The MARVA Matchbook Collector's Club: The 2015 United Eastern Swapfest

The 2015 United Eastern Swapfest was held June 3 through June 6 in Hagerstown, Md. It's always one of my favorite conventions and everyone seems to have a good time there. A huge plus is the ultra clean and well run Roy Rogers across the street from the Ramada Plaza hotel. Matchbooks and Roy's roast beef go well together.

Bob the bird lives in the lobby of the Ramada Plaza. Say hi to him!

On to the matchcovers; here's a few I found at UES I thought were interesting.

Doepke / Model Toys was an Ohio company that produced toys manufactured in the USA. Mostly tin and steel toys; there's a good bit of info out there about them.

The Belle Vue French Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge in Santa Monica was featured in episode #224 of Perry Mason The Case of the Blonde Bonanza.

Hot Dogs

At first I thought this was a much older 900 number phone sex matchbook, but it's not; instead it's an ad for Alemite gear lubricants.

There's a few Boy Scouts of America related matchcovers out there, mostly for events like this one, the National Scout Jamboree from 1977. These jamborees are huge, with thousands of scouts participating.

Camp Rockaway, the day camp for that million dollar boy of yours, and Camp Lawrence, for that daughter you got. What's her name again? It looks like that million dollar boy of yours has jumped off the high dive and into solid cement.

"Howard, the rug's talking to me again."

A really nice design on this flat for Chesapeake Carpet Cleaning.

Get the Chili Bowl habit at California's Chili Bowl restaurant. There's a few people that would say (and I can hear them now) "So what? It's a common cover, I have ten of them. Unstruck" Well, I don't care, I've always liked this cover and only had a bobtailed one, so I'm thrilled to add this struck cover to my collection. Great graphics and bold colors make this one really nice looking.

This very nice, full length, unstruck Evinrude outboard motor cover is really fantastic. This fine young man in white knit pants is lighting up a Pall Mall and taking his trophy wife for a little spin around the lake. I love the design and I think it's really a genius one. I'm sure that every man that lit up a smoke with these specific matchbooks saw himself one day as the guy on this cover.

Probably part of a larger set, but I'm happy just to have the Howard Cosell cover.

Clem Pater was selling a collection of covers which included an entire box of ten strikes. I bought close to 200 really nice ones.

Encore Root Beer Extract and Pilsner Brand Malt Syrup are advertised on this older Lion Match cover.

I never cared much for Jewelites until this year. All of these were found on the freebie tables.

Matchcovers for Campbell and Red Devil fireworks companies.

Bill Calhoun's shirt has something in common with the cover below:

Foys Dri-Fast Enamel Paint. A gorgeous, understated design makes this cover stand out to me.

Leo's for fine clothes, a Richmond tradition. Well, maybe not for some time, but it's a great design and I'm guessing it used to be where Pants Plus is today (see below).

It's rare that you come across a Bit O Honey cover you haven't seen a thousand times before, but it looks like I did.

Yes I know, it's very cool. A really neat Canadian, Eddy Match cover for Ritz Crackers.

I love people that tell you covers like this one are in fact very common. A very cool Toblerone cover I was thrilled to find.

Talawanda Springs Mineral Spring Water was bottled in Cincinatti, Ohio. There's not a of of info out there about this company, but I was able to find an image of their closed and abandoned bottling facility, below. Like a lot of cities around the country, Cincinatti had their own brand of local soft drinks and beer.

Talawanda Springs bottling facility.

A nicely designed cover for a really utilitarian product; wire and metal banding or Wissco Wire by Wickwire Spencer. For those that really look at their covers, ductility is a solid material's ability to deform under tensile stress, often characterized by the material's ability to be stretched into a wire.