My Other (Sometimes) Car Related Hobby

[gwolf]

Hey all,

Wanted to do a little show and tell about my other sometimes car related hobby.

I've been collecting matchbooks for the last few years and have had a blast doing it. Mostly old ones, from the 1930's through the late 1960's. Just like model building, it's an old school hobby that you could talk to you dad about doing and he'd have something cool to say about it.

Matchbooks are generally collected with the staple and matches carefully removed and placed in clear pages just like baseball cards.

These car dealership matchbook covers usually have one panel for the car ad and the rear panel to place individual dealership location info.

I have more of these (and much cooler ones) so I'll post a few and if you guys dig 'em I'll post some more.

First up are these Pontiac and Oldsmobile covers. The first one is a 30 strike (the matchbook contained 30 matches instead of the standard 20) 1959 Oldsmobile followed by two 20 strike covers for the 1965 Pontiac and 1965 Oldsmobile.

Next up is this 1961 Ford Falcon cover with everyone's favorite beagle, Snoopy.

My favorite of the bunch, these two 30 strike Canadian covers advertise Pontiacs in the 1980's. I wish they made a model of that fastback Pontiac Sunbird.

Next up we have two 40 strike (these matchbooks contained 40 matches instead of the standard 20) for a mid 60's Plymouth and a 1950's Buick.

The mighty 1957 Chevy

The 1958 Chevy

1961 Chevrolet trucks

An older, late 50's-early 1960's hobby shop matchcover thrown in just for the fun of it.

I hope you enjoyed these. Let me know if you did and I'll post more.

Our local club has a website here: http://marvaclub.blogspot.com/

Greg Wolf

Edited August 26, 2014 by gwolf

[unclescott58]

Very cool. I see them at swap meets from time. I have one or two.

Scott

[Old Buckaroo]

Those are really cool. I never realized so many cars were featured on matchbooks. Bonus points for the Hobby Shop one !

Several years ago I was in a shop that was cutting a quarter panel off a Ford (cant remember the model) but the guy pulled out a handful of Ford 20th anniversary matchbooks and a coffee cup saying the same. Kind of neat someone left those treasures for the future.

Edited as I had the year wrong

Edited August 26, 2014 by Old Buckaroo

[pharoah]

Wow,That's a great 'other hobby'. It's strange to think how they survived all these years.

[peekay]

Cool, I can really understand the appeal of those.

[gtx6970]

A buddy of mine collects Mopar matchbook sets. He has a bunch of them ,,mostly 50's and early sixties books.

I collect Mopar dealership promotionals ,,, At least I used to . Prices have skyrocketed and pretty much priced me out of them.

But I do have some nice ones

Edited August 26, 2014 by gtx6970

[1930fordpickup]

These are cool. Anything car related is worth a look.

Back in the days these were given out most places until the late eighties they dried up.

Edited August 26, 2014 by 1930fordpickup

[Art Anderson]

Not matchbooks, but a cousin of mine has an extensive collection of tire company ashtrays, the glass ones having a miniature replica car or truck tire around them. Those are fascinating as well!

Art

[Harry P.]

These are cool. Anything car related is worth a look.

Back in the days these were given out most places until the late eighties they dried up.

Right... as the number of people who actually still smoked dried up.

[Harry P.]

Not matchbooks, but a cousin of mine has an extensive collection of tire company ashtrays, the glass ones having a miniature replica car or truck tire around them. Those are fascinating as well!

Art

The October 2014 issue of Hemmings Classic Car has an article on collectible ceramic ashtrays with automotive images on them.

[ChrisBcritter]

My personal favorite :lol: :

The whole phrase: "PLEASE COVER UP... BEFORE STRIKING LIGHT"

I copied both sides onto a t-shirt once.

Edited August 27, 2014 by ChrisBcritter

[slusher]

Very cool other hobby..

[gwolf]

Thanks for the great responses, guys!

These auto related matchcovers are fun to collect and it's a blast to find one for your favorite car. It's not an expensive hobby (don't use evilbay to gauge values, they are highly inflated and totally inaccurate) and lots of times if you go to the matchbook events you can get these for about a dollar and sometimes free (conventions usually have three freebie tables with tons of free matchbooks and matchcovers).

There are other auto related matchbooks too, everything from Pep Boys to Midas to Perfect Circle piston ring sets to gas and motor oil of all varieties.

A very old Pep Boys matchcover, probably from the late 1930's.

An old gag using a Pep Boys matchbook.

A nice assortment of late 70's to mid 1980's Chevrolet dealership matchcovers. Dealerships could purchase these and have their specific location added to the back side.

Some simple gas station matchcovers.

Two of my favorites, one for Mr. Goodwrench (remember him?) and one advertising the most exciting catalog of my youth, the J.C. Whitney catalog.

[1930fordpickup]

Right... as the number of people who actually still smoked dried up.

I wonder if the cheap Bic lighter had anything to do with this also? We never had matches at the gas station in 84 , the boss told me why give away matches when you can sell them a lighter.

[unclescott58]

Wow! Fun stuff. I love the "Purple Passion Drive-In" and the modified Pep Boys one.

Scott

[Draggon]

Thats pretty cool. I used to collect them too, but I dont remember if I have any auto related. Im going to have to check.

[Harry P.]

Possible stupid question... but wouldn't matchbooks be collected with the matches still in there? Aren't they more "collectible" if they are intact? Just wondering, as I know zero about collecting matchbooks.

BTW... that "trick" with the Pep Boys matchbook is hilarious. Reminds me of a similar trick you can do with a package of Land-O-Lakes butter with the Indian maiden on it...

(google it)...

[gwolf]

Possible stupid question... but wouldn't matchbooks be collected with the matches still in there? Aren't they more "collectible" if they are intact? Just wondering, as I know zero about collecting matchbooks.

BTW... that "trick" with the Pep Boys matchbook is hilarious. Reminds me of a similar trick you can do with a package of Land-O-Lakes butter with the Indian maiden on it...

(google it)...

Not a stupid question at all. It's really personal preference whether or not you take the matches out. There are a few who don't but most of us do and that allows us 1) more room and 2) to display them in plastic sheets in a binder and 3) removes any worry from the matches possibly igniting.

Generally it's the art and subject on the matchbook cover that makes them collectible. However, there are some matches called features that you do want to keep the matches intact (see below)

This late 1950's matchbook for a bowling alley has matches shaped like bowling pins. This is a case where you'd want to leave the matches in.

That Pep Boys gag is funny, isn't it? It reminded me too of the Land O' Lakes package gag. Here's another one for you, for Ethyl Bearcat gasoline.

Another matchbook gag (look where the hole is).

[gwolf]

My personal favorite :lol: :

The whole phrase: "PLEASE COVER UP... BEFORE STRIKING LIGHT"

I copied both sides onto a t-shirt once.

Those Tip 'N Twinkle matchbooks are very funny and there's quite a few of them. I've seen the drive-in one, one for a vacation to Alcatraz and one for space travel with interesting female aliens. I imagine that design would look great on a t-shirt!

[gwolf]

I wonder if the cheap Bic lighter had anything to do with this also? We never had matches at the gas station in 84 , the boss told me why give away matches when you can sell them a lighter.

I'm sure that was some part of it, Andy. But matches still are the cheapest form of advertising next to word of mouth so some places are still giving them out, especially casinos.

[1930fordpickup]

Yes I agree they are a very cheap form advertising .

I did not know casinos were still giving them out . They are even hard to find in the stores.

[Tom Geiger]

Very cool matchbooks. I have always collected anything Valiant, so I have a few early 1960 matchbooks with Valiants on them.

I've always taken matchbooks / boxes as souvenirs from restaurants and places we enjoyed. Above is one from the Trail Dust Steak House in Denver. I copied the logo onto decal stock on a xerox machine and put them on a Dodge Ramcharger. This was before we had the luxury of printer generated decals.

I also have a few matchbooks from my favorite restaurant, Southern House in Point Pleasant, NJ... irony is that it burned to the ground!

[Harry P.]

It's really personal preference whether or not you take the matches out.

So a rare or valuable matchbook cover would be worth about the same as the same matchbook with all the matches still in it? I know that with stamp collecting, most stamps are worth a lot more if they are unused vs. used... so maybe matches/no matches also affects value?

BTW... those bowling ball matches are pretty cool.

I found this online... pretty interesting:

http://www.titanicitems.com/matchbooks.htm

[Tom Geiger]

I know that with stamp collecting, most stamps are worth a lot more if they are unused vs. used...

BTW... those bowling ball matches are pretty cool.

You are correct for the most part... but there are stamps that are more valuable used!

[gwolf]

Very cool matchbooks. I have always collected anything Valiant, so I have a few early 1960 matchbooks with Valiants on them.

I've always taken matchbooks / boxes as souvenirs from restaurants and places we enjoyed. Above is one from the Trail Dust Steak House in Denver. I copied the logo onto decal stock on a xerox machine and put them on a Dodge Ramcharger. This was before we had the luxury of printer generated decals.

I also have a few matchbooks from my favorite restaurant, Southern House in Point Pleasant, NJ... irony is that it burned to the ground!

That's fantastic, Tom!