Collectibles and Ephemera

Comment by Jean Thibault on February 15, 2009 at 6:15pm

With all of the attention paid to all manner of NGS collectibles & ephemera, I wonder if anybody has ever tried to compile the cartoon type jokes that used to appear regularly in all kinds of magazines and other publications about the NGM and NGS. Over the years there was a great number of them.

Comment by Scott T. Shier on February 18, 2009 at 1:02am

The most I've ever seen the satirical cartoons about the NGS or Magazine, is when the Society itself compiled some and published them in their Centenniel Index (1989), and also in the September 1988 issue. A variety of these "cartoons" also show up in the "100 Years of Adventure and Discovery" book by C.D.B. Bryan (1988).

I have yet to come across anyone that actually has possessed a collection of actual clippings, or at least copies, of the cartoons from over the years. It would be very interesting to see though!

- S.S.

Comment by Cathy Hunter on February 20, 2009 at 9:11am

Dear Scott & Jean,

Many years ago, someone at the Geographic compiled a scrapbook entitled, "References to the Geographic, Serious and Otherwise," which has quite a few of the cartoons. I wish we had a digital copy to share. If you are ever in the DC area, please call me so that we can meet and perhaps take a peek at a few items from the Archives collection.

Cathy

Comment by Donna Plourde on November 22, 2009 at 10:27am

Hi, I have lots of NG ephemera. Letters, brochures, book mark, coin, plate etc. I have been collecting for about 20 years. It's time to start selling. I was wondering where I could get information on values. There isn't much of this kind of stuff on ebay.

Comment by Charles Gannon on November 23, 2009 at 5:26pm

Donna, As I long time collector of all things NGS and as one that has bought and sold many ephemeral items over the years, I appreciate your situation. The best luck that I have had in selling items and realizing what I considered was a fair value was when I sold the items to an up and coming collector with adequate resources. I am not aware of any price lists that can give you values of your items. It is my experience and opinion that the value of any National Geographic item is basically what you can get for it on any given day. I have found some unique items on Ebay over the years, but Ebay has never been a good source for determining values. It all comes down to what someone is willing to pay. The nice thing about this forum is the fact that you can offer items without having to pay the costs involved with selling items on Ebay or other auction sites. On the other hand, if you get two or more people bidding on an item, the price will usually go up. So there you go. I know I haven't really answered your question, but I just don't think it can be definitively answered. Good luck!

Comment by stephen zamarin on November 23, 2009 at 5:54pm

to donna plourde,

do you have for sale any of the plastic coated sales versions of map supplements that were issued with the magazine. they were rolled or folded. i am especially looking for the 17 historical map making of america series that were issued in the 1980's and the 6 making of canada supplements in the 1990's.

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