The other night I was browsing through some of the Disney postcard related sales on eBay and came across an “Elliot Brothers” card showing the band playing at the Disneyland Date Nite. What was most remarkable about this sale was the fact that the card was really rough, missing a significant chunk off one corner, and yet it managed to get $128 when all was said and 
done. The card did come from the personal estate of the trumpeter in the band, Cappy Lewis (pictured on the center of the card), who apparently worked for the Disney Studio for quite a while.
This got me thinking about a somewhat tangential topic. Two terms that one often hears in collecting circles are “Advanced Collector” and “Important Collection”. Today I wanted to give some brief thoughts on the first term: “Advanced Collector”.
What makes someone an “advanced” collector?? I have to confess…this term usually makes me roll my eyes because too often it has everything to do with $$. An “advanced” collector will shell out a million bucks for an Action Comics #1, or $50K for a first edition Hobbit, or whatever. But that really isn’t it, is it? An advanced collector, in my humble opinion, is someone who has significant historical and or encyclopedic knowledge about a specific hobby. I certainly do not count myself as an advanced collector, but I have had the privelege to know a few, mostly in the comic book arena. People who can site facts regarding the hobby that seem so obscure, and yet are important facts that are common knowledge to them.
In this hobby…clearly there are enough people out there who know enough about Disneyland postcards to realize that this Date-Niters card is really rare. And so, they went after it. In doing so, they educate the rest of us. Next time one shows up…whenever that will be…we can be ready! And that really is one of the key purposes of this site…to educate and inform while conveying the fun of the hobby at the same time. I hope you find that to be true!
Until next time…
