Estate Sale - Ron Choquette, long time collector with noteworthy collection

[Ron Choquette]

Hello, 

I understand that Ron Choquette was an active member of this group. I am sad to say that he has recently passed and we will be liquidating his collection. I thought that it would be best to start here because he talked fondly of the members of this group.

I have not been able to take a full inventory yet, but will be doing so by the end of the month. He does have some curious pieces. He was very interested in rare finds. One example is a framed print of the Torii gate (discussed here: https://ngscollectors.ning.com/forum/topics/torii-gate?overrideMobi...) .

I am interested in hearing what people are looking for so I can keep an eye out for them as I am taking inventory. 

Thanks in advance, 

Robert Choquette

[Scott T. Shier]

I am sorry to hear about Ron and the loss to your family. I was friends with him here on the 'Corner and some years back had arranged some sales to him (both off and on eBay). I had not heard from him in a while, so I wondered what was up. 

kind regards,

Scott S. 

[Ron Choquette]

Thank you Scott. He became quite sick in the past 6 months. He's in a better place now.

Cheers,

Rob

[Richard Kennedy]

Hi Robert,

I was saddened to hear of Ron’s passing. I know from experience the daunting task you have in going through his things.

When you have a list of his National Geographic collection, please email a copy to me at [e-mail]. Thank you.

[Ron Choquette]

Hi Richard, 

I will be starting to catalog things next week. Hopefully it won't take too long. I'll be in touch soon.

Cheers,

Rob

[Ron Choquette]

I am struggling to find a comprehensive list of what my father had in his collection, but I can say that I just finished moving almost 100 boxes of everything from post cards to 1888 issues to maps. He has a lot of everything. If anyone has a "most wanted" list, I would be happy to look through the collection to see if there is a match.

Cheers,

Rob

[Scott T. Shier]

Rob,

Did you father have any of the "School Bulletins"? 

[Ron Choquette]

Oh boy, did he.

[Ron Choquette]

If anyone wants to send me their most wanted list, you can send them to [e-mail]

[Ron Choquette]

Thanks for your patience everyone. It's taken me quite a while to sort through my father's collection. From my visit to his house, I was able to bring back unbound editions from 1896 through early 1900's (up to about 1915). I will be uploading a spreadsheet soon of these items. 

Also, I have some article reprints, bulletins and some interesting ephemera. There are some lecture programs and some stratospheric balloon items as well. These too will be cataloged and posted here.

I do have a question or two.

(1) There are quite a few editions that have tape along the binding. It seems like this was done proactively instead of to repair. I expect these to be significantly less valuable, but how much less valuable are they (typically). 

(2) I have found a number of Buxbaum guides to collecting geographics, the first edition from 1935. There is an original version, then some that are labelled as amended. I have looked, but I cannot seem to find any mention of the difference anywhere. Does anyone have any insight?

In the meantime I am starting to post some of the items on eBay to help me understand their value, if you are interested, they are listed here: https://www.ebay.ca/usr/rchoquette70 

As always, thank you very much with your interest and guidance so far. I am learning a lot!

Cheers, Rob

[Melvin L. De Vilbiss]

Ron, this is my grading standard, considered high by many, but I've found it useful while building my collection:

https://ngscollectors.ning.com/forum/attachment/download?id=1029239...

You'll find moderate tape repairs (archival, not scotch or masking, tape) automatically make the issue "good," whereas entire bindings taped would make the issue "fair."

It is important to understand that age does not play into assessment of condition. An issue is or isn't fair, good, very good, etc.

After you determine an issue's condition you then assess value. Part of the value assessment is "rarity." Usually, rarity is a factor of age, but there are always exceptions.

Hope you find this helpful.

Mel

[Ron Choquette]

Thank you very much, this is quite helpful.