Keystone-Lehigh Swapfest 2014

The Keystone-Lehigh Swapfest of 2014 was held on October 23rd, 24th and 25th and was a huge success and a lot of fun for everyone.

The drive up to Morgantown, PA from Arlington, VA was nice and there was lots of Fall colors to be seen throughout the 3 hour drive.

The sky was overcast most of the day on Thursday, but that made for easy driving with no sunny glare.

A panoramic view of one of the auctions held at Keystone-Lehigh.

The matchbook collectors overwhelmed the staff at Zou's Garden Chinese Restaurant on Thursday night. Service was slow, but the food and company was great. Jimmie Close came up with a great idea, to pay individually at the counter instead of waiting at the table, so we could all be back in time for the night's 7 PM auction.

Thursday night's Bingo was a lot of fun and the matchcover prizes were fantastic. I had a very lucky run at Bingo and won (see image above) at least 12 packs of covers, including some really, really nice auto dealer covers. A big thank you to Grant for watching my card as I picked up my prizes.

Clem Pater auctioned material from a couple different estates while the ladies jokingly kept track of his mistakes. 

Friday afternoon Bill Calhoun and I went down to Claire's and had lunch. Bill's a great guy and has an amazing collection of toilet and outhouse matchcovers. Duane joined us for lunch shortly after.

Bill and Duane outside Claire's Restaurant.

Friday brought us really nice weather and an amazing sunset.

The Halloween costume contest had some great entries this year.

The winners.

Grant brought an absolutely amazing display of 1940's RMS photo matchbooks. 

Saturday night's banquet was great and the turkey I had was very good. The awards ceremony is always a nice way to end the convention. It's very easy to look around that room and consider everyone there part of your extended family. I know I do.

Keystone is always a fun event and this year was even better. As always, it was nice to see everyone again. They held three great auctions and the freebie tables were very, very good. The hospitality room was also very nice and supplied us with sodas, cookies, chips and other snacks. It's also a good place to socialize. I think everyone had a lot of nice material to take home with them and work with during this coming winter.

A big thank you to everyone involved in the Keystone swapfest, especially Bob Hofacker for keeping the freebie tables full (and everything else he does for all of us), Gayle Hofacker for getting everyone signed in, Clem Pater for being our auctioneer, Donna Longenecker for handling all of the auction items, and everyone else, the list is immense. Thank you all for a great convention.

Here are a few good quotes I heard during the Keystone-Lehigh Swapfest of 2014:

"You can't take it with you, but you can't go anywhere without it."

-Chuck Cummins

"A million dollars isn't what it used to be, unless you don't have it."

-Bob Hofacker

"Get off the table, Mabel, the money's for the beer." (in immediate response to Bob Hofacker asking that everyone get off the freebie tables so we could all go to lunch)

- Jack Blackburn

Recent Acquisitions

I recently bought a large lot of matchbooks and matchcovers and was pleased to find a lot of nice stuff. There were six of these mint condition Cadillac Glass Co. features.

There were about 25 features and printed stick matchbooks in the lot, all in brand new condition. 

Some of the nicer material, WWII patriotics, train lines and World's Fair covers had duplicates.

This late 1930's David Lionel Press cover for a beauty shop offered permanents. For more on this manumark, see:

 http://matchpro.org/Archives/Know%20Your%20Cover/dlionel.pdf

Found On eBay

First up is this gorgeous Diamond Quality Nehi cover, which looks unstruck. This was part of a large lot of DQ's that were sold at auction on eBay recently.

One seller had quite a few beautiful, unstruck contours available if the price was right.

Laurel and Hardy

The comedy team of Laurel and Hardy made hundreds of movies, both shorts and features, and the two men were among Hollywood's biggest stars from the 1930s to the 1950s. Stan Laurel was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson in Ulverston, England (16 June 1890) and Oliver Hardy was born Norvell Hardy in Harlem, Georgia (18 January 1892). They both ended up in Hollywood working for Hal Roach in the 1920s. They appeared in their first feature as a team in 1931's Pardon Us and went on to make a string of classic comedies, including Sons of the Desert (1933), Babes in Toyland (1934) and Way Out West (1937). Their last film was a French production, Atoll K (1950). Easily recognizable, they almost always played themselves in the movies: Laurel was the skinny, innocent one and Hardy was the round, blustery one.