My Unknown Treasures [ Trade Cards ] – Daryle Lambert's Antiques and Collectibles Blog – Look what I found.

What a Great Card - Thanks to tkinter.smig.net

Many of my readers might remember me saying that if you purchase a quantity of items at one time and successfully sell enough of them to achieve your goal for the purchase, it is okay to stash a few pieces away for another day. Over the years this has happened to me on many occasions and my wife, Vickie, often asks why I don't get rid of some of these things. True to my nature, I usually assure her that I will but you can be assured that I have no intention of doing so.

This may have just changed. Through my computer, I can see you’re wondering, “Why would he change now?” Here is the reason. Getting home late from skiing with my wife and son, I hadn't written a blog, so about midnight I decided it was time but what to write about was the question. I looked all over my office for ideas and then scanned my books but no thoughts came to my mind immediately. Now I was getting anxious, so I starting browsing through boxes and, lo and behold, there was this brown leather scrapbook. I pulled it from the box.

Having no idea what could be in the book, I opened it and my eyes popped out. It was full of perhaps 250 very old advertising cards or trade cards, as they are better known. I couldn't get to the computer quickly enough to see what value might be there. The first card that caught my eye was a card featuring an old Uncle Sam looking over a city and factories. It says, “look what we have given the world” plus, at the bottom it says, “hold to the light”. When you put light behind the card, you see the words “Everett Piano Co.” I might be totally wrong, but this card may be worth several hundred dollars and if it isn't, I am sure there are others that will be. There are Pond Extract, Acme Soap, Superior Range and Stove, Keystone Wringer and many more cards. Now you say “Why am I so excited?” and I will let you figure that one out. If they are worth $50 on average, then this group of cards could sell for $12,500 and I didn't even know that I owned them.

This is why I say there isn't a business in the world that can compare with Antiques, Collectibles and Fine Art. Today, I may have found a treasure that could be worth 25% of the average man’s wages and I didn't even have a thought about owning it. In fact, I probably will spend a good part of the rest of this night trying to figure out where I purchased them. There is a fairly good book on advertising cards written by Dave Cheadle and Russ Mascieri called Victorian Trade Cards.

Here is a little tip. When you set something aside to keep, it shouldn't mean that you forget about the item or what has happened to its value. Oh by the way, those advertising cards aren't half bad, are they?

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