On 2008-01-21 10:18, captnkirk wrote:
I alway worry about storage of old matches. When my Dad was young a neighbor who had collected thousands of matchbooks and stored them in large steel file cabinets in his basement lost his house when his collection ignited one night.

I came across your website as a result of a search on the topic of matchcover collecting. My wife and I were discussing a question of safety regarding her matchbook collection. We have several hundred that we have gotten down through the years and they are in a tall antique fruit jar. This jar, which was used for putting up fruit in quantities years ago, is very large (nearly two feet tall). We were wondering if this constitutes a safety hazard. Could you advise please? I also wondered whether the value (if any) of her collection would be harmed if we removed all of the matches. Thanks for any advice you can render. Bob Hampton


Thanks for writing. As safety matches (modern match books) they is no fire hazard. If (God forbid) your house caught on fire, the matches would burn with more intensity than a newspaper or curtain or whatever. But as far as spontaneous combustion, it isn't a problem. The only thing that kind of storage will do is possible hurt the value insofar as serious collectors want mint condition match books and/or matchcovers. Scratches, dents, stains, etc., reduce their value. To answer the second part of your question, I would say that removing the matches from post-1960 match books wouldn't really harm their value. In the early days of the hobby, matchcovers were the popular collectible as ten could be traded through the mail for three cents. Match books often crushed or were damaged. Today, most collectors enjoy both, and even though full books are more difficult to store and ship, they hold a special place in the hearts of many serious collectors.