What can you find on an old military base?

There are plenty more finds coming from that flea market box, but my weekend adventures didn't end Saturday afternoon.

They say you should try everything once, and one of those everythings I tried on Sunday was the Alameda Antiques and Collectibles Fair. This is a huge event held the first Sunday of every month - it takes over an entire old military runway. There are about thirty rows, each about 400 feet wide - walking each row totals over two miles of hiking.

If you want to decorate your empty apartment with vintage and antique furniture, or you're dying to get some 50 year old knickknacks for your mantel, this is the place for you. I saw clothes, doorknobs, rugs, plenty of chairs, old toys, paper goods - pretty much anything you could want that is old.

I didn't see much baseball.

There were some people selling old mitts or bats, and I saw an occasional 1980s-era ball, but lacking were dealers selling real baseball collectibles. I bought about 20 Playboys from the '60s to bolster my collection, so I had a heavy load on the way home, but baseball was seriously lacking.

I found a few baseball items worth picking up.

 1955 Topps for a buck. It's in decent shape for a dollar, and I needed a '55 for my Topps by the Decade posts. I'm still missing a '52 and a '61.

That's the only card I'm going to show you, but it's not the only one I bought. You'll see the rest on the Zoo this weekend. If things go well, I'll post them all.

Okay, one more image.

This is a team issue photo issued some time in the late 1950s or early 1960s, and measures 5x7. These are similar to the Jay Publishing issues except these contain a facsimile autograph at the bottom. I'll probably need to print a couple checklists and go back to the fair to figure out the actual date of issue.

Fair Summary: avoid for baseball cards - too much ground to cover for such a small number of card dealers. Go if you want antique or vintage goods.