I recently ran across a new (to me at least) website entitled “History’s Newsstand Blog“. The Blog is primarily authored by a fellow named Tim Hughes and managed on a day to day basis by Guy Heilenman who is the president and general manager of Rare Newspapers Inc. Tim is the founder of Rare Newspapers, having bought his first vintage newspaper — an 1826 Philadelphia paper — for $3 at a flea market in 1975. They are considered to be the leading authorities on rare and historic newspapers.

The blog tells us that they have over two million newspapers and 18th century magazines in their inventory, all stored in archival-quality protective folders. Their warehouse and office space is nearly 10,000 sq. ft. and they currently have a staff of 7 employees.

They are of course on eBay where they say of themselves:

Authentic & Original Newspapers (Antiquarian, Historic, Old & Collectible) dating from 1600-1980, specializing in Colonial, Revolutionary War, Civil War, and Old West Era issues, including nearly every issue of Harper’s Weekly, Gentleman’s Magazine, and The New York Times, to name a few.

The article on their blog that caught my attention – I look for keywords like Ephemera, Ephemeral, etc. – was this one entitled A related collectible. It talks about newspaper subscription notices. The article says that “rarely did they survive the years as they were truly ephemeral–never meant to be kept beyond the length of the subscription” It further goes on to say that “such items are an interesting related collectible, particularly if one can find a newspaper to match a receipt.”

I’m wondering how many of our readers collect vintage newspapers.. and if you do, have you any combination’s of both the newspaper and either it’s subscription notice or subscription receipt? And if you do, perhaps you’d like to write a brief article for posting here on Encore-Ephemera talking about your item.. and perhaps even your entire collection. If you are interested, drop me a line at info@encore-ephemera.com

I’m Tom Murphy and thanks for helping me give Ephemera the Encore it deserves.

Have a look at my eBay Ephemera store
or at my Bonanzle Booth
or at my Zen Cart

I’ve even got an eBay Auction site for collectibles

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