More Collecting Claptrap

[George Thomas Wilson]

More Collecting Claptrap

 

As many of you know, I’ve been collecting Map Indices for several years now, and I not only enjoy the journey, I also love to talk about it.  For the past several years, there has been a dearth of Map Indices for sale online.  Last year, Rob Choquette began selling off his late father’s collection, but out of the dozens he had for sale, I only needed one.  This brings us to 2026.  So far this year I’ve purchased the 1918 Western Theater of War Index and built out an Index Variants section to my collection.  But Rob and other sources were not done for the year as this post, and its sister article, a display of my map indices, document.  The collection display is just that, a display, so I closed it to conversation.  If anybody wants to comment or complain about it, they can do it here.

 

My worst collection experience, ever

 

Before I describe my misadventure, I must emphatically state that Rob had nothing to do with the events that ensued.  He has been a stellar seller in this and every purchase I have made with him.

On May 17, Rob posted a batch of map indices, of which I needed two for my backup collection, the 1936 Canada index and the 1934 Asia index.  Having been outbid earlier for the 1933 USA index, I decided to bid ridiculously high for the Asia index to see how high someone else might bid.  My bid for the Canada index was more reasonable.  I immediately regretted my rash decision and, on May 24^th I paid the price.  While I won the Canada index for a fair price ($102), The Asia index cost me a whopping $720, far more than it is worth.  When I messaged Rob to combine shipping, he graciously shipped it for free, saving me a few bucks.  Then the fun began.  While tracking my package I notice that it was intercepted by a government agency for some unknown reason:

Maybe it was the ridiculous price I paid, maybe it was the free shipping, but something flagged my package.  It sat in limbo for days.  I finally received it on June 4^th.  For comparison, I received the 1918 WToW index in four days.  When I got the package, I noticed that it had been violated and retaped:

I am sure glad that U. S. Customs and Border Protection was on the job protecting us from the threat of National Geographic Map Indices being repatriated from Canada.  You would think that this nightmare was over, and I had learned my lesson, but neither of those were true.  A day or so after I received the items, I received a bill from UPS charging me a $10 brokerage charge that they had paid to U. S. Customs.  This bill threatened to repossess the items unless paid by June 16.  I paid it electronically on that date, ending my worst collecting experience ever.

The results of this purchase augmented my backup collect back to 75, after I had taken two indices out of the collection to shift them to my Variants.

 

Number 95

 

For the longest time, there had been an index up for auction in Germany.  The image showed it to be the 1976 Portrait USA index.  I already had copies of this index in both my primary and backup collections, so I passed on bidding, as did everyone else.  I even posted a comment at the ‘Corner about the item in case anyone else was interested.  Finally, on May 23, I bid and won the item.  My rational was that, even though I didn’t need it and this particular index was not rare, the index would be good trading fodder since the “busy” indices of the ‘60s and ‘70s were rarer than the classic “shaded globes” of the ‘40s and ‘50’s.  The item sold for 15 euros, with 6.5 euros shipping and less than 1 euro tax.  That translates to $27.08, a reasonable price for this fairly common map index.  The item was shipped untracked and the waiting began.

Almost forgotten, the item arrived a month and a day after being purchased, on Jun 24.  The second thing I noticed when I opened the package was that it wasn’t the 1976 Portrait USA index, but the 1980 Revision of that map index.  The inside front cover shows that this is a different index:

The third thing I noticed was that the cover’s yellow was paler and less golden than the 1976 index.  The fourth thing I noticed was the cover items, while identical to the 1976 index in relation to each other, were about an eighth of an inch lower than on the 1976 index.  That is seen at the bottom of the cover as the credit line is noticeably closer to the bottom edge.  The fifth thing I noticed was that the staples were closer together on the 1980 index.  The outer ends of the staples of the 1980 index are exactly where the inner ends of the staples on the 1976 index. 

This find answered a question I had about this revised index and its sister 1978 World revision, and that was: what type of covers do those revisions have?  I now know that they are the “busy” type and not the smaller, landscape type of the last few indices produced.

The first thing I notice when I open the package was that there were TWO indices, both 1980 Revisions of the Portrait USA Index.  The listing on eBay had this as a single index.  The detailed description was in German.  If I had translated the text, I would have found that the word “zweitexemplar” translates to “duplicate copy.”  The photo actually shows two, but, since it was listed as a single index, I assumed the image was photoshopped or the cover was loose and shown beside the opened index:

The photo shows my new primary map index number 95’s cover beside my new backup map index number 76, opened to a middle page.  The image shows the reason for this selection.  There is a hole punched through the entire map index at the upper left corner.

This purchase, which I thought was for an extra 1976 index for $27.08, turned out to be additions to both my primary and backup map index collections at $13.54 each.  This in no way makes up for my bonehead move above, but it helps.

 

The Next Round

 

On June 21^st, Rob dropped another batch of indices on eBay, of which I needed three.  Two of those were the same two indices I had sacrificed to my new and growing Map Index Variant section of my primary collection.  Those two are the 1938 Bible Lands and the 1939 Mexico, Central America, and West Indies map indices.  I’ll discuss the third item later and concentrate on these two items for now.  My bids went in, a fair price but not extravagant, and I waited.

On June 28^th, to my surprise, there was no sniping, I won both items at advertised price of $14.09 apiece.  With taxes and combined shipping, I only paid $22.77 for each item.  The items arrived promptly, no customs snafu. This gives my backup map index collection its 77^th and 78^th entries.

 

Number 96

 

The third item which Rob posted on June 21, and I wanted was of an index I had begun to wonder whether it even existed.  Like my previous question, this one was at least partially answered.  I was going to ask: Do the 1934 Mexico, CA, WI and the 1938 South America map indices even exist?  With Rob posting the 1938 South America map index, half of my question was answered.

You would have thought that I had learned my lesson from my earlier mistake, but I really, really wanted this one, so I bid high.  On June 28^th, no one else showed interest in this, what I had assumed was an extremely rare map index.  I won the item at cost, $22.77 total.

This brings my primary collection to 96, and, more importantly, it brings my total of “First Ten” indices to eight.  The only ones I don’t have are the 1921 New Europe (of which I have a photo) and the 1934 Mexico, CA, WI, of which I have never seen.  I not only didn’t suffer another big hit, but this purchase, combined with my German buy, makes up a lot of my losses.

 

The Next Variant

 

The fun never ends.  On June 28^th, the same day I won the three items above, Rob dropped another batch of map indices on eBay.  None of them were an index I needed, but one of them, the 1942 Asia map index, had a banner variant and a back page variant, neither of which I possessed.  Checking the images Rob posted, I saw, by examining the cover, it was not a banner variant I needed, but the photo of the back page showed it was blank, unlike the back pages of my primary, backup, and extra 1942 Asia map indices.

On July 5^th, I won this item at cost: $14.09.  But with no combined shipping the item wound up costing me $34.11.  Still in the reasonable price range.

 

Overall Results

 

My primary collection now stands at 96 Indices plus 19 Variants for a total of 115 items.

A breakdown is as follows:

• 8 out of 10 “First Ten”
• 70 out of 70 “Core Collection”
• 6 out of 21 “Revisions”
• 1 out of 1 “Non-Supplement”
• 11 out of 15 “Later Indices”
• 9 Unshaded Globe Variants
• 4 Banner Variants
• 1 Dual Unshaded Globe/Banner Variant
• 5 Back Page Variants

My backup collection stands at 78 plus 11 extras for a grand total of 204 map indices.

A breakdown is as follows:

• 4 out of 10 “First Ten”
• 68 out of 70 “Core Collection”
• 2 out of 21 “Revisions”
• 1 out of 1 “Non-Supplement”
• 3 out of 15 “Later Indices”

 

 

Tom Wilson

[Scott T. Shier]

What an "odyssey" ! 

And, I am wanting your index collection   : - )