PlayingCardForum.com - A Discourse For Playing Cards
Off Topic Chat => Introduce Yourself => Topic started by: Josh Blackmon on January 18, 2014, 11:07:11 PM
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Is this the forum for baseball cards? Just kidding. I am Josh and I'm from Texas. I'm glad to have found this forum and am surprised it took me so long! I started getting in to collecting cards almost exactly a year ago by chance. I stumbled across some railroad souvenir decks online and was immediately pulled in by the artwork on the back of them. Ironically I have since collected a huge assortment of decks but not one railroad souvenir deck (eventually I will buy some). You see, my initial interest kind of snowballed and sidetracked me in to vintage bicycle cards which is where I began collecting. It wasn't a far stretch from the vintage baseball card collecting I have done all my life and now I can say I'm hooked. I collect limited modern decks when the quality and craftsmanship match the price but I also love the vintage stuff. The draw to me has always been the chase. I like searching for antique decks in odd places and so far have been rather successful scoring a couple of pristine early 20th century Bicycle Wheel Backs, and a good handful of Club and Lotus backs just by deducing their probable locations and going to find them on my own. As I said I also collect modern decks and have really enjoyed getting several of these as of late. I hope joining with this forum will broaden my horizons in the playing card community.
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Welcome Josh, plenty of information and fellow enthusiasts around here. You should feel right at home. Great community of members, hope you enjoy the site as much as I have.
Happy Hunting!
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Welcome, Josh. You've come to the right place at the right time. A short while ago this forum was purchased by Tom Dawson, president of the 52 Plus Joker Club and co-author with his wife, Judy, of "Hochman's Encyclopedia of American Playing Cards", which if you didn't already know is the "holy grail" for vintage collectors looking to identify their decks and complete sets.
Well, since you're here, grab a seat and make yourself at home. Now, ante up and deal! :))
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Josh Welcome!
Great to have another antique/vintage collector on board. One thing you said really resonated with me - its the chase/the search and the joy of finding something you really like. Hope you'll join our club of antique/vintage/modern cards.
http://www.52plusjoker.org/dnn
We are just starting our annual mail auction and the lots can be viewed at
http://www.52plusjoker.org/dnn/Auction/tabid/76/Default/aspx
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I figured I would tell a little story that fits in well with my intro above. It's a story about my most priceless deck. After my initial interest in railroad decks and the start of my collecting, I went on a search for whatever might be lying around my folks house. There was nothing old and not much at all to speak of so I proceeded "The Bus" which is through the woods and up a hill from my parents’ house.
Back when my father was young, my granddad bought an old school bus. They stripped the inside, made it into an rv and took off across the country. They traveled all over the United states for years on vacations and have more stories than I can count! But eventually the old bus wore down. My grandparents parked it on their land and used it as living quarters when they would spend the day working cows or clearing pastures. This was perfect since their house was twenty miles from the farm. As for me, I lived out at the farm for as long as I can remember. When my grandparents would come down I would run to see them and we would go fishing or feed the animals or just sit around under the shade trees and the old bus was always there.
Time has taken its toll on it by now. It is mostly rusted, covered with moss and with brambles growing around it. But on that day I decided to go see if there were any old cards tucked away inside. After prying open the doors I found an old rusty tin sitting on the shelf and opened it to find a few shaving razors, a small railroad calendar, some first aid supplies, and a deck of cards without a box. They were very worn and discolored with a generic shellback design but I treat them like a treasure. The whole deck was simple; it didn't cost 30 dollars, didn't have metallic inks, custom courts, or anything like that, but my grandparents held it in their hands. You see, that’s part of my history. It's an heirloom I’ll hold on to til i'm gone. My grandpa is gone now and granny doesn't come down there anymore, but that worn out deck of cards helped them pass many an evening after a hard day’s work. It was a form of entertainment for us all when there was no T.V., computer or other distraction to fill the time. I have the back windows from the bus hanging on my wall. They are covered with stickers from all the places it has been. Between those and the deck of cards, I have a history I can touch. I prize that deck higher than any other that I could ever get my hands on.
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Awesome story! Easy to see the value that deck holds for you. Thanks for sharing.
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Wonderful story - thanks for posting it.
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Incredible. An amazing story.
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Wow. Great story. I literally got goosebumps reading it. I find it amazing the small things that can trigger such strong emotions and memories. Thanks for sharing.
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Josh tha's a fantastic story, family ties are always wonderful things to hang on to. Like you said, they spark images of great times from your past and give you these great little stories to pass on to your own family.
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In the process of digitizing my grandmothers photo albums I came across a picture of the bus mentioned above. It was in a photo album long ago destroyed by silverfish, but I recovered what I could. This is a photo of a trip to White Sands New Mexico accompanied with a picture of my Grandparents.
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Welcome to the Forum!
I've never Introduced myself. People just sort of know me here.
I like your BUS!
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Welcome to the Forum!
I've never Introduced myself. People just sort of know me here.
I like your BUS!
Dude - did you RESTORE the photo? It's a lot sharper and more vibrant.
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On these I just used auto levels in photoshop to bring them back to life a bit before posting, but what you see here isn't too far off from the original scans. I like the tone that has set in as these photos have aged.
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Welcome to the Forum!
I've never Introduced myself. People just sort of know me here.
I like your BUS!
Dude - did you RESTORE the photo? It's a lot sharper and more vibrant.
My apologies Don & Josh. I took the retouch down. I do love that bus. It's an iconic symbol!
It was a good opportunity for me to get some practice time. Too many good designers on this forum to be posting amateur work. I'm still developing myself. I was just trying to be nice.
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Oh and nice to meet you !An0nym0u5
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My apologies Don & Josh. I took the retouch down. I do love that bus. It's an iconic symbol!
It was a good opportunity for me to get some practice time. Too many good designers on this forum to be posting amateur work. I'm still developing myself. I was just trying to be nice.
You misunderstand, I thought it looked fantastic.
I'd love to see what you're working on, someday.
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welcome aboard Josh Blackmon :D