FAME, NOTORIETY, OR WHATEVER OF AN EPHEMERA DEALER

Well, probably “whatever,” but this morning I received a telephone call from someone in the UK who is working on a TV program about “interesting things” and they were researching ephemera, particularly aviation ephemera. Of course the questions were mostly ingenuous – who buys it? What is significant? and so on, but I managed to give her a small portrait of some aspects of aviation ephemera and collecting, some insights into who collects it and why, and suggest a few more contacts for her to pursue.

She had, of course, called me because of a piece that I have listed online, which is really ephemeral and probably unique, and will take just the right person to discover and purchase it…a Qantas airline trip log that was signed by most of the crew.



Airline ephemera is collectible – partly because of nostalgia for “the way it was.” Remember when you received a whole packet full of souvenir items when you boarded a plane? Brochures, postcards, stickers, maps, “wings” for the kids, luggage tags, chewing gum, and what-all? Heck, remember when you could count on a full meal, usually with several choices, beverages being served constantly – or even just going to the gate to board without all the scanning and delays? Of course we miss those days!
In my experience, there are a thousand and one reasons for collecting anything, and the next person who purchase aviation ephemera from me will have reason 1002. That’s why I love it!
















Here are links to my listings for these items on The Prints & The Paper. I can't seem to get them to publish as clickable links, but if you're interested I guess you can copy/paste them into an the address line:
http://www.kirksbooks.com/bookdetails.asp?bkid=1341792
http://www.kirksbooks.com/bookdetails.asp?bkid=1338457