The C-3PO ‘Golden Rod’ Card

In 1977, Topps issued a set of Star Wars trading cards. The set included one card that would, arguably, become the most infamous card it ever printed. This was the so-called C-3PO 'golden rod' card — so called because it seems to show C-3PO in a state of prominent arousal.



Mel magazine recently posted an article which explores the history of this card. The article makes a couple of interesting points:

First, Topps not only really did issue this card... it printed a lot of them. This isn't a rare card.

Second (and to me this is the most remarkable thing), no one involved in the creation of the card noticed its most salient feature until after it had been released and word started to spread among card collectors.

Finally, there's no evidence that the card was the work of a rogue artist. The most compelling theory about what happened is that a panel on the side of C-3PO's armor plating must have accidentally fallen open, and was in exactly the right position to create the illusion of robotic arousal. And then, for whatever reason, Topps selected that image, out of all the possible ones, to print.

Eventually Topps released a corrected version of the card (below). Apparently this corrected version is rarer, and more collectible, than the original. Though, ideally, a collector would want to have both.

Posted By: Alex - Tue Feb 09, 2021 - Comments (0)
Category: Movies, Robots, Collectors, 1970s

Umbrella Cover Museum

Nancy 3. Hoffman is a self-confessed eccentric. For a start, she decided to legally change her middle name to '3'. She's a professional accordion player, which is definitely an unusual occupation. And then she created the world's only Umbrella Cover Museum on Peaks Island, Maine in 1996. The museum is still going strong. Due to Covid, it had an outdoor exhibit this year.

Back in 2012, Guinness recognized Nancy 3 for having the largest collection of umbrella covers in the world. At the time that was 730. She now has around 2000 covers.

More info: Maine Today, twitter

Posted By: Alex - Sat Sep 05, 2020 - Comments (4)
Category: Museums, Collectors

The rare 1943 copper penny

1943 copper pennies are among the most-sought after coins by collectors. In 2010, one of them sold for $1.7 million. Although around $200,000 seems to be what most of them fetch.



The reason for their value is that so few of them exist. In 1943, due to the war, pennies were made out of zinc-coated steel. But somehow approximately 40 copper ones were made by accident.

For several decades the US Mint denied the existence of 1943 copper pennies (see news clipping below). It wasn't until a few showed up, and were authenticated by experts, that the mint changed its tune. Now it states:


Some strange rumors have circulated about the 1943 copper pennies. Such as that if you found one the Ford motor company would give you a free car. Not true, though if you find one, you could afford to buy quite a few cars. And a few of these pennies are potentially still in circulation.

More info: definition.org

Battle Creek Enquirer - Mar 7, 1963

Posted By: Alex - Mon Jul 13, 2020 - Comments (3)
Category: Money, Collectors, 1940s

Mold-A-Rama

Wikipedia page.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Apr 11, 2020 - Comments (1)
Category: Eccentrics, Collectors, Inventions, Souvenirs, Mementos, and Tchotchkes, Toys, Statues and Monuments, 1960s

The Man Who Stole Art

The strange tale of Stéphane Breitweiser, arguably the world's greatest art thief, who managed to steal hundreds of works valued, in total, at well over one billion dollars.

His success was largely attributable to a a loophole in the world of art security: that there's not much security on the front-end (in the museums). Instead, as Michael Finkel notes in a Feb 2019 article in GQ, "art crimes are typically solved on the back end, when the thieves try to sell the work."

And that's why Breitweiser managed to get away with his thefts for so long, because he never tried to sell anything. He stole because he loved the art and wanted to have it for himself, accumulating it all in his mother's house, where he lived.

His case reminds me of Joseph Feldman, who stole over 15,000 books from the New York Public Library, simply because he loved books. It suggests a recurring weird-news theme: thieves who steal not from a profit motive, but instead to indulge their obsessive collecting.

Stéphane Breitweiser

Posted By: Alex - Sun Jul 28, 2019 - Comments (3)
Category: Art, Crime, Collectors

Poop Slinger - The Game

It doesn’t exactly look like the most sophisticated game. So why are copies of Poop Slinger selling for close to $3000 on eBay? Because it’s the rarest PlayStation 4 game in existence. Only 84 copies were ever sold, making it a collector’s item.

Read the full story at: vg247.com

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jul 16, 2019 - Comments (2)
Category: Overpriced Merchandise, Excrement, Collectors, Videogames and Gamers

The Amazing License Plate Collection of Paul Franke

By chance, I recently happened to meet a fellow San Diegan, Paul Franke, who has in his garage a collection of 22,000 license plates. Of course, I was interested in seeing that, and he was kind enough to invite me over and spend an afternoon showing it to me.

I hadn't realized how popular license plate collecting is. The Automobile License Plate Collectors Association has almost 3000 members, and it holds an annual national convention, as well as smaller regional ones. But even within this large community of collectors, Paul's collection of 22,000 plates is very impressive.

Guinness lists the largest collection of license plates in the world as being that of Péter and Tamás Kenyeres who have 11,345 plates. Seeing that, I wondered if Paul actually had the true world record. But no, he assures me that Guinness is wrong. While his collection is undeniably large, he doubts it's even the biggest in San Diego County, and this BBC article indicates there's a collector in Florida with over 50,000 plates.



Paul stores his license plates thematically. Along one wall (above left) he has boxes of plates arranged by state. (He long ago acquired plates from every state.) On another wall (above right) he has boxes of plates with more random themes. For instance, he has a box of error plates. Can you spot the errors in the examples below?

(scroll to the bottom of this post for the answers)

More in extended >>

Posted By: Alex - Thu May 02, 2019 - Comments (1)
Category: Motor Vehicles, Collectors

Underwear Trading Cards

An idea recently introduced by Hanes, which is putting trading cards featuring Michael Jordan modeling underwear into packs of their men's underwear. From the press release:


If there's a total of 170 different cards, how much underwear would you need to buy to get them all?

Posted By: Alex - Thu Mar 21, 2019 - Comments (0)
Category: Collectors, Underwear

Spoon Planet

You will spend some fun time browsing the commemorative spoons at Spoon Planet. I want this Rockette one.

Now, when someone says, "I don't have enough spoons to get through the day," you can send them here!

Posted By: Paul - Thu Feb 28, 2019 - Comments (1)
Category: Ineptness, Crudity, Talentlessness, Kitsch, and Bad Art, Collectors

The man who stole 15,000 library books

Over the course of a decade, from around 1965 to 1975, Joseph Feldman managed to steal 15,000 books from the New York Public Library. He was caught when firemen entered his Greenwich Village apartment while responding to an alarm in his building and discovered all the books, piled up everywhere. When asked why he had taken them all, Feldman responded, “I like to read.”

Arizona Daily Star - Sep 27, 1975

In the 21st century, playwright Erika Mijlin was inspired to write a play, Feldman and the Infinite, about the incident. It was first performed in 2008. Her description of it:



And below, a video clip of the performance.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Jan 31, 2019 - Comments (2)
Category: Crime, Books, Libraries, Collectors, 1970s