely, but the insides are ripped a bit and the patch is missing.
The most I paid for a glove today was a Grady Hatton pre-war for $15 in great shape. Flexible, readable, and it has the sharpest Draper Maynard button of any D&M glove I own. A nice Wilson 2830 Eddie Waitkus first baseman mitt, probably from 1955, was sold to me by a nice gentleman for $10. Good silver, nice stamping, soft leather--couldn't go wrong for the price. My last spending of the day brought in some oddball baseball cards (Colla Collection, Mother's Cookies) and some vintage stuff. One of those cards was a 1952 Henry Majeski. "Heeney", as he was known, was a 35-year-old vet toiling for the A's when this picture was taken. It was a long way from the fresh-faced kid who played for the Eau Claire Bears in 1935 and 1936. I also bought a 1968 Tigers Rookie Stars card featuring Fred Lasher. Fred lives just a few miles from my home and I was lucky enough to be honored along his side a few years back at a local baseball game.
