60% is the new 80%

A milestone was reached today with a fairly nondescript postcard:
"Rock Portals on the Trail Ridge Road", Sanborn R-866, a pedestrian view of the Rock Cut post-1932, pushed me into second place all time for total different number of Sanborn R-series postcards assembled (in the set that runs from R-750 to R-1785).  Only long-time collector Bobbie Heisterkamp presumably has more (her list is not a matter of public record, but she owns more rare R-series views than me from postcards chosen to illustrate her book, and I'm going to give her the 320 common views that anyone serious about collecting Sanborns could find without much effort).
The second column is me, the third column is Sanborn HQ.  You would think Sanborn HQ would have the capability of assembling a complete set of Sanborn R-series postcards (1034 different numbered views produced between 1933 and 1953), since they had access to all of them, but apparently they didn't bother collecting them or saving them as salesmen's samples or an office or "master" set.  620 is 60% of the total number of R-series postcards between R-750 and R-1785 Harold Sanborn ever produced, but the remaining 40% is very much an "uphill" 40%, as it consists of less than 10% that are "easy" to find (in that more than 500 were printed over the life of the postcard) and 70% that are "difficult to impossible" to find (in that between 25 to 500 were printed over the life of the postcard, which at 2-1/2 cents to 5 cents original purchase price, was produced as an essentially disposable souvenir).

I am most proud of this set because it was assembled piecemeal, dealer to dealer, Ebay seller to Ebay seller, and show to show, over the course of a decade, without buying out another collection.  Before "Rock Portals on the Trail Ridge Road" entered the fold and we stood tied at 619, Sanborn HQ's 619 were not the same 619 postcards as my 619, although there is considerable overlap among the core or "common" postcards (again, Sanborn had easy access to the rare cards, unlike current collectors, but apparently didn't bother saving them) - think of a Venn diagram, with the overlap being the core "common" postcards which even a blind pig could find, and cards unique to Sanborn's collection being one of the outlying crescents, and some postcards unique to my collection being the other.  Merging the two collections would push my collection to 80% completion, but having come this far, I have no intention of merging them, but rather seeing how far I can get on my own.  Assembling a complete set would be akin to walking to the moon, except that, in that case, everyone would remember your name, while in the case of assembling a Sanborn RPPC collection, the six people who know your name either hate you for taking postcards they need, or dismiss you for such a silly undertaking.

Comments

  1. JeffJuly 25, 2019 at 9:13 AM

    Looking for some biographical info. on Sanborn. Birth and death dates, etc.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Getting Hostiles

Image
According to the IMDb website, some portion of the movie Hostiles was filmed in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Does this look like Pagosa Springs? The movie is gorgeously shot, and the locations are breathtaking.  Being somewhat familiar with Pagosa Springs, though, I'm having trouble matching any of the exteriors with anything within a 10-mile radius of Pagosa Springs. According to IMDb The railway station at Chama, New Mexico served as the stand-in for Butte, Montana.  Chama is about 50 miles away from Pagosa Springs, and Pagosa Springs definitely sent some of its own down to Chama to serve as extras, one of whom is currently pedaling coal from the Chama location on Ebay. A big-budget movie filming in a community of 2000 is generally a newsworthy event.  Filming of Hostiles took place in the summer of 2016, and Pagosa Springs' newspaper of record, the Sun , made no mention of stars Christian Bale, Rosamund Pike, Wes Studi, or director Scott Cooper hanging out at P
Read more

Johanna writes

The Estes Park Economic Development Corporation (EPEDC) is patting itself on the back because "the award for 'Small Community of  the Year' was presented" to them by the Economic Development Council of Colorado (EDCC) "on behalf of a town that sets its sights on building a more resilient, inclusive, and vibrant community and economy after recovering from the devastating Colorado floods in 2013." How has the following economic development been beneficial to Estes Park? The Estes Park Event Center, completed in spring 2014, has not brought all the big events expected from outside of our community.  It is not profitable. The Estes Park Medical Center (i.e., Park Hospital District) did not have the money to build the EPMC/Anschutz Wellness Training Center within the two years specific in the "Contract for Sale of Lot 4" to John Cullen, owner of the Stanley Hotel (i.e., Grand Heritage Hotel Group, LLC).  Since the money was not raised, according
Read more

Okay so I'll say it

Image
Jeez we have a bunch of milquetoast pretend journalists in town. The guy who was arrested locally a few clicks back, Keaton M.A. Krell, is the same guy who sexually assaulted a bunch of underage females in Linn County, Kansas, and, brazenly, got away with it. The airtight connection is through his wife or ex-wife or whoever star pupil and non-profit wunderkind Candace Krell is. But even then, c'mon, how many folks named Keaton M.A. Krell are running around diddling little girls? Get some cojones, POR (paper of record) and POR (podcast of record). You did the work (sort of) now publish the findings. Stop hiding behind the town as an excuse to avoid going to press - the PIO and TA aren't going to give you anything because they are scared of their own shadows. For the low IQ crowd and too easily unconvinced: Note how Candace Krell used to give her home address on LinkedIn as Estes Park, Colorado Here's another big whoopsie And this And this And this
Read more