Ephemera consists of written and printed matter published with a short intended lifetime. Common types of ephemera include letters, advertising trade cards, cigarette cards,posters, postcards, bookmarks, tickets, old photos, menus, old fruit and vegetable crate labels and can labels, vintage luggage labels from hotels, airlines, ship lines, and railways. How about the  old gas station roadmaps, railroad timetables and travel brochures.
Match books, matchcovers and advertising matchboxes would also fall under the ephemera catagory. There are also sugar packet collectors out there and some that collect candy bar and gum wrappers? Old greeting cards I guess could also fit the bill. Maybe old graphic letterheads, billheads, stock certificates and bank checks. How about old ink blotters. Some people collect jokers from playing card decks, some collect different full decks.
Ever think about collecting the old diecut Christmas and Halloween decorations. Which could lead to a whole other collection of holiday items. I guess the list could go on forever.
For storage there are many types of plastic pages that are put out that fit in 3-ring binders. There are the 20 pocket pages that are about 2X2″ in size, sportscard size 9 pocket pages, 4 pocket postcard size and many other sizes. Some items can be framed and hung on the wall.
See ya, Country Joe
Collectible Stuff
Picture above, some of the coffee tins in stock at the moment.
Another neat item to collect are vintage coffee tins. A shelf full of them can be very colorful and blend in nicely with a vintage kitchen or country store display. There have been many different brands and different variations of graphics made. I have heard that there are over 2000 different varieties out there. Some have special 5¢ off or other specials marked on the sides or lids. Prices can be reasonable, but they are rising. Especially those with the correct lids. Beware of cans with the wrong lids. If one keeps there eyes open you can still find them at auctions, estate sales, yards sales and flea markets. I guess the most popular are the one pound size that you opened using a “key†to roll or tear away a metal strip from the top or side of the can, used for coffee after 1917 until about the 1960’s, actually some companies used them until a little later. They are pretty much a standard size which makes it easier to display. If your lucky maybe there was a coffee made with your name. Maxwell, Astor, Hills etc. Also ya can hide stuff inside them :-).
I used to sell to a man years ago that claimed to have just under 1000 different one pound coffle cans in his collection. He had 5″ shelves about 4″ inches apart all around his finished basement. Many were full and unopened, which make them rarer.
See ya, Country Joe
Country Joes Collectible Stuff
Country Joes Blog
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