A nice surprise showed up in our email Thursday morning. A reader in the southeast had found one of our stories on 1970s baseball cards in which a reference was made to nickel sports card vending machines that you used to see in places like K-Mart.
He dropped us a note.
“I was delighted to know somebody else knew what I have, or at least remembers buying cards while your Mom was paying for her stuff at the check outs,” Chris wrote.
He sent along these photos–and even showed off a “letter of provenance”.
Hop in the time machine and take a trip back to 1976 for the story.
“You may be interested in knowing my machine came out of a K-mart store, and I even have the letter to authorize its destruction from 1976,” he wrote. “My father worked for K-mart over 25 years, and when the company discontinued that program, he could not throw it away- as I was a card collector, and it would serve as a “cool” place to store my cards. He always told me to keep that letter- to prove it wasn’t stolen, of course.”
Chris did indeed store his cards in the machine and he has some from various years inside it now. Yes, it still works.
“There are not really any parts to break— that weight on top of the cards is heavy enough to kind of push the cards down, so when the coin mechanism is pushed the cards come right out. It is kind of neat to do it 40 or 50 times in a row, like I used to do when I was a kid— sometimes only 4 cards came out— sometimes 6- kind of depends on the “newness” of the cards!”
He’s no longer a collector, but has treated the machine like an heirloom.
“It was always a part of my room growing up— It went to college with me, (as a nightstand)- and was in my game room until 10 years ago, when my first child was born, and the wife found it a new home in my attic.”
While they do pop up in sports memorabilia auction catalogs from time to time, some of which are significantly older, I wonder how many have survived?
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Fill ‘er Up: 1971 Arco Sets Are a Sizeable Bargain For Regional Collectors
Reggie Jackson: Mr. October’s Career in Cardboard
K-Mart Stores Were Once a Card Collector’s Paradise
Notes: Jokic Sales Spike; Koufax Items Sell; Funding for New Collectibles Site; Card Vending Machine
Trading Card Vending Machine Business Grows for Kentucky Man
1975 Topps Baseball Featured Key Rookies, Big Stars, Colorful Design
