My other Hobby besides Baseball Cards

[jerrys]

I'm sure the mentioned names of toys, bikes, model soldiers, etc. are interesting but without pictures of them are just words to me.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by jerrys

I'm sure the mentioned names of toys, bikes, model soldiers, etc. are interesting but without pictures of them are just words to me.

Well ok then, you asked for it....

1983 bike built for the Team Pursuit at the Pan-Am games. The Us won Gold in that event, and I'm fairly sure this bike was actually ridden and not one of the backup spares. I made the special front hub, and the special handlebars, those, like the frame were team only and pretty much can't be bought.


And the before picture.




And a stamp, at a first glance, a fairly common one. Until you see that the marks at the top are the bottom of a plate number that for this stamp must be 40. Plate 40 was used on an experimental steam powered press, and only about 2400 impressions were made. It was last described in any stamp publication in 1932, when photos of stamps weren't allowed. After 80 years, some experts believed that Luff who wrote about it in 1902 and the guy who wrote about it in 1932 were mistaken. Until I found this one in 2012 As far as I know it's still the only one known although the fine details have sort of proven a few other stamps to have probably been from plate 40. Still no other plate number copies.

[jerrys]

The bike looks like a winner - the other I think I may interpret Dinky toys easier.

[steve B]

Don't feel bad, a fairly large dealer missed it, and it had been on "stampwants.com"(Now hipstamp) one of the few niche ebay competitors, for some time before I bought it.

It's such an obscure item I can't even guess what it's worth. One of those things that suffers from being super rare, but way too specialized to be extremely valuable.

[todeen]

Great piece. I am working on a restoration of a 1900 china hutch (family heirloom). It was in poor shape, with some questionable repair jobs over the last 120 years. My dad said, "Well, 80 years ago people fixed things the best way they knew how." And all I thought was, I didn't even take shop class in school but I know how to use wood clamps. LOL. This is my second restoration piece. Can't beat old oak furniture stability.

[bnorth]

Just added this cool cheap pocket watch to my collection. Wife picked it up in China on a recent trip.

[todeen]

Originally Posted by bnorth

Just added this cool cheap pocket watch to my collection. Wife picked it up in China on a recent trip.

Interesting. My dad is into collecting watches. He doesn't have much in the way of vintage. However, he has more watches than days in the week to wear them.