What do you collect?

[Country Joe]

Before I get this group tangled up I'm going to start this discussion. What do you collect or deal in as far as vintage advertising items?

Country Joe

[Colleen Smith]

My biggest "brand" collection, isn't really a collection in and of iteself. It's my Sunbeam appliances. Toasters, waffle bakers, mixers, coffee pots, barware, radios, flashlight, kitchen gadgets...all things Sunbeam. Other than that I end up with those little tin boxes from Germany. The kind used for assorted candies, fruitcakes, things like that. I just love the artwork on them. And I collect coffee tins, jars, canisters. But with each of these it's the object not the actual advertising. Still, some of the graphics are priceless.

[UknowUneed Another]

I like finding old iconic items. I'm not exactly picky. I love tins, original containers, old name brand mini recipe books. I'm facinated by older jello recipe books. these books are a real hoot because I have read some truly scary jello recipes in them. J-E-L-L-O!

I think that there is quite a bit of crossover in my accumulations. I have a few cigarette tins, an old tetley tea tin, 3M tape tins, one of which still has the Minnesota Mining logo. :) I have an exlax tin, a very old amber quart size clorox bottle, a Bromo seltzer bottle, Coka Cola.

I buy old magazines just to poke through the ads. One of my favorites is a camel cigarette ad that I found in a magazine that has 130,000 doctors recommendiing Camels. Another favorite ad is for Listerine. When I went back to school a few years back, a professor said that Listerine was originally marketed as a dandruff cure, and I now have proof of this!

One of my friends has kept a ton of Arizona Iced Tea bottles and uses them to decorate her kitchen window. i think they're cool; her daughters wonder about her sanity.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pics yet, because most of these items may be keepers. Ooh, I do have one not great pic. I'll pop it in. This is a grouping of vintage jello molds. They are currently on the chopping block in my Etsy shop, but only because I can spare a few.

[Memphis Attic]

[Country Joe]

I think you need to shrink your photos a bit so that they fit the

[Country Joe]

I adjusted your image and reposted it.

[Ellene Meece]

Love the vintage Big Boy bank!  Here's a Big Boy Statue Figure Elias Brothers

Big Boy Statue Figure Elias Brothers Advertising | eBay

with a buy it now price of $7,499.99

[Dexter Grass]

Hi, I'm brand new to this site, just signed up yesterday. My favorite personal collection, and my biggest sellers, are antique and vintage decorative tins. Usually English or Continental, biscuit tins, toffee tins, mustard tins and the like. I have a collection of about 200 myself, all horse related, my oldest dating to 1886, the newest are 1950's. Here are a few in my entry hall, all ladies and horses. I love tin in any form, so I also deal in old toys, trays, etcetera. Hope the picture comes through.....

[Karen C.K. Ballard]

I collect almost anything related to hand textile production & embellishment, including, but not limited to tools, books, patterns, ephemera, sheet music, sales displays, advertising of tools/notions, and stories about textile production.  My favorite categories are anything related to crochet; what I call WWI & WWII Workbasket campaign articles (anything related to knitting/sewing/etc. for military, wounded, refugees, or patriotic home-front); pre-1920 needlework books; and aprons that were specifically made to be worn while sewing/knitting/darning/mending.

[Ellene Meece]

Wow, Karen, you are a real collector!! I have some vintage Workbasket magazines that I've never listed. Do they sell pretty good?

[Karen C.K. Ballard]

Hi Ellen, Yes, I am a real collector, an advanced one, who often writes articles for magazines on my collectibles.  I suspect Workbasket magazines are sell-able---I see lots of them at antique malls, usually sold in lots.  I personally, do not buy them unless very cheap and containing a pattern I like.  I never buy lots of these.

[Ellene Meece]

So...which magazines do you write for? I would love to read your articles!

I dug the Workbasket magazines out of storage and found they are mostly late 50's and early 60's which is the MOST common of all. :) I may list them on my website soon.

[Karen C.K. Ballard]

Hi Ellen, Thank you for asking. I have written several articles for PieceWork magazine, a couple for Crochet Traditions, one for Paper and Advertising Collectors' Marketplace (PACM), one for Center for History of American Needlework (CHAN) Newsletter (now defunct), and numerous for the Crochet Guild of America's (CGOA's) Chain Link Newsletter.  I retain rights to the PACM, CHAN, & CGOA articles and think I scanned the PACM article (about sewing machine stitch sample advertising) here earlier.  I will look for it.  Only interested in individual Workbaskets that contain patterns I like.