Matchbook Collecting

Have you ever thought about matchbook collecting (matchcovers & matchboxes)? You may be a phillumenist!

Phillumeny is a term attached to those who collect matchcovers and related itmes.

Most people have a drawer or cupboard full of old matchbooks. Perhaps, you found some in your box of ephemera collectibles. Or, maybe, you found some matchbook covers in a scrapbooking album. Why not start a collection?

Matchcovers and matchboxes come in all kinds of categories; mainly advertising: Banks, Local Advertising, Restaurants, Hotels, Casino's, Weddings, etc.

They also vary somewhat in size, paper color and graphics, striker width, and other miscellaneous markings (inside cover).

We once came across a couple of hundred of matchbook covers! Needless to say, there was quite a variety...including many interesting covers!

And so, it occurred to us...why not invite you to show us your most interesting matchbook cover? Sounds like fun to us! Follow the simple instructions below to get started!

What Is Your Most Unusual Matchbook?

Show us your most unusual matchbook cover! How did you acquire it? (Please, keep it clean, folks!)

Share you "special find" with the rest of us! (We love this kind of stuff!)

Oh, and if you have any tips and/or advice on matchbook collecting or matchbook displays...we'd love to hear about that too! We may just add it to our page on matchbook collecting to help others.

What Other Visitors Have Said

World Trade Center Building 3 Tall Ships Bar
On one of my trips to New York I ducked into the Tall Ships Bar in WTC-3 and picked up, in addition to a couple of Scotch and Waters, a few match books ...

Uncle Ted's Matchbook Collecting

My Uncle was an avid collector of many things. Matchbooks seem to be just one.... Recently he passed away and I now have hundreds of them. He kept ...

Matchbook Box Find
I purchased a wooden hand made box about a 1 yard cube in size at an auction and in it was 3/4 full of old matches mostly paper matches 500-600 and some ...

Tucked Away!!
I bought a box at the auction the other day full of 1950's thru 1970's different & unusual items. Tucked under the flap was about 7 matchbook covers in ...

condition
I have about 50 matchbooks. Most of them still have their matches. What condition is preferred by collectors? Should the striker be unused? joycemeryl@...

Jazz Player
I really don't collect Match covers or boxes, but I bought this from a fellow student while in high school about 25 years ago, aroundv 1985. His father ...

Local defunct restaurant match books!
Collected through the years from restaurants which no longer exist. They do have sentimental value. I will list them to an interested person.

matches for sale
I bought about 5000 match books and boxes for the jar they there in , i don't know a thing about matches . Need help and to sell some of the matches.

Most Unusual Matchbook Covers! New York City sightseeing deal.
I have 2 matchbook covers, one from Hotel President and one from Hotel Plymouth, both in mid-town Manhattan that offer:6 day tours that include--5 breakfasts,...

50 Matchbooks from 50 States
That's what I was trying to achieve. Happened quite by accident as my work meant I ate out quite a bit and picked up matches from every place.

As ...

Box and Bag of Old Matchbooks Not rated yet
I grew up in the Northeast of the U.S. during the 1950s and 1960s. I have a cardboard box about 20 inches, by 20 inches by 12 inches plus a small plastic ...

1200 Match Books Not rated yet

I bought a pickle jar filled with old matchbook covers accordion'd together. I paid $200.00 for them. I thought there were two or three hundred, but ...

Elect Al Smith (1928) Not rated yet
As a family of political nuts, I have political and regular old time match books. I am almost 83 years old and want to sell them. My favorite is Elect ...

Matchbook collection - unusual luck! Not rated yet

I did some painting for someone. Part of my compensation was her late husband's travel case from the 30's and 40's. It was full of matchbooks from ...

Wardair Matchbooks Not rated yet
I was just given a jar with 34 Wardair Matchbooks (all intact) with the picture of an Airbus 320 on the face. Wairdair, as I recall was absorbed by Canadian ...

Need More Information?

Rather, we encourage you to find your own value and appraisal and offer suggestions on how to do so, throughout our site. Thanks.

This group has been collecting matchcovers for 70 years! They love doing it and are very knowledgeable. If you are truly interested in this hobby, it is worth checking out this site!

In addition to that, The Vault, is another interesting site related to matchcover collecting.

There, you can find extensive history, great buying and selling tips, tools of the trade, and a whole lot more information related to matchcover collecting.

One of our goals, on this site, is to help you find what you need for your collection. We have another page on Matchbooks, as well. Check it out! Hope that helps!

Random Notes...

Try this! Lay them out on a table! Put them in order, based on geographic location of an imaginary map. Notice any patterns?

Perhaps, you noticed cities where you used to live or work. Or maybe, you have an outline of all of your past vacation stops. Maybe...maybe not! But it's fun to try!

Perhaps you are making matchbook collecting into a serious hobby, and would like to make some money on the side. Okay? Buy duplicates! Keep one! Sell or trade the other!

(Note: We used the terms matchbook and matchcover interchangeably throughout this page. We realize that this probably drives the true Phillumenist crazy! Sorry about that! But we are just normal people and grew up using the term matchbook, so that's what we did!)

Matchbook Collecting Information

What Is Your Most Unusual Matchbook?

What Other Visitors Have Said

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