NT0371 – Alice in Wonderland Upside-Down?

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Todd

Last week there were some interesting auction results on eBay for some rather rare cards.  One of these auctions contained a card that I have been looking for for a long time…and I was fortunate enough to win the auction.

I think I have spoken before about how I got into this hobby.  I found a pile of Disneyland cards and ephemera from 1955/1956 at a garage sale in 2000.  I paid ~$10 for the pile and eventually sold it all on eBay for a whole lot more than $10.  In the process of selling these cards, I discovered the Nickel Tour book…and eventually decided that I would keep some of the cards and start my own collection.  Well…one of the cards I sold was this one…NT0371.  The card shows an interior shot of Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland in the Upside Down room.  Upside Down room you say?  When Fantasyland was updated in 1983…this ride was revamped and this scene was removed from the ride.

It’s not clear to me at all why this card is rare…but it is.  Perhaps it sold out quickly, and was not reordered.  I suspect that information is lost to history.  Either way…it is a cool card, and one of the few interior “dark ride” shots from this era.

Until next time…

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NT1108 – The Upjohn Factory

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Todd

So the other day I was looking through the Nickel Tour and came across this card.  I thought to myself, “I have seen a gazillion of the other Upjohn cards, how come I never see this one?  Is it rare, or what?”

Well, the answer was pretty simple.  Take a close look at the card.  There is no mention of Disneyland on this card.  So, whenever someone wants to put this on eBay they don’t mention Disneyland unless they happen to have a specific knowledge of the Nickel Tour and the sister cards that relate to this one.

So, why is this card in the Nickel Tour, anyway?  Well, along with the other Upjohn cards, it must have been available at the park as a free giveaway.  The other cards are all Disneyland specific, and show pictures of the pharmacy on Main Street.  But this factory photo was just that…a factory photo….that is, not something at Disneyland.

So…mystery solved.  If you want to find this card on eBay, just type in “Upjohn building” or something like that in the eBay search and you will find it.  I paid something like $3 for this card…which is probably more than I should have paid…there were several auctions to choose from.

Until next time…

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NT0591 Art Corner Pecos Bill

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Todd

Another interesting auction result today on this Art Corner card.  The auction was for seven days and when I first saw it I put in a low ball bid of $20 or so to just remind me the auction was out there.  I do not have this card…and I did not win this auction.

$130 sounds kind of steep to me for this card.  Would it fetch this result again if another card showed up next week?  Hard to say…but I suspect it would.  We probably won’t be able to answer this question though, as I it will likely be a while before another one of these pops up.  But…you never know!

In the mean time…this card has firmly entrenched itself in the “Very Rare” category with this result.

Until next time…

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eBay Auction Results – NT0122

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Todd

If you were paying attention to eBay this past week, you probably saw a seller parsing out a collection of cards that included some rather rare cards.  These are cards that almost never come up for auction.  One of the more interesting results was for a 13 postcard lot that included D-131 (NT0122).  This card shows the Art Corner at Disneyland circa 1957 or so.  This card was probably not that interesting to most folks back in the day, so I suspect it was not often purchased, hence the rarity.

But this auction was, I suspect, not entirely driven by that card.  Two pre-opening cards were also offered that had postmarks from 1955.  I have seen some people put a premium on cards with 1955 postmarks…the closer to July the better.  But I have found that the influence of the early postmark stops being a real price driver outside of July/August.  I would be interested on the thoughts of other collectors here.

The lot also included a nice D-111 Fort Wilderness card.  You don’t see this that often either, but it is not rare…I have it as “Common” in the price guide and it probably belongs on the high end of that scale.

I have the NT0122 Art Corner card listed as “Rare” in the price guide.  It probably belongs in the “Very Rare” category though, given that that the lot got $113.

I will talk more about the other auction results from this seller in the coming days.  He has more lots up this week, by the way!

Until next time…

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A Real Jungle Cruise and NT0272

Posted on November 24, 2012 by Todd

When you ride the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland, you are, in theory, taking a ride down several of the world’s big jungle rivers.  The ride was based on a Disney “True Life Adventure” (probably Jungle Cat) and takes riders down the Irrawaddy, Mekong, Congo, Amazon, etc.  According to the Daveland website (see links), the boats were modeled after the boat used in the “African Queen”.

This past week I was on vacation in Costa Rica and took a river boat cruise on the Tarcoles river to check out the wildlife.  Almost immediately upon entering the boat, I thought, “This looks very similar to the Disneyland River Boat Cruise!”  Sure…the boats were not exactly the same…but we had the river, the animals (crocodiles primarily and lots of birds) and we even had a guide with a great sense of humor…José.  But it was all real!  I was thinking that this type of cruise must have been the kind of thing that inspired Walt Disney in the first place.

Anyway…here are a few shots to compare to card NT0272.  We didn’t see any hippos of course, but we were just as close to the crocodiles as the boy is to the hippo in the postcard (arms were inside the boat though!!).  It was rather unsettling
actually!  Oh, and here’s one observation…ever notice that there are no postcards taken from the interior of the boat that show the boat in the card (at least not in the B-Series cards…I think there may be one that was published later though.)

I will be back tomorrow to discuss some interesting eBay results.

Until next time…

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NT0618 – 3D Mickey Mouse

Posted on November 18, 2012 by Todd

The other day I was looking around on eBay and found this card.  It is a card you see fairly frequently…several are up on eBay now.  It was available cheap…I was the only bidder.  The card is not that stout…unlike many others in this series which have a very thick stock background that is not only thick, but not very flexible either.

The other thing about this card is that it has nothing on the back but “Printed in Japan”.  No postage stamp space, no writing space, no copyright info from Disney.  I wonder if this really was sold at the park…but it’s in “the book” so I gather the answer is yes.

Some of the cards in this series are easy to come by, and others not so much.  I think I have only seen one copy of NT0619 for sale on eBay…but the demand is not that high either way so when you do see them, you should be able to pick them up without breaking the bank.

Until next time…

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Grand Canyon Folder

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Todd

Hi folks…there have been a couple interesting auctions on eBay lately involving this postcard folder that I thought I would take a moment to point out.  The folders of postcards have not, in general, been as sought after as the postcards…less pure I guess.  But that said, there are a couple that are pretty uncommon (and more sought after), this one being one of them.

There are no known variants of this folder…it was likely published right after the opening of the diorama in 1958 and discontinued not long after.  In case you were wondering, the dinosaurs were added to the diorama in 1966…but are not included in this postcard set.  As always, go to Daveland’s site to get more information on the history of the diorama.

Anyway…all that to say that one of these was bid up to about $35 just yesterday on eBay, but I can’t find the auction this morning…it has disappeared from the active and sold listings.  If you read this blog regularly, maybe you can help me out.  Despite that, one of these folders was also recently included in a lot that sold for a very reasonable price of $35 or so…it included a Haunted House folder, which is also not that common.  A little while back a haunted mansion folder sold for $45 on it’s own.

So…there it is…I will write more on folders in the future as these are not included in the Nickel Tour Checklist, but are interesting in their own right.

Until next time…

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NT0471 – Panorama Frontierland

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Todd

This was an interesting auction result that I thought warranted a comment on the blog tonight.  A couple weeks ago, three panorama cards came up on eBay.  NT0471, NT0479 and NT0470.  They were all listed as Buy-It Now for basically $100.  That is a nominal price for those cards…you see them go for a little more than that when they are on eBay, but sometimes quite a bit lower than that as well.

At some point in the last few days, the seller changed the listing to add “Make an Offer”, or it was there in the beginning and I just missed it.  Tonight I looked an all three sold for $60 each on November 5th.  I actually needed two of them, but the original price made me shy away.  Of course now I am kicking myself!

Anyway…all that to say that these cards are a great deal at $60 each.

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NT1046 thru NT1215 added to the Price Guide

Posted on November 4, 2012 by Todd

So…this is a big slug of cards that have now been added to the guide.  There are a number of challenging areas here.  It’s not entirely obvious how to categorize some of the Disneyland Hotel cards, but I think most of them, with a few exceptions, belong in the “Uncommon” category.

As far as the Participant cards go…some of these are super common…but some are just the reverse.  I suspect the ones that are rare, were probably not offered for free!

Anyway…we are almost there…a complete price guide online!  Just a few more cards to go…and then I can start to scrub the list and add in cards that may not have been captured by the Nickel Tour book.  That will be an ongoing process!

Until next time…

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NT0308 – Adventureland Jungle Cruise – Jungle Cabin

Posted on November 4, 2012 by Todd

Well…this was an interesting result on this card on eBay today.  I do not actually have this card and threw out a bid of a little over $10.  Apparently I was not alone…as several others clearly don’t have this card either!  After 9 bids the card ended up at $16.53 plus a $1 for shipping, so $17.53.

I am not sure what this card has gotten in the past, but I suspect that it will continue to garner this kind of price based on the level of interest here.  As a comic book collector (check out my other blog linked below)…I was reminded of this just the other day.  I was going through my collection and came across a Batman book from the 1970’s that I purchased about 10 years ago for no reason other than I thought the Neal Adams cover was really cool and the book happened to be in really nice shape.  That book sells for a minimum of $200 today…I paid $13.

Anyway…happy collecting everyone.

Until next time…

Blogging here and at Sundry Collectibles on comic books, vintage airline postcards, and other stuff!

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