UMC CLUB Christmas Box

[Researcher]

An empty UMC CLUB, 12-gauge, 2 5/8 inch, "Christmas Box" (100 NPEs) hammered for $20496 in last months Ward's Auction.

The CLUB quality paper, black powder, NPE first appears in the 1885-6 UMC catalog. It appears to have replaced the XX quality NPE of the 1884 UMC catalog. In the 1885-6 UMC catalog 12-gauge 2 5/8 inch NPEs were $11 per M in the First Quality; $8.50 per M in Second Grade; $11.00 per M in the "Star" Brand; and $8 per M in the Club Quality. All with UMC No. 2 primers. By the 1896 UMC catalog the CLUB had been replaced with the NEW CLUB. How could a paper box that is at least 125 years old survive in such nice condition?

[Fin2Feather]

Way cool, but yowzer!!

[DarylC]

Holy crap I thought tungsten matrix was expensive.

[Jeff S]

Yikes! Excuse me Dave, but did you miss a decimal point, or did it really sell for 20,000!!!!!

[Researcher]

Really quite the bargain!! Someone got lot more paper in that box for $20496 than the T206 Honus Wagner baseball card that sold for $2.1 million On April 6, 2013.

[Jeff S]

Ah yes! Honus Wagner. A good friend of mine has an unopened cigarette pack stashed in a safe. He would like to think that there is a Honus Wagner card in the pack, but we’ll never know because he won’t open it. It’s fun to dream.

[TOOL MAN]

The realized prices at Ward's never fail to amaze, but in retrospect I guess it's a positive that the ephemera from our favorite pastime still holds the interest (and purse strings) of so many collectors.

And if you think $20K for an empty box is stiff, check out the take home price on this nifty, F+I War pipe tomahawk with attribution to an armorer at Fort Pitt. It was made for a Pennsylvania rifleman, the elite group who were mandated to carry them, as their deadly accurate long rifles were not built to accept a bayonet.