Collecting Obscure/Scarce/Under-appreciated sets - Does it affect your enjoyment?

[brian1961]

Luke, I can only speak from the standpoint of postwar sports card collecting. If that disqualifies my remarks, please move on.

Since I began collecting at the age of 4, my life has been characterized by gravitating to the obscure, scarce, and while I would not say under-appreciated necessarily, as I later found out, the items I enjoyed were toys and things that one would not easily encounter as a child, and I suppose were marketed to those that wanted something a little better than a dime store toy.

My first toys were Tonka, but they were so large for me. Then, walking with my Mom during a shopping trip in Wilmette, Illinois at Carson, Pirie, Scott & Company, I happened upon a display of DINKY TOYS from Great Britain. Love at first sight.

I had regular dime store toy soldiers. Then, while stopping at an Oasis rest stop to eat, afterwards I wandered through their gift shop, looking for toys. I found them, among which were the Marx Warriors of the World. Again, love at first sight. I selected a Viking shooting an arrow---Haakon. A couple years later, I discovered a display of Britains soldiers. Wow. I was in love with the knights that were shooting an arrow from a crossbow. I begged to get 3 of them, and they ran 50 cents each! I still have them.

I loved my Topps, but the difficult to collect Post Cereal commanded more of my respect and admiration. I had to "work" to acquire them, gobbling down many bowls of, let us say, healthy and not very appetizing, gravelly cereal, such as 40% Bran Flakes. Sure, I could easily eat lots of Alpha Bits, but as some of you know, certain players only appeared on boxes of the less popular cereals. So, you want that player, Brian, ya gotta eat THAT cereal. To a kid, that was work. Also, I had to make sure I was ready to go with my Mom when she was doing her grocery shopping. I might have to miss the 3 Stooges, or Clutch Cargo, but it was worth it!

Fast forward to the early 70s, when I was extremely privileged to get in on the early card collector conventions. While I went for Topps and Bowman stars I wanted, THE CARDS AND COINS I PRIZED THE MOST WERE THE BAZOOKA, POST CEREAL, JELL-O, SALADA TEA COINS and DAN-DEE POTATO CHIPS. In a couple years I discovered other exotic scarcities and rarities----Glendale Meats Tigers, Johnston Cookies Braves, Old London coins, Wilson Wieners, and Stahl-Meyer Franks. Rarely were these for sale, when they were just as rarely seen. They were either highly-regarded trade bait, or auction material. The few for sale were smashed, creased, and often stained, and you didn't even consider the card's centering; they were too tough to find in the first place!

My eye was always discriminating. I kept my poor Dad waiting for half an hour while I scrutinized every piece of jewelry at the department store, picking out the piece I loved best, to give to my dear Mom for her Christmas present from me. I was 5 or 6 at the time.

My father enjoyed nice gadgets, and he was frugal and hard on himself to a point. However, the time came in 1959 when he bought a "very nice used car"----an over the top elegant 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing, the third one imported to America. I guess heads always turned whenever he drove the Gullwing. My family were members of the Mercedes-Benz Club of America. In our Chicago chapter, my Mom and Dad's 300SL was the centerpiece of the club. Now, I cannot say that I tried to copy my Dad's taste for something exotic, unusual, and attractive, but that's how it has turned out. I sure cannot afford a Bugatti Veyron, but my 1/43rd exotic model car collection definitely speaks loud and clear that I know what an important Le Mans and other historically significant racing sports car is.

All to answer your OP question, "Does it affect your enjoyment?"

Mate, it IS my enjoyment. ---Brian Powell