- Matchcover collecting is a hobby
that is some 82 years old. The matchbook was invented in 1892,
but, although there were certainly label collectors far earlier,
there's no record of serious matchcover collectors until the
early 1930's. And, the first club devoted solely to matchcovers
didn't appear until 1941. This gap between 1892 and, say, 1930,
is explained by the fact that the matchbook didn't even begin
to be a common, everyday item in the United States until the
late 1910's. This 'newness' continued on into the 1920s. By the
early 1930s', then, collectors of matchcovers began making themselves
known, and, by 1940, some had become tired of being in collectibles
clubs wherein they were lumped together with collectors of other,
unrelated items. Thus, they officially started the Rathkamp Matchcover
Society (RMS) in 1941.
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- Over the ensuing years, other clubs
appeared across the country and in Canada, with the result being
that RMS became the national hobby organization with a loose
confedereation of these 'regional' clubs underneath it. How exactly
that came to be, I have no idea. I've researched this hobby more
than anyone, and I've never seen anything that addresses this
question. The regional clubs all recognize the status of RMS,
but all the clubs are completely autonomous.
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- Not counting the specialty clubs
(clubs devoted to a particular type of cover or box), there are
currently 27 regional clubs here in the US and Canada (24 in
the US and 3 in Canada). Geographically, the 23 of the 24 regional
US clubs are on the periphy of the country. Only one is in the
interior. That corresponds to the fact that, as of this writing,
only 13% of US collectors are in the interior. The other 87%
are in located in the peripheral states. And that, in turn, corresponds
with the larger metropoloitan areas being situated in those same
peripheral states.
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- As with any hobby, this one, Phillumeny,
has waxed and waned in numbers over the years, and it has its
own quirks and peculiarities when it comes to the people who
inhabit it. For one thing, this is a hobby devoid of children.
That may well be partly due to the nature of what's being collected
here, but a more important factor is the changing times. Most
veteran collectors started in this hobby as a result of picking
up matchbooks as souvenirs while either traveling themselves
or with their familes. That doesn't happen any more, since matchbooks
are much less readily available now. Also, of course, the allure
of modern technology tends to overshowdow all else as far as
youth is concerned.
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- Unlike hobbies dealing with coins,
stamps, post cards, and the like, this hobby is not worldwide.
Techincally, Phillumeny encompasses the collecting of matchboxes,
matchbox labels, and/or matchcovers. Given that definition, phillumeny
is enjoyed around the world. However, because the matchbox was
invented in Europe while the matchbook was invented in the United
States, phillumeny has evolved into two distinct camps: most
of the New World focuses on matchcovers, and the Old World focuses
boxes and labels. But, in actual fact, only the US and Canada
have matchcover clubs at all, so what it boils down to is that
the US and Canada represent the matchcover collecting world,
and everyone else is into something else.
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- As for the collector, himself, the
'average' collector (based on membership stats and surveys) is
a Caucasian male, 62 years old, who belongs to several different
matchcover clubs, has been collecting 18 years, and counts some
66,823 covers in his collection. Men, in fact, outnumber women
in this hobby 3:1. That's been the subject of discussion for
any number of years. Is it because, traditionally, smoking was
basically a male activity? Probably...although most collectors
do not smoke.
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- If one counts all the people who
have traditionally accumulated matchbooks in living room bowls
and such as collectors, it's been said that this is actually
the second largest collectible hobby in the country, right after
stamp collecting (Interestingly, the largest actual hobby overall
is gardening). But, of course, such accumulations, do no qualify
as collecting. The actual number of matchcover collectors has
always been small.
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- After the inception of RMS, the
number of collectors in the hobby increased over the years, albeit
not steadily: 216 enrolled in RMS in 1948, for example (although
that's only RMS); 800 in 1960. Then a decline began, reaching
a low of 697 in 1969. But then things took off. Overall, the
hobby reached an all-time high of some 4,000 known collectors
(not just in RMS) by the mid-to-late 1980s. Things were looking
good!
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- Then disaster struck! - Disposable
lighters, anti-smoking campaigns, and the domestic match manufacturing
industry, itself, collapsing in the face of declining sales and
increasing foreign competition. As the easy availability of matchbooks
declined, collectors left in droves! But, from my persepective,
those people weren't serious collectors in the first place. This
hobby has always had a very large 'transiency' rate - people
coming into the hobby, dabbling, looking around, and then leaving
after a year or two. As the pickings became harder to obtain,
the serious collectors stayed; the others disappeared. Of course,
there's also the problem of age attrition. The hobby has long
been top-heavy with older collectors. As they pass away, there
are few younger collectors to replace them. Today, there are
994 known collectors officially in the hobby. Who knows
how many 'unknowns' are out there, quietly pursuing matchcover
collecting but not enrolled in any hobby organizations?
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- The hobby's in no danger of disappearing,
though. There are a small number of new collectors appearing
each year, and whatever the overall numbers happen to be each
year, there will always be people who appreciate and collect
these little pieces of cardboard history. Collectors come and
go, but hobbies live on.
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