Spark Plug (and ephemera) Collector Joe Cook on the VintageMeld

[Cliff Aliperti]

This is my favorite post that I've put together yet, mainly because on the surface it has absolutely nothing to do with anything I'm interested in! In my mind I sold this gentleman a 1940's movie star premium photo, but in his it was a neat spark plug related item for his collection. The item was both, an Auto-Lite Spark Plugs premium of Madeleine Carroll.

Anyway, I asked Joe if he wouldn't mind sharing a little about his collection, and he absolutely blew me away with details and photos! Didn't leave a lot of work for me except editing his images and ever so slightly polishing the text.

The most relevant portion to this group about Joe's collection is excerpted immediately below, but in full it's actually a pretty long post with lots of photos so feel free to check out the rest on the VintageMeld:

As I mentioned earlier and my purchase from Cliff attests, I collect all things spark plug related, beyond the plugs themselves. Besides the movie starlet items, I also collect spark plug related posters, post cards, stamps, letterheads, brochures and pamphlets, matchbook covers, decals, signs and counter displays, salesman's samples, patents (over 5,000 of them!), and any and all types of promotional items.

Although I do not as a rule take the more ephemeral items on tour, I do display them in my mini-museum. After a lot of searching I found a poster display rack from a store closing and mounted it on my wall. The rack displays 20 posters, and since I have about 50 posters in my collection I rotate them about twice per year (I'm currently seeking an affordable second rack for some of the additional posters). I mounted the signs along the top of the wall using their supplied mountings.

[Rita Holcomb]

WOW is right!

[Cliff Aliperti]

Thanks, Frank, I thought that would be a good post to point to over here. I'm so grateful to him for sharing, especially all of the photos--I have some really cool collectors posts I'm sitting on because the collectors have never sent along the promised photos, so when this came in I just sat back and said, "Wow!"

[Frank DeFreitas]

Cliff, what an incredibly fascinating story at your site. I love all the things that people lock into when they collect. Joe must be the spark plug king -- and with his very own mini-museum, too! A great story to begin the big holiday weekend. Inspiring, actually. I also agree with the pothole comment about the Northeast!