Regarding the Brewers' price realized.... WTF?

Gotta be a fluke....

The last time I sold one of those, it went for $16 and some change. Same exact pennant... purchased it new at Anaheim Stadium in 1972, and not particularly rare.

Nice snag, Marc...

Now you've got me wondering who made this oddball series of pennants from the late '50s - early '60s.

Perhaps it's already been discussed but this grouping seems like a "one-off", featuring a very distinct look and certainly not made for all teams. Any idea which maker is responsible for these?

I think that these are WGN and that Kyle has a bunch pictured on his website.

I know that there are several versions of the Giants. Soft felt. Stiffer felt. With the 1958. Without. Bright colors. All grey or white. I think baseball Rob has a good number of them.

Definitely WGN of Chicago. As far as we know, this series began in 1958 (it includes dated LA Dodgers and SF Giants pennants) and ended about 1970 (there's a Reds pennant referencing them as "Big Red Machine").

Some of the early pennants from the series, such as the Braves one shown above, bear a mark from the "G.B. Feld Co." of Chicago. According to WGN, they used this pennant maker at different points in time in the company's history, e.g., when outsourcing made financial sense.

Many of the pennants from this series featured an illuminated stadium, a bat-skewered baseball, and/or a team slogan, e.g., "Sock it to'em" for the '68 Tigers.

I love these pennants. These are some of the versions that initially drew me to pennants back in the late 80’s. Those and the 50’s Milwaukee Braves.

Thanks Marc, Kyle and Jason... Great info as always.

I believe these WGN pennants were sold outside of ballparks as opposed to inside of stadiums. When I first started collecting (back in the dark ages), a veteran dealer/collector referred to these specifically as "Vendor Pennants".

During this same timeframe, I believe Trench had the market cornered on pennants sold inside the stadiums. But will defer to Kyle on that!

Any of the prolific pennant collectors here want to attempt a summary of the different materials used over the past century or so of pennant manufacture, including approximate dates of usage and which companies used what material, with illustrations?

That sounds about right to me, Marc. Trench definitely cozied up with ballpark concessionaires, which did put their products for sale inside venues. But, outside the venue, much like today, was a free for all.... Any street vendor could order a hundred pennants from Trench, WGN, ADFLAG, Keezer, and sell them outside for whatever price they could get.

To this end, contributors to this thread posted several photos of street vendors selling these pennants we know and love outside of ballparks. In fact, I recall a cool black and white photo of a vendor hawking an Atlanta Braves pennant by WGN from the above referenced series, not long ago.

But, because of Trench's partnership with the concessionaires, and the overall quality of their products, Trench's pennants probably sold better than anything their competitors distributed. Which is why their stuff is more prevalent on the resale market, today, I think.

Here's the photo I was referring to....