This afternoon I was entering a few “prices realized” on eBay into the checklist database.  In the process I found that someone had bought a copy of NT0374 for $5.  Now…I have to admit that I love the canal boats.  It’s easily one of my favorite rides at Disneyland.  Having made a few dioramas myself in the past couple of years, the detail and scale of the landscapes is just
perfect..and if you get the right canal boat operator, then it’s just a bonus.

Since I did not have a picture of the canal boat card entered int the data base yet, I scanned one in and in the process noticed something rather interesting.  As an aside, I have to say that this is true for a lot of the cards.  Scanning them and seeing them blown up on the screen…you see stuff that you just don’t see when they are regular size right in front of your face.

Anyway…four of the people in the boat that is in the fore-ground are wearing what look to be navy blue hats.  The hats appear to have a Disneyland logo on the brim, and they appear to offer excellent protection from the hot SoCal sun.  The kid in the back of the boat has one as well…it’s just not on his head.

So…does any one know what these hats are?  Anyone have a photo they can share?  I would love to see what one of these hats looks like in detail.  Part of me thinks they might be made of paper…but hard to be sure.

Checklist Update:

I am adding more pictures to the database now…working my way through the P-cards.  I have also started entering E card data into the database as well.  It’s going to be pretty awesome when it’s all in there!

In addition to that, I have a list of things that I am going to be changing on the checklist tool.  It will probably be a month or so before its all implemented…but I wanted to let you know that improvements are coming!  If you have used the tool and have any specific things you find annoying, please let me know.

Until next time…

My earliest memories of visiting Disneyland invariably include recollections of that gigantic parking lot out in front of the park with the long trams and the ride up to the main entrance.  There was anticipation involved in that process…entering the lot in the car, parking, getting out and loading into a tram, and finally pulling up to the Main Gate.  It was pretty exciting as a little kid.  Especially for me since I didn’t grow up nearby and just visited the park on rare occasions.

This postcard (NT1122a) is one of the few that give a good view of that immense lot.  Land now developed with Downtown Disney, the Disney Grand Californian Hotel and Disney California Adventure, is just a huge blank lot here.  It’s amazing to think about all that has happened in that space since this picture was taken.  The shear creative energy that has been poured into transforming this lot over the last 15 years is rather staggering.

Checklist Update

On another front, all the cards through NT0418 are now entered into the checklist database, about 500 NT cards all together so far (with variants).  The database includes card text, park. land, card number…etc.  It is all searchable and filterable.  Images will come eventually, but you can always see those at Ken’s site (see links).  Ultimately, there will be a complete set of images here too…it just makes sense to have all the data for a given card in one place, but that isn’t really a priority right now.

And I am hoping in the summer time to enter a lot of WDW cards too…its going to be fun!

Until next time…

I recently mentioned that I bought several cards in a lot on eBay from a seller who was getting rid of a small but interesting collection of Disneyland postcards.  This was the lot that the Wurlitzer card was in that I posted on a few days back.  In going through the collection tonight, I discovered a very cool surprise…a copy of NT1132, the PanArt Disneyland Hotel card with the coin attached.

Up until tonight, I confess to being totally clueless about this card.  It’s in the Nickel Tour, it just had not registered with me.  Either way…I lucked into it, thinking while I was bidding that the card was just a regular NT1131 card (still a good card to get…by the way).

In trying to research the card, I found the Park Pennies site.  Awesome…I love stuff like this!  Here is an entire community of folks creating a guide, talking about new finds and the like…just like we are doing here on this site, but its all pressed pennies.  It’s sites like this that make me want to dive in and begin a new collection (no…I will resist…I…must…resist!).

Anyway…I wanted to share the discovery of the card to be sure, but I am frankly more excited by finding the very cool Park Pennies site.  I will be going back there and sharing it with my kids too!

Until next time…

Hi folks.  A quick post this morning to let you know I was entering some pricing data into the checklist database and came across one card that definitely deserved a price upgrade based on the one record on eBay.  NT0290a, card B-7 , A Family of Indian Water Buffalo, went for $30 on eBay in April.  This is technically a variant card, but I think it is fair to say that collectors would have paid the same if the card was the NT 0290 version.

Usually, I would say that one sale is not enough to change a price category…but in this case, given the amount it went for, it was merited.  I bumped it up from Common to Uncommon.  There are likely quite a few places in the price guide where price categories are either too low or too high.  So, don’t hesitate to point out those places to me and I can make the change.  (Or if you are one of the few with edit privileges on the checklist, you can make the change yourself)

There are a few tweaks I will be making to the price tracking tool in the near future to make it a little more useful.  So stay tuned for that.  As to the rest of the checklist tool…I have a running list of about 10 improvements I am going to have made to it very soon.  So…stay tuned for that too!

Until next time…

There were a few interesting auctions on eBay recently, highlighted by one seller getting rid of a small collection that contained a number of uncommon and rare cards.  A few of these lots went for quite a bit, but I was able to snag one of the lots that had the card I am featuring today.  It is one of the ones in the lot that I was particularly interested in.

The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company was founded in 1853, and while famous for its theatre organs and juke boxes, it produced instruments of all kinds.  Companies like Wurlitzer, a widely recognized name from the era, did indeed bring legitimacy to Main St., Disneyland.  Of course, Wurlitzer is no longer making juke boxes or theatre organs (they went out of business in 1988), and Main St. only has a few sponsors left to speak of (Kodak, and…uhh…not sure who else).  But this card is a great reminder of those early days at the Happiest Place on Earth!

Before I go…a quick note on the database.  I expect to pass 500 records entered this weekend, so stay tuned.  Once summer roles around and bored high-school students are easier to come by…I expect to pick up the clip of data entry!  I am also slowly (vey slowly) adding photos.  The database is currently more about the text and search-ability than the card images.  But the ultimate goal is to have all the text and images in one place…for all the cards from all of the parks.  Sounds easy…right?!?!  (Let me know if you want to help!)

Until next time…

**I think 1119 and 1119A are mislabeled on page 46 of the Nickel Tour.  This card has no number and is therefore 1119 according to page 307.  (Comments welcome if you see this differently)

In entering data into the checklist database, I thought it would be worthwhile to highlight something regarding variations.  The variations that are most common in the cards fall into only a few categories.  In this particular post, I will feature several variations from card NT0312, Frontierland Entrance having to do with text (and one bonus from NT0727A).  None of this info is new…but I wanted to show it all side by side in this post.

On the back of the earlier Disneyland post cards, there is some text related to the Disney company and the Disneyland park, and also a logo related to the particular land of the card in question.  They never seemed to really decide with certainty what they wanted to have for this text and logo combination, thus the variations.  Witness here:

NT0312	NT0312a	NT0312c

(First of all…NT0312b has more to do with the coloration of the actual card, so its not shown here.  Its back is just like NT0312.)  On these three cards though, you get a brief primer on text variations on the back of Disneyland post cards.  Between the vertical Disneyland Inc., and the “THE MAGIC KINGDOM”, there are clear differences.

And while these variations are probably the most common, there are more.  For example…take a look at the back of this card, NT0727A:

“THE MAGIC KINGOM” text is totally absent.

And so it goes.  These are not the only variations.  There are, like I said, variations in logo and other aspects of the cards.  I am actually thinking of adding a static page to the menu bar to detail these…so if you have any obscure variations you want to have listed in that article, please let me know.

Until next time…