Hey, pennant guys

[perezfan]

Yes, I agree....

Many of the vintage pennants were made with a blunt tip. I still have a few from childhood that are untouched, and know that they were made that way.

The deal-killer for me is when the pennant was ripped off the wall, and the tip remained under the thumb tack. The tell-tale sign is a concave end and about an inch missing from the tip. You actually see this a lot... I guess when the kids moved out, their Moms had little regard for those pennants left behind.

[Fballguy]

What about "off center" pennants? Not sure if they're common with baseball but I see quite a few with football. The graphic is closer to the bottom edge than the top or vice versa. I can never tell if it's a manufacturing error or if one edge was trimmed to create a false point at the tip. This is a deal killer for me because I never know if the pennant has been altered.

[thetahat]

I think the best way to tell if it is trimmed is when the angle of the tip corner seems too wide. That will happen unless it was trimmed all the way to the wide end, in which case the stitching will often reveal it. This all goes out the window if it is an Ad Flag pennant because they hired a 12 year old to cut the pennant sheets with scissors from art class.

[thetahat]

Mark, the flip side is when a pennant is too nice ... too pristine ... that's also scary. It can signal a big find somewhere. When my pennant addiction first started I was just getting 70s and 80s pennants. Then I went to a sale at Mitchell and Ness which is located near me in Philly ... bought a bunch of repros. But in the store they displayed (not for sale) some vintage pennants that just looked better. And then I got into eBay.

So anyway ... My first pre-'69 pennant was the Dodgers Orioles WS pennant from '66. I was so excited because it was flawless. What a deal I got. Then I saw another ... and another ... and another. Clearly someone had or found a box of them. Same thing with a batch of 60s 3/4 size football pennants, mints of these were once all over the place.

That's why a little wear adds some chard and comfort. And please tell me that, like me, you smell them. Or at least tell me that I am not insane.

[Fballguy]

That is funny. One of the first things I do when I add a pennant to my collection is smell it. I tell myself I'm doing it to make sure it doesn't smell like smoke but I actually like the "old pennant" smell. I think it's an artifact of my old card collecting days. I like the way old football cards smell. I still smell them from time to time when nobody is looking. LOL

[Huck]

Originally Posted by Fballguy

That is funny. One of the first things I do when I add a pennant to my collection is smell it. I tell myself I'm doing it to make sure it doesn't smell like smoke but I actually like the "old pennant" smell. I think it's an artifact of my old card collecting days. I like the way old football cards smell. I still smell them from time to time when nobody is looking. LOL

Lol.

[perezfan]

I've been known to smell a pennant or two as well. I guess I've been lucky and can't recall any that wreaked of smoke.

My biggest issue with pennants (especially from ebay) isn't smoke, but pet hair. Often the pennant will arrive with cat hair intertwined into the felt. I used to try to pick it out with my fingers or tweezers, but now just use scotch tape. Sometimes you take off a tiny bit of felt (actually more like peach fuzz) with the tape, but the process goes so much quicker.

As for off-centering... yes, it bugs me too. I can usually detect alteration, but if its worse than "60/40" centering, I tend to pass on it (unless it's something I'll never see again). It's just too distracting otherwise.

If a pennant has been cut/altered, the edge or border will look different in that area. Typically it will have a sharper looking or more squared-off cut. Natural vintage borders will typically have softer, more muted edges. Just another skill you acquire after 25 years of doing this... utterly useless to 99.9% of the population!

[perezfan]

This listing was interesting, and reveals a bit about the manufacturing process, and available options, back in the day. The Keezer tag attached to the pennant provides some great insight...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1962-HOUSTON...vip=true&rt=nc

Available "Finish" options included Keko-Knap and Kemco. This Colt .45s Pennant was "Kemco", whatever that is (I think it probably relates to the graphics portion).

Available "Background" options included "All Wool Athletic Felt", "Wool Felt", "Cotton Felt", and "Tackle Twill". I believe Tackle Twill is what we often call the "Cloth" pennants (with the tightly compressed individual threads). This Colt .45s Pennant is Wool Felt, which is perhaps my favorite material for vintage pennants.

Has anyone ever seen this Keezer variation before? This one is obviously a salesman's sample, and could well be a pennant that never even made it to market. Perhaps a one-of-a-kind prototype. I was the underbidder... Did anyone here win it?

[thetahat]

Wow I missed this one ... but yes, great insight. Zooming in it looks to me like a "cloth" pennant, i.e. the limp kind that frays on the edges with age (loose strands). The folds in the pennant suggest that, as does the stain on the top edge. Also you can tell the white strip is not felt, but kinda like the feel of a cotton dress shirt. Looks to me very similar in material and design to an Astros pennant I have here.