About 2 months ago my wife Marcia and I found an old tobacco/candy card collection that had been stored away in an attic for several years. The collection consisted mostly of N,T,E cards 1880s -1910. We've been listing lots of the cards on ebay the past few weeks and have been getting great feedback concerning them. We thought you guys would enjoy reading this story regarding the collection. The gentleman who put this collection together started collecting cards around 1930. He was about 25 years old at the time. He passed away in the late 1980s at the age of 85. His collection was passed on to his son who had very little interest in old cards. In 2003 his son was in the attic and stumbled across his fathers collection. He decided to look through it and he removed all the baseball cards. He sent them to an auction house, he said he was very happy with the results of the sale. He didn't know what to do with all the non sports stuff so he stuck them back in the attic. He told me he didn't think anyone collected cards picturing birds, flowers, dogs, warriors, etc. etc. The cards sat in the attic for another 5 years until Marcia and I recently rescued them. Get this, The son eventually became a Antiques Dealer. However he never gave much thought to the non sports cards he had tucked away. Yea I got the cards from an Antiques Dealer. We thought you guys would appreciate the story.
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....that there would be other stories like this one
to complement our Sunday pastries and Sunday coffee.
Wonderful story, Bob. After many years of watching your
super ebay tobacco items, my guess is that you have many other
stories to share. How about just one more so I can enjoy my
Sunday morning a little more ?
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Back in the 70s they opened Meadowlands Racetrack in northern NJ. Back in those early days they didn't have racing on Sundays. Irene Stella decided to run an antiques show there a few times a year on Sundays. The show held 250 dealers and back then it was considered a huge show. The show opened to the public at 10 AM and dealers weren't allowed to start unloading there trucks till 7AM. There were only about 35 spaces for dealers to unload at a time. It meant in order to get one of those 35 spots you had to arrive at 2AM and sit in your vehicle until 7am. In January we used to bring sleeping bags and blankets so we didn't freeze to death in the truck. We always tried to get set-up by 9:30 so we could run around for 30 minutes to see if there was something we could buy before the show opened to the public. A fellow I was friendly with had a turn of the century reverse on glass fire insurance advertising sign. Today that sign would bring around $1250.00 at auction. Gene had it priced 75.00 and when I tried to buy it from him he said to let him have it for the show and I could come to his house on Monday and pick out one as he had several. I arrived on Monday and he had about 90 of them. He got them in a wooden crate at a local auction. They were covered in dust and when he lifted one out of the box we both started to choke. He simply ran a damp cloth across the sign and wow it looked fantastic. I remember it had a firemans logo of a hook and ladder in the bottom left corner and the company was from North Carolina. Gene told me he paid 14.00 for all 90 of them. So he would charge me 14.00 each for as many as I wanted. He had already promised 20 to another dealer so I took the remaing 70. We started selling them at 125.00 and they went so fast we raised the price to 350.00. We eventually sold all 70. Those were the good old days.
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Your friend was happy, you were elated, and you made many collectors
happy. I see you sold all of them....sad that you don't have one to look at....
As a side note, I was hoping someone would tell about their memories
at the huge, week-long antique/flea marked in Massachusetts and the
storied Stormville Airport Flea Market in NY. I also would like to
hear stories of something that happens in the southern states-a lengthy
yard sale that runs 100s of miles.
This message has been edited by DanCalandriello on Nov 17, 2008 8:38 AM This message has been edited by DanCalandriello on Nov 17, 2008 8:37 AM
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