Vintage Ford Service Station, Lenexa Garage, Courtesy Johnson County Museum

Meeting In The Middle, the 2008 annual conference for both the Mountain-Plains Museums Association & the Association of Midwest Museums, was held last week. One of the Wednesday sessions that I attended was Create Access To Your Collections — Digitizing Collaboratively, which was all about the process of creating JoCoHistory.net, a collaborative project of the Johnson County Museum, Johnson County Library, Johnson County Archives, and Olathe Public Library to provide greater access to historical materials related to Johnson County, Kansas.

Now, before you non-technical &/or non-Kansas folks let your eyes glaze over or begin to reach for that ‘back’ button on your browser, let me tell you this is one fascinating project for collectors.

1979 Halloween Party Photo, Courtesy of Johnson County Museum

And just plain fun for those of us who just love looking at old photos.

Sure it’s focused on one county in Kansas, but as far as online databases go, it’s so much more than that. With this easy to use site, even if you aren’t a collector of Kansas, you certainly can find images and information on rather any historical collection you have. Along with search options, there are easily understood categories (people, places, groups, etc.) & collections (by museum, society etc.), all cross referenced with a timeline.

Along with providing greater access to old photographs, valuable ephemera, & historical information (and preserving those fragile photos & paper), JoCoHistory.net makes connections that might otherwise have been missed.

Antique Photo Postcard, Children Riding Ostrich, Courtesy Johnson County Museum

In schools, for example, teachers are finding the resources to make the connections between the national or ‘big picture’ history lessons and the local stories, heroes and events — including finding places for field trips & tours.

And students can get help with with their homework! No, they won’t be given cheat-sheets or the answers, but they will be assisted in where & how to find the answers. Local biographies, something largely missed in school texts, standard history books and even on the Internet, are luring students into pursuing more individual research. Students of all ages are becoming interested in history! And JoCoHistory is quickly discovering that interest in the site isn’t only local — parents & kids from other locations around the US are contacting the site for help in making the connections to their own locations.

OK, call me a history nerd, but how thrilling is that?

But wait, there’s more! Like the Ginsu knives, JoCoHistory offers much more for collectors and amateur historians.

• It’s all easy to use, with the candy (images) right there for sweet instant gratification. That’s so important for me; when researching I often prefer to scan photos to see if a database really has what I am looking for.
• You can get prints of the photos &/or higher quality scans of the images to print yourself. With each listing you’ll get information on Owner, Ordering Information, Resource Identifier, & Photo Use and Limitations — complete with links for easy access.
• Research tools for further help.

Retro Smaks Drive In Sign, Photo Courtesy Johnson County Museum

Perhaps the coolest feature is the History Mystery section, where JoCoHistory features images they’d like help with. If you can identify something or someone in the image shown, you can easily send in your information. What’s more, this feature is active on all images on the site simply by clicking the link by Feedback. David LaCrone, Digital Content Manager for the Johnson Country Library, says they’ve received 522 comments since the site began two years ago, with tips coming from folks scattered across the globe.

Feedback and comments on items in the database are verified before any information in the official record is changed; if it cannot be substantiated, comments are saved and included as Public Comments only. Hey, these are museums, historical archives & other organizations dedicated to factual details — that’s why we trust them. But these comments are always interesting, varying from the completely informational to the sublime “This is not so-and-so; I know, because I am so-and-so” and the “How great to see family photos; ours were lost to Katrina.”

Vintage Fashion Show, Pember Co. Department Store, Courtesty Olathe Public Library

At the beginning the site had 15,000 images and now it has over 28,000. They’ve learned that the more images and information they upload to the site, the more popular the site gets — and that’s something they intend to exploit. Along with increasing the number of images uploaded, and the number of collaborative partners from other historical societies, museums and organizations (each with their own unique collection of images), JoCoHistory will also be adding other objects — artifacts of the 3D variety in photographic form — as well as audio files to the database. Too cool.

Many other organizations could should take note of all that JoCoHistory has done; it sure would make my life much easier. (When I spend hours at JoCoHistory, it’s because I’m delighted and interested, not frustrated.)

Note: The site is just two years old, yet they will be updating their site by early 2009, including (if it’s possible) an even more intuitive design and a blog. I saw a brief preview and was impressed. So bookmark the main page of JoCoHistory now, kids; the other pages linked to here could change and you won’t want to miss anything.

Collecting is a hobby in which the thrill of the hunt is hoped to be rewarded with a trophy, for the wall or otherwise. But unlike big game hunters, we don’t always have a trail to follow — or even know what it is we are looking for. We simply stumble out of (or into) the brush, hoping “it” will be there, and that we will be clever enough, lucky enough, to be able to take it home.

Even when we have a list (and remember to carry it on our person so that the usual trip to the grocery store becomes a serendipitous stop at a yard sale), we may not be any further ahead in getting volumes of The Story Of Civilization. In fact, I personally think carrying that slip of paper (or even retaining the volume numbers) puts a jinx on the whole thing.

Toss out that slip, dismiss the numbers from your mind, and guess what you’ll find at the next sale — that’s right, 3 or 4 random volumes in the series. Then, of course, you have to sweat out not only the conditions of the books, if the price is fair or not, but if any of the volumes are the ones you need. If the price is right you can always sell the doubles (upgrading copies, if possible) easily enough later — you’ll just have to consider the sardonically raised brow of your spouse as part of the price of adding to (or trying to add to) your collection.

You see, The Story of Civilization series by Will (and Ariel) Durant is one of my great collecting passions. It’s not only the classic story of a collector on the hunt, but connects to many other issues in collecting.

Years ago, nearly two decades ago, I ran into the entire set of books — first editions in glorious conditions — at a used bookstore. I coveted those books, daring to touch them tenderly, but was unable to pay the $150 asking price. That wasn’t only, as hubby and I say, “A lot of money back now,” but nearly inconceivable to a twenty-something single parent — it was like the kind of money to buy a house or something! But for months I would window shop the books, wistfully (stalkerishly) checking to see if they were still there… Until one day there weren’t.

Ever since I’ve slowly been collecting the volumes, one at time, three at a time, until now, today, I have seven of the eleven. (I am in need of volumes I, III, VII, XI — and V really should be upgraded as the dust jacket is faded.)

At times I’ve wondered if I’d have been better off paying the $150. Not that I had it, mind you. But I wonder if I’ll ever get close to an entire set, and such lovely copies… But then I remind myself that I am, in fact, ahead of the game.

At $150 for all eleven books, I’m way ahead financially; I’ve never paid more than $6 per book. And I’m ahead in other ways — like the thrill of hoping every time I head out hunting that today is the day. But if I look for them, or remember the volume numbers, I won’t find them. I must stumble into them, discover them by accident.

I think that’s how most collectors, at least of vintage items, feel. We head out each time hoping, but not knowing; almost afraid to think too much about what we desire for fear that jinxes our mission, but quietly searching for a glimpse of them just the same. Like those hallucinatory pink elephants, they are always around us, talking to us…

So we head out excited to discover just whatever it is that we will find that day. Even if that day happens to be more used baby clothes and sports equipment than we care to look at. For somewhere, in a box hidden beneath that table of worn toddler outfits, there just might be what we’ve been looking for.

It could be the missing volumes in The Story of Civilization. Or it could be some new thing to discover.

This weekend I did not find any affordable copies of Will Durant’s books, but I did find this pink elephant.

A huge vintage pink elephant, nine inches tall.

We were already at the check out counter with arm loads of other goodies when we spotted him. He was “behind the counter expensive”, if you get my meaning; but still too impressive to ignore. So I had the clerk stop ringing up our sale and bring him over to look at.

He’s the Jolly Jumbo Elephant Squeeze-Me Toy with Movable Head, by The Sun Rubber Company, dated 1961. He was once, according to the original packaging, safe & sanitary; but now, older than me & found a thrift store, he’s likely a bit too-used to be called either.

I don’t know much about The Sun Rubber Company (other than they were in Barberton, Ohio, from 1923 to 1974 and made rubber toys and dolls). And I don’t collect elephants (yet). But something about his cute face, unusually large size, and glass roller-ball feet, made him special & spiffy enough to take home.

Temporarily.

You see, I can’t keep everything I find. So I’ll be selling this pink elephant.

While many find the practice of an antiques and collectibles dealer abhorrent, I find dealers to be as kind to old things as an animal rescue worker is to animals — we recognize something worthy of salvaging, and we take care of it until the right owner comes along. We dealers see the “pink elephants” that haunt the hunts of collectors, and we keep them safe until the obsessed right collector comes along.

Sure, I make some money dealing in the pink elephants of others; but then those profits fund pink elephant hunts of my own.

So maybe this literal pink elephant will finance my figurative pink elephant and I’ll finally be able to afford the complete set of The Story Of Civilization. Should I be lucky to stumble into them in the brush…

Maybe, somewhere, right now, a dealer has set aside those books just for me. And once I buy them, that dealer will be off in pursuit of his or her own pink elephant.

Once that dealer and I each find our pink elephants, we’ll be off hunting for other elusive objects — new (to us) pink elephants. And as we hunt, we’ll spot the pink elephants of others… Each pink elephant holding another pink elephant’s tail in its trunk.

May the circle be unbroken.

In case you missed the photo links:

* Al Falfa in Pink Elephants, 1937 film at ASIFA

* Pink elephants & other strange frosting concoctions

In one box lot of toys we bought recently there was a coffee can full of what most would only call junk. A bunch of game pieces, toy parts, and bits & bobs, apparently saved by someone who either repaired such things — or just knew that someone would come looking for “it”, so it had better be saved.

I myself admit to such a philosophy. I’m continually saving things, grabbing them with a hearty, “Somebody wants that!”

I sorted through a number of old wooden bingo number chips, the springs from ballpoint pens, numerous sized wheels for toy cars, whistles, wooden Tinker Toy parts, little green plastic trees, and all sorts of dusty & dirty wooden, plastic and metal things. (Surprisingly, only one doll part — and arm, reaching impotently for help out of the old can.)

I have to say that this vintage wooden checker piece with it’s plastic bug gave me a good pause — who can tell for certain there wouldn’t be real bugs in this coffee can?

Many would have tossed it, or given up part way through searching. But not me. I’m insane like that.

I looked at each & every piece in that coffee can of junk, like some might investigate a pirate trunk. Even though I can barely snap a Barbie leg or truck wheel back into place, I knew there would be cool things inside…

These are a few of the treasures I’ve decided that somebody must want.

(If you see something you want, let me know!)

#1 A vintage Cootie head, with eyes. (There were a few Cootie legs in the can too… Eventually, I will piece together a whole Cootie — maybe even an entire vintage Cootie game this way!)

#2 Two teeny-tiny “Indians”. (The prongs stick into horse sides, so they can ride.)

#3 A metal Playskool wrench. (That seriously could come in handy!)

#4 A scary old clown head. (All clowns are scary to me.) This one looks a lot like Reddy Kilowatt… He’s got a hole at the bottom to stick onto a neck — maybe it was a plastic lightening bolt body? Hubby says, “No.” But I’ll be keeping my eyes open, just in case.

#5 Four matching vintage metal helicopter blades. You only had three on this model, anyway… But we’ve got four. Makes me wonder if they had more than one boy who played with (and broke) helicopter toys.

#6 Plastic Rat Fink charm. Very small, but it’s him.

#7 A retro made in Hong Kong Dume Buggy. Not, that’s not a typo — at least not my typo; it says “Dume-Buggy” on the bottom black plastic part. I’m still giggling about a vehicle to ride sand dumes.

#8 Cowboy & Indians sliding puzzle game pieces. This has got to be one of my favorite finds. You know I love a good puzzle, but how challenging to find the missing pieces and put it all together!

#9 Vintage plastic tire — with built-in flat? I have no idea what sort of toy car or truck would have a flat tire… There are no markings to help with this either. (Nearly 2 inches in diameter, if that helps anyone identify the toy vehicle.)

#10 A weird Asian face. I have no idea… It’s not a complete head. On the back is a prong, like on Mr. Potato Head parts, to stick it into something — or someone… He does look like he is wincing. Less than one inch tall. Ideas?

#11 Vintage red & green plastic covered wagon pieces. There’s enough here to put the cover on the wagon, and the two tiny pieces seem of the same hard plastic and matching color, perhaps to drive the horses? Wagon is just over an inch long.

#12 Blue plastic spacemen pieces. We figure these three go together, but have no idea what game or toy set they belong too. The two standing spacemen are not identical, and stand a bit over one inche tall.

#13 A very small cameraman piece. Lots of detail & painting on such a small piece. Again, no idea what set or game this belongs to; do you? And do you want it?

Somebody must want this stuff… If you do, or know someone who does, let me know!

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Today, just to get out of the house, we set a budget of $15 and let ourselves go out to the rummage sales. We’ve got a houseful of stuff (it’s about time for a rummage sale of our own), so we’re trying to limit how much we bring in, which means tinier budgets. We can’t risk not going out, lest we miss out on something cool.

Pickings were mostly slim for sales; we drove around a bit looking for signs and ended up at a rather sparse sale. It didn’t have a lot of clothes or kid’s toys, which is usually a good sign, so we stopped. There wasn’t too much, but the guy did have a bunch of old video games for sale. I passed on the Super Nintendo cartridges and dug through his bin of old Atari cartridges. Oh, not all the cartridges were in the bin — he had pulled out the ‘rare’ cartridges, stuff he had looked up and was worth something, and priced those separately. The bin was the bottom of the barrel: stuff that’s not worth much, and not even the gamer wants to keep it. Wifey found a Q*Bert cartridge that she wanted just for the label, but it was rather water-damaged so she passed. Two of the cartridges that I picked up had their labels completely fall off upon being touched. The guy was asking a dollar a cartridge.

I did find two worth buying though:

M*A*S*H — In 1983, Fox Video Games, Inc was one of the early 3rd-party video game programmers. Atari did their best to prevent other companies from producing cartridges for their ubiquitous 2600 console, but in 1983 they relented and, in exchange for royalties, licensed programmers the ability to write new games. The gaming division of 20th Century Fox (making them also one of the first media-offshoot game developers) adapted various Fox properties, such as Flash Gordon, Alien, and — of all things — Porky’s, along with an Atari version of their hit TV show M*A*S*H. The TV series ended in early 1983, which meant the game was released post-finale, but the game relies little on the series itself aside from setting. The videogame, according to atariguide.com, has two parts — the first uses the same sort of gameplay as many generic Atari titles: piloting a helicopter, you pick up injured soldiers or parachuting doctors(!) while avoiding being shot down. Between levels, however, sounds interesting: as a surgeon, you use the joystick to ‘remove’ shrapnel from soldiers, a’la Operation. The “soldier,” understandably looks displeased with the foreign materials inside his body, but the huge passageways through his body make removal relatively easy. The game itself isn’t particularly common, but low demand results in cheap prices. I found a few on eBay for a couple dollars, little more than I paid.

E.T.: The Extraterrestrial — If you know anything about this game, you’d buy every single one you see, too. This is actually the third copy of E.T. I’ve owned: the first copy had its original box and instructions, so it went pretty quickly on eBay for a pretty penny; I’ve still got another cartridge in the basement. Despite already having one, there was no way I was going to leave one in the dollar bin at a water-damaged rummage sale. In 1981, Atari was the king of home videogames, and they had no intention of giving up that spot; arguably, their hubris would catch up with them. They spent a bunch of money advertising two big-name games for 1982: Pac-Man and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. They had millions of each title produced, expecting enormous consumer response. Pac-Man has a reputation of being a very poor version, but today it has a nostalgia quality to it, given the frequency I hear the Atari Pac-Man sound effects used on TV. E.T., however, was an enormous flop. Like I said, the first copy I owned had its instructions included, so in interest of testing the equipment, I popped the cartridge in my 2600 and tried to play it. Oh, my lord, it was unbelievably bad. There was really no indication of where you were going, or even what your character was doing, aside from falling into holes, and there wasn’t really any way to tell whether you were in a hole or not. Gamers all over passed on buying E.T., resulting in millions of unsold cartridges in Atari’s warehouses. Atari couldn’t get rid of them at any price, so every cartridge Atari still held was loaded into a truck and driven to Alamagordo, New Mexico. When the remaindered games arrived at the Alamogordo landfill, they were crushed, buried, and a slab of concrete was poured over them to prevent anything from being stolen or salvaged. Seeing that I’ve owned three in the past decade, the scale of the returns isn’t as excessive as one might expect; there could still be hundreds of thousands of these available, even if 5 million still went unsold. Ebay has nearly a hundred of them listed for sale right now, but even if it’s not as rare as the legend might indicate, I think it’s worth a buck to carry some of Atari’s hubris around in my back pocket once in a while. Maybe I’ll even get to play it again someday.

Oh, didn’t I mention that? I sold my Atari a couple years ago — once upon a time, they were a dime a dozen at rummage sales, so I always turned around and sold them once I had my fun. After a point, they ran out, probably because I was buying them all and shipping them off to California eBayers. I guess, if the intent of going rummaging with a budget was to stop us from bringing home useless stuff, the plan failed miserably. Oh, well; I never thought I’d run across a bin of dollar 2600 games, so I may find another 2600 any day now.

Two weeks ago we spent the morning going to local rummage sales and I scored two boxes of Garbage Pail Kids — for $2.

I was too old for the cards back in 1985 when the cards were originally released, but for $2 I figured I’d have some fun with them. (Seems I am more cheaply entertained & less mature as a 40-something than I was as a 20-something.)

The first box had cards grouped together, held by rubber bands, all of which seem to be, as the boxes state, from the 3rd series of Garbage Pail Kids. From the check list (one of the 7 cards is marked), it seems the original owner was able to get all the cards in the series too. I looked at one stack and then moved to the next box.

This box had cards in the wrappers. Being a jaded collector, I figured the cards were just stored in wrappers neatly refolded around them — but the package didn’t flip open so easily… I picked up a few more packs, and they looked sealed too. But still, I figured heat from storage, or even just the warmth of the sun at the sale, had effectively resealed the wax packs.

I gently, but firmly, opened a package and inside with the cards, a piece of the retro bubblegum, broken in two pieces. I quickly felt the other packages and felt the presence of gum — far more delightful the the old gum I’ve discovered under tables and other pieces of furniture, because not only is this gum un-chewed, but perhaps an indication that the packages keep their virgin integrity.

This made me question the likelihood of the age of the cards. While the cards and packaging state a copyright date of 1986, I’m not sure these aren’t reproductions or older cards bearing the original date the art was created. Turning to the collector’s number one research tool, Google, I look-up Garbage Pail Kids.

The 3rd series does hail from 1986 (making the cards 22 years old), and all signs indicate these are original cards.

Also, they appear to be the first printing of the 3rd series. In the 3rd series, copyrights changed from print to print, making these cards a bit more difficult to identify & therefore collect.

There were three printings of the 3rd GPK cards. Here’s how Wayne’s Garbage Pail Kids References explains their identification:

The packs with 25¢ on the front of the wrapper and “MADE & PRINTED IN USA” near the bar code or have that the wrapper code 0-490-21-01-6 can contain cards with or without (only one or the other for the entire box (not both)) the copyright information on the puzzle pieces.

The packs without 25¢ on the front of the wrapper or that have the wrapper code 0-490-21-02-6 contain cards with the copyright information on the puzzle pieces.

The packs with 25¢ on the front of the wrapper and “GUM MADE IN CANADA” near the bar code or that have the wrapper code 0-490-21-03-6 contain cards without the copyright information on the puzzle pieces.

It should also be noted that the wrapper code is not the bar code. For example, the bar code on my wrappers (for both the t-shirt and sweatshirt wrappers) is 4111600490, but the wrapper code is 0-490-21-01-6. The wrapper code is only visible when the wrapper is opened (found in the bottom right corner, beneath the shirt size chart), and therefore the collector has a decision to make.

Of course, if you want to see the cards, you’ll have to open them anyway; but if you’re looking to save cards in the original packaging, you’ll never really know what you’ve got for certain. Even though I’ve an opened pack from the first printing, I cannot verify for certain that all of the 28 remaining wrappers contain cards from the first printing. Or, in fact, that these wrappers were never opened and resealed.

Wayne also makes the following recommendation to collectors:

It probably is best to buy a 3rd Series set without the copyrights and then buy another set with copyrights because most dealers do not sell (or even know about) the copyright variations as part of their sets.

The 3rd (and the 4th) series of the backs of US Garbage Pail Kids cards have near exact copies of a 1960’s poster set by Topps called “Wanted Posters”, which may bring additional delight to collectors.

Topps began making Garbage Pail Kids as a parody of Cabbage Patch Kid dolls in 1985. They began as a way for little brothers to annoy their little doll-toting sisters, and they eventually moved past just the dolls to a general gross mockery of many things — except for President Lincoln, as noted at Barron Aaron’s Garbage Pail Kids World:

This John Pound Unpublished GPK was completed late in 1985 and was intended for the 3rd series. Topps decided the piece was too gruesome and ended up rejecting the artwork for this release. The piece was originally intended for the 3rd series set with only one bullet through the hat and the character holding a “PlayBill” which was changed to “SlayBill” for the 5th series card with Abe’s hat with two bullets and one bullet through his forhead, but the piece was removed late in production.

Even more than a century later, it’s too soon for a gruesome Lincoln joke. (Additional proof that everyone loves Lincoln — more on that another time; remind me to tell you about that…)

Topps created a cash cow with GPK; even little girls fancied the gross cards & Topps began making more, betting that the more names the icky kids had, the greater the chance they could seduce kids to the dark side of dolls if they found cards had their name on them. But in 1988 Coleco, maker of the Cabbage Patch Kids, sued Topps for trademark infringement. They settled out-of-court, with Topps agreeing to modify, beginning with the 10th series, the appearance of the Garbage Pail Kids so they wouldn’t so closely resemble the Cabbage Patch Kids, but even with card production continuing, the fad was on the outs.

In 2003, Topps, fueled by the possibility of a nostalgic cash cow (real money for them; warm fuzzy memories for you), resurrected GPK, complete with virtual Garbage Pail Kids “alive” online.

As for me, I’ll share the cards with the kids, finish scanning them and upload them to the community, maybe sell a few… I’m really more apt to get the warm-n-fuzzy laughter over Wacky Packages. I know they are out there; just haven’t found boxes of them for $2. Yet.