Long before credit cards became popular, folks who purchased goods or groceries in general stores or ma and pa type establishments usually would have the proprietor mark down in his ledger a list of whatever items they bought and the amount owed for such purshases to be paid by the week or month, and thus created what is called credit.
Back then if folks couldn`t pay their debts in a fair amount of time, firms such as the Cart Collecting Co., which operated in the 1880s at 234 LaSalle St., were hired by the lenders to collect the owed debts. It was a very embarrassing situation when the debt collector would drive up in front of a house or business in his horse-drawn cart marked ”Debts Collected” in large, bold letters for everyone to see. In those days the neighbors would then look upon those in debt with disdain.
Today, the Cart Collecting Co. would be obsolete, because the credit card has become a way of life.
If you have any old credit cards lying around that you forgot to throw out or cut up, consider yourself lucky if such cards are among those wanted by collectors.
Small metal charge plates were commonly used in the 1930s and `40s and were marked with a customer`s name and address. When used to make a purchase, such a metal plate was placed in a machine with an inked ribbon between the plate and sales slip that transferred the plate`s impression onto the sales slip (or multiple carbon paper slips) when a handle was pulled down.
The earliest paper or cardboard credit cards are reported to have been issued in the 1920s (or perhaps somewhat before) by airline and gasoline companies. Some examples of early charge plates and credit cards are considered to be rare, and a 1936 Air Travel Club charge card commanded a $400 price because it was used during the Depression when few such cards were issued.
If you want to check out credit cards for their rarity and value, or should you care to become a credit card collector and consult with other collectors, write credit card collector and historian Greg Tunks in care of the Credit Card Collector, 150 Hohldale, Houston, Texas 77022, enclosing $19.50 for an annual club membership and monthly Credit Card Collector newsletter.
According to Tunks, a 1968 American Express card in good condition was purchased at a garage sale for 75 cents, and few months later, the same type of paper card in the same condition sold for $90. Such a card in the best condition would command more. Reported values for credit cards include $30 for a 1972 American Express, $12 for a 1975 Mobil tan card and $8 for a 1977 Shell card.
Credit cards, along with credit tokens, coins and metal charge plates, are fascinating to collect. To check out the value of any examples or to sell them, write Tunks, enclosing a photocopy of the back and front of such pieces and an addressed, stamped envelope for a reply.
Incidentally, if you`re among the many who wish to break the credit card habit, you can send $10 to receive an ”anti-charge” kit from the National Center for Financial Education, P.O. Box 34070, San Diego, Calif. 92163. The postpaid kit includes anti-charge stickers, a T-shirt and pamphlets to help you kick the credit habit. Send a check made payable to the center; credit cards, of course, are not acceptable. Will such kits (once sold out) be of interest to credit card collectors? You can bet they will. The center is a nonprofit consumer education group.
Everything associated with credit can be of interest to collectors, including the interesting oldtime store ledgers with written accounts of what folks purchased all those years ago on credit. Most ledgers are marked or stamped with the storekeeper`s name and town, and many of the towns were small, one-horse burgs where friends sat around potbellied stoves in country stores swapping tall tales and short swigs from the wine jug passed around on cold wintry days. Get the picture? If you do, I`ll give you credit!
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