A Unique Postcard

[peterg]

I am absolutely astonished by how much this post card sold for!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/British-Empire-Exhibition-Unique-Pens-London-Stationery-Palace-of-Industry-/393035269982?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&nma=true&si=msqttu9BH66830AbGbaDffndS0k%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc

[soapytwist]

It's pricey but there are not just pen collectors out there, but also people who collect anything to do with the British Empire Exhibition.

[inkstainedruth]

There are people who collect all sorts of things.  A friend of my husband's collects Furbies and at one point had one of every one ever made except for three -- and one of those he didn't have 20 years ago (who knows, he might have tracked the missing ones since then) was ONLY given out at some State Fair in the Midwest in the 1980s or 1990s. 

I go into antiques stores and there are things that I wouldn't pay five cents for unless I needed them as "period" props for a movie set.  And yet someone MUST buy those things, or they wouldn't be in the shops.  

I've got some lithographs of the Albert Staehle artwork used for the old Carter's Ink ads, with the white mother cat and her ink-colored kittens) as well as a few pieces of ephemera (the magazine ads themselves); I didn't pay a lot for any of them.  Apparently there are people who collect his other works as well (he did a bunch of covers for IIRC The Saturday Evening Post with a spaniel depicted).  But I've also seen ephemera for old car ads and such -- not just pen ads -- and some of that stuff is not cheap....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[northlodge]

Peter, Like you I am gobsmacked at the price this achieved. I will never walk past a  box of old postcards again without at least giving it a once over.

 

I do recall going to an auction in Worcestershire maybe 10 years ago, There were a massive number of pen related items (police confiscation I think) and an equally significant amount of toy lots. No internet access, and the 50 or so registered bidders split evenly between the two interests. I was well chuffed with the 80 or 90 pens I purchased as bundles of 10 (hidden in one bundle was a solid gold14ct Parker 51 worth more than I paid for everything).

 

However there was also a board game that sold for well in excess of £2k - if I recall correctly it was called "Climbing Mont blanc" or "Climbing the Matterhorn" or something similar. Boy did it raise some eyebrows amongst us pen folk!