antique collectors purchasing tobacco cards

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Posted By: George Dreher

I'm looking forward to the upcoming catalog auctions. Has anyone else noticed an increasing influx of tobacco card buyers just in the last six months who were strictly antique collectors previously? I've been getting sniped by antique collectors who are making ridiculously high bids on vintage cards across the board. When researching their history, almost everything that comes up is antique furniture, chandeliers, etc.

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Posted By: peter chao

George,

To me, it seems like a natural jump from collecting antique American furniture to collecting T-206. Certainly a more natural jump than from coins to cards. Certainly, with the advent of the internet, we will all see more people jump from one hobby to another.

For instance, you have 60,000 plus preWWI cards, at some point you may decide that you have enough and move into another collecting category.

I have like 150,000 modern cards so I've moved into prewar, it's a natural jump.

Peter

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Maybe their basements have no room for more chairs, but enough for tobacco cards. When there's no space for tobacco cards, they will switch to stamps then to Presidential hairs.

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Posted By: George Dreher

Yes Peter, I can understand why someone would branch out to other collectibles and I do collect many other types of things such as historical documents, autographs and coins, etc. I was just surprised by the number of antique collectors who have begun buying up sportscards with no previous interest before six months ago.

David, presidential hair would be a strange thing to collect......what if it has dead lice in it? Zachary Taylor's photos looked like he washed his about once a year.
And this reminds me of a seller I recently corresponded with who says he inherited locks of hair belonging to Babe Ruth and other sports hall of famers and will be selling on eBay. How would someone go about collecting baseball player hair? By visiting their barber? LOL And would Upper Deck put strands of hair on baseball cards and put them in packs as inserts? Weird stuff

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Posted By: Joe

Believe it or not, there are still some purists who adhere to the belief that in order to be truly considered an "antique," an object must be at least 100 years old. And what card set turns 100 in a couple of years, huh? huh?

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Speaking of hair collectors....I notice that Mastro sells a lot of celebrity hair. I notice that it's all authenticated by some guy named Reznikoff (I think?) - my question is how does he go about authenticating hair?

As a side note I think people should collect what they like, but how does one get into hair collecting and why? That's just a little too creepy IMO.

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Posted By: Jason

That is interesting, and an astute obervation regarding a new group of buyers...
but kinda weird behavior, if they aren't being very discriminate about prices?...I mean, if they are business people, surely they must understand that it takes market and product knowledge to turn a profit...
interesting, nonetheless


edited to add: re-reading your post, you say "collectors" so maybe I was wrong in assuming a profit motive...

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Posted By: peter chao

Guys,

Face-it, prewar cards is big business. When the Gretzky Wagner doubles in 7 years, prewar is hot. When you become the hot collectible, you will attract a lot of attention from collectors, investors, and speculators.

Peter

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Posted By: barrysloate

The thing about collecting hair is it all kind of looks the same...and how do they authenticate it?

You know if someone willed you a large collection of it you would be hair to a fortune

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Posted By: Jason

a little punchy after your recent auction?
(congrats on that, by the way)

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Posted By: barrysloate

Thanks Jason- and I stole that joke from from Chico Marx, it wasn't original.

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Posted By: peter chao

Barry,

The thing about collecting hair, it would seem to me that everybody from the same race would have the same type of hair. Is it possible to check for DNA.

Peter

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Keeping lockets of a loved one's hair has been around for a long time. You can find Daguerreotypes with the pictured person's hair in the holder. If a man was to go to war, he would take his wife's photo and hair locket and she his.

I don't know how hair is authenticated, but I'm sure provenance is part of it. I once owned Ted William's toiletries kit and the hair brush had what I assumed was Ted's hair. Considering I know it was Ted's kit and brush and the hair was his color, that narrows it down to whose hair it would have belonged.

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Posted By: barrysloate

I have a small collection of portrait miniatures that date from the 1830's-40's, and one of them has a lock of hair placed in the back. It's a little eerie when you think how long the woman in the painting has been dead.

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Posted By: Rob Fouch

I have a snippet (not even a lock) of hair from the famous abolitionist John Brown. I guess there's no way to be absolutely certain it's authentic, but David's right, it's all about provenance. The guy I bought it from is a renowned hair collector and belongs to a hair-collecting society of some sort. The snippet (it's tiny, tiny) came with copies of all kinds of paperwork on where it came from and how he got it.

And before you think I'm too weird, I bought it because I was writing about John Brown in a novel I'm working on. The main character becomes obsessed with Brown, who's a fascinating historical figure, if a bit nuts.
Anyway, it's kind of cool to own -- assuming it's real. I just don't drag it out at parties.

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Posted By: howard

People collect hair!? Hell, I don't even have my OWN hair anymore!

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Posted By: Fred C

Hair collecting... interesting...

Wouldn't it be cool to have a lock of Babe Ruth's hair from the 1927 season, maybe on the day he hit his 60th HR that year. Provenance from the barber that groomed him that day... or how about ROOKIE hair... something from the Babes first season with the Sox....

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Bing Crosby willed a bunch of his personal effects to his almuni Gonzaga University. Two students were going through the boxes and came across what they thought were dead rodents. Turned out to be his toupees. ... Bing did not like to wear toupees, but his movie directors insisted.

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Posted By: Joe D.

on this forum... where I was introduced to a new type of collectible....
that I really do NOT want to buy.

people actually collect hair?