Thursday, May 31, 2012

The $153 Disneyland Postcard

One thing about collecting is knowing your subject...well.  Time and time again I see people who have bought stuff on eBay or at a show who pay WAY too much for something that was touted as "RARE" or "SCARCE".  Those are two of the most over-used words in collecting.

But this observation works in reverse as well.  Sometimes stuff really is rare.  And while I have a pretty good sense of the landscape of the hobbies I am involved in, I am occasionally surprised by an auction result on eBay or elsewhere.  Today was one of those days.



This card sold on eBay today for $153.  Sounds like a lot (and it is) for a postcard.  It's a picture of the interior of the Nautilus Submarine from the old 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea exhibit.  I knew it was not common, so I bid something like $20 for the card...but, that didn't quite cut it I'm afraid!  This exhibit was around for over 10 years at Disneyland (1955 to 1966)...not sure why the card is so rare.  I suspect Ken over at Disneyland Postcards has some insight though.

The most I have ever seen paid for a Disneyland card is ~$250.  And that is one of the reasons I love this hobby (aside from the fact that it doesn't take much space!).  The "Holy Grail" of the collection is not in the stratosphere price wise.  A collector can have a lot of fun and put an impressive collection together for under a dollar a card if you are patient.

Until next time....

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Disneyland Hotel: Vacationland

Here's a random Disneyland Hotel postcard.  A couple years ago my wife and I were fruit picking in Watsonville, California, and there was a small antique shop next to the farm.  I stopped in and found this.


 By the looks of it, this card was published sometime in the 1970's, but I haven't really been able to find much info on it.  Apparently Vacationland (an RV park associated with the Disneyland Hotel) was around until 1997 when it was demolished for the expansion of the Disneyland Resort.  So, while I have not seen another card like this...there must be some more out there somewhere given the 1997 closure date.


If you have another Vacationland postcard...post it up in the comments.  I would love to see it.

Until next time...

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Aviation History: Charles Lindbergh and Gary Powers

One of the smaller collections I keep has aviation history as its subject.  I have always enjoyed experiencing the adventures of aviators through their biographies.  The men and women who pioneered aviation in the early and middle part of the 20th century had some "serious thrill issues" (to quote a recent Pixar film)...they had to be a little crazy to do some of the stuff they did.  But they did those things...and the ones who lived to tell about what they did wrote some great stories.

Shown here are two of my favorites...Lindbergh's "We", a chronicle of his trans-Atlantic crossing written in 1927, and a cold war thriller with aviation as its center piece, Gary Powers' "Operation Overflight"from 1970.  

Both of these books are captivating and griping, albeit for different reasons.  Lindbergh writes about his early years in aviation up to the Spirit of St. Louis flight and then gives a blow by blow of the whole 33 hour journey to Paris.  Powers recounts in detail what it was like to be a pilot of a spy plane from the moment he got recruited to the fateful day he was shot down over Soviet Russia.


If you enjoy reading this sort of thing, these are both great reads that would work well for an upcoming summer read...unless of course you are already planning on reading a pile of vintage Donald Duck comics by Carl Barks!  

Until next time....

Monday, May 28, 2012

Memorial Day - Frontline Combat #8

Since today is Memorial Day, I thought I would post something in honor of our men and women in uniform.  I have found a number of interesting military items in my garage and estate sale travels (check out my post from May 15th for a small sample).  But I thought I would pull out a comic today since comics have such a rich history of portraying men (and women) in battle.

The cover shown here is from Frontline Combat #8, publish in 1952 by EC comics.  EC comics were published before the comics code was created in 1954, so it and it's sister publication, Two-Fisted Tails, strove to show warfare realistically...not necessarily all victory and glory.



The cover artist here was Alex Toth...one of my personal favorites.  This story in Frontline #8 is about an F-84 Thunderjet squadron that goes on a mission in the Korean War.  They succeed, but the story is punctuated by the realization of the flight commander that he could very easily not return from his mission...his job is dangerous indeed....and the other side has resources that he does not.  So, here's to our men and women in uniform...you deserve my heartfelt gratitude for your work and courage.

Until next time...


Saturday, May 26, 2012

Winnie-The-Pooh and a $2 Bill

A few years ago I was at a garage sale and picked up a copy of A. A. Milne's "Winnie-The-Pooh" (yes...the title has the dashes in it).


This was a reprint of the classic children's story, in the original format, with E. H. Shepard's drawings.  In first edition, this book sells for thousands of dollars and is actively collected (thus the "thousands of dollars"....stuff people don't want doesn't cost that much!).

Anyway...when I got home, I opened the book and found this two dollar bill from 1976 inside.  As a kid I collected coins and I can still remember the flurry of activity around the Bicentennial.  All the coins were redone (well...at least the dollar, half dollar, and quarter) and they relaunched the $2 bill.




I have always thought that the reverse of this bill was one of the most attractive published in my lifetime.  The signers all in one room (presumably the Pennsylvania State House) and portrayed in great detail.  This picture, in case you were wondering, is after a painting by John Trumbull which hangs in the US Capitol building.

Good design is admirable in currency, comics, and collectibles of all kinds.  And in this case, it can be had for two dollars...about what this particular bill is worth today.

Until next time...

Friday, May 25, 2012

Walt Disney's Comics and Stories: Carl Barks

Carl Barks was the master when it came to drawing, inking and scripting Donald Duck stories in the Golden Age of comics.  Think of him as the equivalent to Mel Blanc with regards to Looney Tunes.  Barks started creating for Disney with Four Color Comics #9, but his first work in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories started with issue 31.  He went on to create hundreds of stories for the magazine that remain fresh, funny and entertaining.


Shown here is Walt Disney's Comics and Stories issue #40 (v4 #4) from 1944.  The cover art is by Walt Kelly (another fantastic artist who I will feature in a later post) and an interior Donald Duck story by Barks.  In this story "the boys" (Huey, Dewey and Louie) want to go skiing, and talk Donald into buying some skis and hitting the slopes.  Of course he gets into a bit of a situation when he tries to break a record distance on the jump.


In the future I will post some more from WDC&S.  The Mickey Mouse stories by Floyd Gottfredson are also outstanding and worth looking into.

If you are interested in checking out Carl Barks for yourself, try the Donald Duck book recommended on my Amazon tab to the right.  The "Lost in the Andes" volume is very well done and has a forward by Donald Ault which talks about Barks and his work.  (I personally own all the stuff on my recommendation list)

Until next time...

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Pencils, Ink and Color: How Comics Were Created

Back in the day before computers were used to produce comic books, the artists involved in producing the book worked as part of a team.  The work you see in a finished comic book would not be produced by one person, but usually two or three people.  First off was the penciller...this was the guy who got credited with being "the artist" for the most part.  He would lay out the panels, the flow of the story on the page and placement and actions of the figures.  Shown here are some original pencils from one of my favorite artists, Darwyn Cooke.  These pencils are from his work on "The Spirit".




But the finished look of the pencillers work depended on who did the next stage of production; the inking.  Since four color printing was not capable of reproducing pencilled lines (even in the photo above it is hard to appreciate all the detail), the inker would take either the original pencils, or sometimes a full sized photo copy of the original pencils and go over them in India ink to bring a cleaner line and more definition to the work...often embellishing as he went.  In a finished comic, all the black lines you see are those of the inker.  As you might imagine, some inkers served to make marginal pencils better...some inkers muddled what was otherwise fantastic draftsmanship.  And sometimes the inker and penciller were one and the same guy.  At the end of the day, it was the inker who provided mood and shadow and gave the page it's finished quality.  Shown here is a Jack Kirby "The Mighty Thor" page from the mid 1960's that has been inked by Vince Colletta.  In this case, the inking was done on top of Kirby's original pencils.



Before we move on to coloring...I shouldn't forget to mention the lettering artist.  Lettering was it's own art form as well, as evidenced by the Thor page above.  These artists were credited in the front of the book along with the penciller and inker/embellisher as an integral part of the creative team.

At the end of the creative process was the colorist.  This person would use photocopies of the original inked pages (usually shrunk down to the same size as the comic page), and hand color each page as a guide for the printer.  Color would serve the obvious purpose of bringing a more realistic look to the book but also bring additional tone, shadow and mood to the book.  Here is a picture of a color guide that I have from "Our Army at War" issue 197 (that's Joe Kubert's artwork, by the way).  Some years ago, I was fortunate enough to be given the complete color guide for this book.



These days comics are printed on much higher quality paper than they used to be, and production techniques are increasingly computerized.  Some comics are produced entirely on computer.  Others are still produced using a penciller and an inker working on paper...but color is mostly done by computer in those cases as well.  

I still prefer the look, feel and even the smell of an old four color, pulp paper comic.  Not to sound too much like a curmudgeon, but things aren't like they used to be!

Until next time...

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

The Last of Disneyland Autopia?

Autopia at Disneyland has been through a number of iterations since it first debuted on the opening day of Disneyland in 1955.  Shown here is card E-4 from the late 1950's or early 1960's.  The car on the card is a "Mark V" Autopia car.  Mark I thru IV didn't last long as these Mark V cars came out in 1959.




Perhaps part of the reason that the earlier cars didn't last too long is that the roadway didn't have the center guide rail that can be seen on this card...but instead the bumpered cars were free to roam around the road.  Definitely a lot more fun, but it must have been brutal on the cars!

The obvious enhancement to Autopia would be to have electric or hybrid cars.  After all, the original point of Tomorrowland was to showcase modern technology, but with a twist of the fantastic.  In the mean time though, I would enjoy this ride while you can.  With the opening of Cars Land Radiator Springs Racers at Disney's California Adventure in June, it's not hard to imagine that this original may be dismantled and replaced by something new.

Until next time...

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

The First Disney World Postcards

On October 1st 1971, The Magic Kingdom (aka Walt Disney World) opened it's doors to the public.  Prior to opening day, a number of promotional postcards were produced that showcased via conceptual artwork the attractions that could be experienced at the park in Florida.  This was not unlike the early Disneyland cards that I spoke about earlier this week.  The cards were given out prior to opening day, but also were available afterwards as indicated by the card I show here, postmarked on February 21(?), 1972.




While I do not actively collect these cards, I do keep my eye out for them on eBay or elsewhere.  The full set is made up of ten different cards (that doesn't include variations).  To see what the rest of them look like, check out this WDW Postcards site.

Until next time...

Monday, May 21, 2012

Detective Comics 143

I don't actually own this comic (that's why the scan here is not so good).  But I have always thought it was a classic golden age batman cover and then some.  "The Pied Piper of Peril"?  Who came up with this stuff?  Well...in this case, we know who it was...Bill Finger doing the writing and Whitney Ellsworth as editor.  But, I am trying to imagine what it must have been like in the editor's room, or in the artist's bull pen when Bill, or Whitney, or someone decided to raise their voice and say, "Hey...I have an idea..." and proceeded to come up with something like this.  Obviously, the editor (Ellsworth) had to agree...and then a group of guys had to go off and put not a small amount of effort into creating a story and art to make it all happen.



Along with this thought though, which could be applied to a lot of comic book characters (Paste Pot Pete comes to mind), there is the rather startling resemblance of the Pied Piper to David Letterman...don't you think?!?!

I think I am going to try and find a copy of this out there...it's worth it just for the cover.

Until next time...

Saturday, May 19, 2012

The First Disneyland Postcards

When Disneyland was being imagined by Walt Disney and his famed "Imagineers", a lot of concept sketches and art were created to help flesh out the ideas for the different lands that made up Disneyland.  Some of these concepts (22 to be precise...plus one of Walt pointing at an Herb Ryman concept of the whole park) are what make up the first postcards printed for sale at Disneyland.  This is card # P11883 and shows the Kaiser Aluminum sponsored telescope in Tomorrowland.




I am not sure who painted this piece, but it's a fantastic representation of a then futuristic looking telescope.  Later, visitors to Tomorrowland could purchase a postcard published by Kaiser Aluminum showing the actual exhibit.



For a rare image of the inside of the telescope, check out this picture from Gorilla's Don't Blog.

Until next time....

Friday, May 18, 2012

United Airlines DC-6

Yesterday, I went on a day trip to LA (again...), and while I like Southwest Airlines...it's not much fun flying on what is essentially an airborne bus.  Sure, I still get mesmerized looking out the window while flying over the California desert or over downtown LA.  But there is something about air travel in the 1950's that I find captivating.  And while I don't actively collect airline postcards, when I come across cards like the ones below, I usually can't resist.



Perhaps an exaggerated sense of nostalgia is coloring my perspective, but those people in the card below sure do look comfortable and well taken care of!  Why can't Southwest have a "smart club-car" section on it's 737's?



I suspect it wasn't all glamour and excitement though...the postcard claims 5 miles a minute for the DC-6.  At that rate, my flight to and from LA yesterday would have taken a lot longer than an hour each way!

Until next time....

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Thursday Missive: Tintin Origins

What do you see when you look at the first photo below?  Probably nothing more than old news print...that happens to be in French.   Twelve years ago, I would have seen the same thing.  When my wife and I moved to France, I was actively collecting American comics.  In France, you can still collect American comics, but there is almost no reason to do so given the rich heritage of French and Belgian comics that is evidenced the moment you walk into any store specializing in "Bandes Dessinées".



In the pantheon of French and Belgian comics, there is no more well known character than Tintin.  And as an American collector, the first question I was bound to ask was, "When did Tintin first appear?" Well, Tintin was originally created in 1929 by Georges Remi (aka Hergé based on the pronunciation of his reversed initials RG, in French).  He worked at a newspaper in Belgium called "Le XX'eme Siècle", or "The 20th Century".  The paper publish a children's supplement every Thursday called "le petit XXe", or "The Little 20th", which was primarily meant for boys who were in the boy scouts.  The first story arc was written with Tintin acting as a reporter in the Soviet Union, and was a thinly veiled polemic against the absurdities of Soviet Russia.  Pictured here is the 3rd appearance of Tintin in print from January 31st, 1929 (the first appearance was January 10th, 1929).


I don't have a complete set of these...I suspect very few complete sets exist.  But I have several issues of the series...and they are a treat to look at.  I'll show some more of my French finds in future posts.


Until next time...or, perhaps I should say, Ã  bientôt!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Disneyland Panorama

Back in the late 1950's, not too long after the park was opened, Disneyland published a group of cards that were large format panorama cards.  As you can imagine, this was a bit of an awkward card in terms of preservation, so not too many of them survive today in their original state.


This particular copy was found on eBay recently, and had been folded in half, probably to fit better into whatever storage location it was stuffed into.  And while that certainly detracts from the "collectibility" of the card, it beats having it thrown into the trash!


I include both sides of the card here for reference.  When you collect Disneylnd postcards, you often get a slice of someones vacation from ~50 years ago.  I will post more on this later, but for now, enjoy reading about Sally's stay in SoCal from 1958!

Until next time....

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Physics in Action

One of my more random collections is of old physics text books.  I don't often add to it, and I only have about 8 books.  But the reason I find these so interesting is that, back in the day, Physics text books were loaded with great photos and illustrations of all kinds of machinery and the like which illustrated "Physics in action".

One such photo is shown here, from "Modern Physics", published in 1934.  It shows an old US Naval battleship going through the Panama canal and the caption lists a bunch of statistics on the boat.




The most interesting part of the book though, was not related to the book itself, but what I found in it.  Inserted in the leaves of the book was the following postcard which had been post marked on February 12, 1944:





W.M. Latimer was a chemistry professor at U.C. Berkeley in the 1940's and 1950's.  When I attended there in the 1980's, several of my classes were in Latimer Hall.  And while I am not a stamp collector (well...at least not avidly), you have to admire the special delivery stamp with the old motorcycle on it....classic!

Until next time...

Monday, May 14, 2012

Star Wars Trading Cards

I have been collecting stuff for a long time...and one of my first collections was of Star Wars bubble gum cards in the 1970's. I had a few pieces of the gum and can still remember that super sweet flavor that lasted all of 12 seconds before fading away.  But the cards were what I was really after.


I actually started collecting the cards when the second series, the red ones, came out...which means I had to assemble my blue set, the first series, entirely by trade.  Which I managed to do successfully on the school play ground at recess.  I still have the same cards today, 35 years later.


Featured here are the first card of the first set, Luke Skywalker, and card number 80 from the red set.  I put this one here because to this day I remember that it took me forever to get a copy of this card!

Until next time...

Saturday, May 12, 2012

FF

Many years ago, maybe 20, I was at a comic book convention in San Francisco and was browsing through some books when a guy came up and asked the dealer behind the table, "How Much for your FF5?".   The guy pointed to a book on the wall behind the dealer...the wall that contained all the "good stuff".  FF5?  FF?  I was sort of familiar with what he was saying, but I had yet to be exposed to the epic series of the Fantastic Four and to the singular achievement of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in these books.

Jack Kirby did over 100 issues of FF from issue #1 forward.  That's over 2000 pages of comic art.  No wonder he was known as Jack "The King" Kirby.  Featured today is a cover from FF 55 with the Silver Surfer and the Thing.  At the time, the Silver Surfer was a fairly new character, having been introduced in issue 48.  This was the beginning of a three issue story arc that is one of my favorite in the whole FF canon.

In future posts I will be sharing more Kirby work from Thor and his later DC work.  And maybe I will post on FF5 as well...so you can see what that guy was talking about 20 years ago!

In the meantime, enjoy this one...it is a definite "Top 10" FF cover.

Until next time....


Friday, May 11, 2012

Freakish Dwarves

I am a little short on time for writing this post tonight, so I decided to literally reach into one of the boxes of Disneyland cards I have, pull out a random card, and post about it.

This is a fairly common card from the 60's or 70's.  The thing that makes this card remarkable is the incredibly large and rather freakish heads on the Seven Dwarves.  I am not quite sure what they do in the park these days since I just don't get there that often, but given that Mickey and Minnie used to be like this as well (and have drastically improved over the years) I have to believe that the dwarves have come to look a little better as well!

Until next time...





Thursday, May 10, 2012

Thursday Missive: Estate and Garage Sales

Before my wife and I had kids I used to go to garage sales all the time.  And while I don't go to as many as I used to, I still find that garage and estate sales continue to be a lot of fun to visit.

A lot of folks think that garages and estate sales are a waste of time.  "It's just a bunch of junk".  And while there is ample justification for that statement, very often you will find diamonds in the rough.  When you go to these sales (especially estate sales) you are being given a glimpse not only at a bunch of old stuff...but a glimpse into someones life that cuts across the past fifty, sixty or even seventy years.

I went to an estate sale up in Los Altos several years ago.  The man had been a doctor and also had a lot of children.  Well, looking through the books he had and the left over things he had from the long past childhood of his children, it was very clear that this guy was dedicated to the education of his kids.  Here were the tools he used to raise his family...all being scattered away.  I felt like I needed to buy something to preserve a legacy.  Maybe that sounds silly, but it was true.  I ended up with a box of small national flags.  My kids have them in their room and we occasionally break them out and talk about which belongs to which country and where it is on the map.



At another sale, the man had been a pilot for Pan-American Airways.  There were all kinds of things related to his work...some more interesting than others, but all of it together made for a fascinating slice into this guys career.  I walked away with a number of things from this sale, one of which is pictured here.  It's a certificate that was apparently handed out to people who crossed the international dateline on Pan-Am's clipper service in the Pacific.  It's a beautiful piece of art for one, and it's a relic from an era of progress in America which changed the world really.


Finally, another reason I like estate sales may seem a bit odd, but it is sincere.  They remind me that all the stuff I have will one day be scattered.  As the saying goes, you can't take it with you.  So, while I love collecting and it brings me a lot of pleasure...at the end of the day, it's all just "hay, wood and stubble", as my mom would say.  So...I try not to take my stuff too seriously...it is after all, just stuff.

Until next time....


Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Comics on Parade

Back in the 1930's, before Superman came on the scene in Action Comics #1, comic books consisted of reprints of strips that had previously appeared in the news papers.  The first "modern" American comic book in the form that we know comics today (namely a color magazine on news print with printing on both sides of the page) appeared in 1933 (Famous Funnies). This was a successful formula, and it continued for quite some time.  But eventually, books like Action Comics and Detective Comics moved in and took over the market since they were publishing new material that had not been printed before.

Comics on Parade was one such reprint magazine which actually started in 1938 (the same year Action Comics #1 was published)...quite late for a reprint book.  It would continue publication all the way through 1955 reprinting strips like L'il Abner, Tarzan, Nancy, Fritzi Ritz, Ella Cinders and The Captain and the Kids...all news paper strips of the era.

I found this copy of issue #13 on eBay a couple weeks back.  New to me, but published in 1939!

Until next time...



Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Another TWA card

Last week I showed a set of postcards published by TWA in the 1950's...with the theme "Along the way of TWA".  At the time I thought that the six cards I showed might be all there was to the set, but a brief search on eBay revealed that there are several more of these cards to be had.  Most of the ones on eBay are over-priced, in my humble opinion.  But I did pick up one new card last week and I just got it in the mail today.




There is a complimentary set with aircraft on it...including the legendary Lockheed Constellation.  The small aircraft in the upper left corner of this card is also a Constellation, flying over the D.C. area.

Until next time...

Monday, May 7, 2012

U.S. Route 70 to Disneyland

Once Disneyland became a well established tourist destination...which, if you think about it, was really from it's opening day onward...it started appearing on other tourist marketing brochures and the like.  This card, an advertisement for the U.S. route 70 freeway, is one such example.



The caption near the bottom of the card sold me: "2926 MILES ALL PAVED"!!

I had never seen this card up until a couple weeks ago when one popped up on eBay.  Maybe I wasn't looking very hard, because there is another one there now.  A worthy addition to the collection.

Until next time....

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Aulani Postcards

My family and I went out to Disney's Aulani resort in Hawaii a couple weeks ago.  Some collector's of Disneyland cards won't include the cards from other Disney properties in their collections, and I tend to follow that rule as well.  But if I am visiting a property anyway, I tend to seek out and pick up what's there.

First off were four wooden cards that are a little different.  A fellow collector, Ken, over at Disneyland Postcards, has recently chronicled these cards on his site.  There were also two other cards at the resort which I was able to find, and they are shown here.

I especially like the surfer dude...classic design, nicely done.  Now...if I could only complete my set of early Disneyland Hotel cards!  (Not an easy task).

Until next time....



Friday, May 4, 2012

A Quality Artist

My friends Brad and Linda were over at our place for dinner tonight...both are artists with backgrounds in design and illustration. We were talking about the process of creating stuff, whether it be a painting, design or even something like this blog.  Sometimes, the creator can get so caught up in their own high standards, that nothing ultimately gets produced. (For example...I have re-written these last two sentences about 8 times!)

Well, during the Golden, Silver and Bronze age of comics, artists that worked for DC or Marvel (or any number of other smaller publishers) often had to crank out a significant amount of work and meet tight monthly dead lines, regardless of their personal standards.  Some of them pretty much phoned in the work and just slogged it out.  But others managed to be consistently good, and after a while, readers began to recognize when "the good guy" was working, wanted to know who it was and demanded more.  Joe Kubert was one such guy.  He did not phone in his work, and his catalog of War, Tarzan and other comics will long be recognized for their quality of craft.


I actually bought this copy of DC's Tarzan issue 212 today at a local shop.  And while it may not represent Kubert's greatest work, it illustrates my point well.  DC started this series in April of 1972, and while I cannot speak to it's commercial success, artistically I think it was another example of very solid work for Kubert on a monthly title that was entirely his artistic responsibility.


The cover promises a compelling story, a lot of action and good art.  And that promise is kept with a book length, well edited, Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan story, illustrated by Kubert.  I highly recommend this series, even if you have never read a comic before.  It's easy to come by, doesn't cost much to acquire (the issue above cost me $5), and is full of great stories and art.

In future posts I will try to feature some of Joe's War comics.

Until next time...

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Thursday Missive - Is Sand Collectible?

About 30 years ago I went on a vacation with my family to the Caribbean.  Before we left, the father of a close friend of my brother asked him to bring back a shell.  My brother couldn't find a good shell, so he brought back some sand...and my brother and I brought back some for ourselves as well.  One thing led to another and 32 years later I have over 30 samples of sand from all over the world.

But is sand really a collectible?  Well, yes, of course it is.  I collect it because I think it is interesting.  All the different colors, textures, and grain variation make it so.  It sounds a little nerdy maybe (OK...maybe a lot) but that doesn't change the fact that the collection has been fun to put together.  It doesn't cost anything, and it has no value.  But value and investment potential are secondary actors.  At least, I think they should be when we collect stuff.

For more, check out the links below.  My brother and I are apparently not alone!

http://www.sand-atlas.com/en/

http://www.sandcollectors.org/ISCSHomeIndexx.html

Pictured below, my first sample from the Bahamas on the left (1980).  On the right, Aswan (1982). The Sahara in a bottle.