BLOGAHOMA

Stapler Attachment
I started collecting staplers in earnest about July 28th 2009. At first it was ohlala look at this cool EM 230 Paris agrafeuse on Ebay and it’s so French! There was an identical one up but in red and they were asking $99 so I went for the one that was $8! Really! (Note the red one is still sitting there a year later.) And that is how it all started. I had bought staplers in the past then resold on Ebay wanting the whole time to keep them but then who needs more than one stapler? So how do I justify collecting them? Who wants to know? There are so many layers to collecting staplers. I love layers. Here are the dozen layers I have discovered: Maker, Type, Country, Year, Style, Inventor, Patent, Size, Material, Rarity, Color, Variation. So of course I have a database because I can. I use Bento for its visual appeal. But when all my best rationalizations for collecting stapling machines fail I pull out the art card. That’s right art doesn’t need a reason. I create Photoshop images and 3D animations and am currently working on stapler coveralls and a “This is Not Stapler” t shirt. Happy tangents to you!

I like the surprises doing a new thing brings. I now have invented ways to clean these little buggers. I have passed on this knowledge to other fledgling collectors when asked. Stapler collectors, I have discovered, tend to be detail and design fanatics which is ropes me in. Another enlightenment to me is their mechanical workings which, unlike newer gadgets like ipods and cellphones that leave me in the dark, the stapler can be understood one spring, one plunger, one anvil at a time. I now have stable of staplers numbering over 50 almost enough for a Stapler a Week (a great non-threatening stapler website BTW). I might just stay at 52. I have sold off ones I didn’t particularly like for various reasons. Not just dupes mind you. I like some staplers more than others like the Jakyneuf Agrafeuse which I just have to say “aucun merci” the next time it comes up for auction.  I’ve learned stapler in German (Hefter) and French which is pretty useless but fun nonetheless. And have come to realize that a package shipped from France can take 2 months but it will arrive. I’ve taken my staplers of interest to the Park Tavern for show and tell and on Facebook for the socialization. Because it’s NOT true “If you seen one stapler you’ve seen them all”.

June 3, 1997 began my stint at ebay. It was very early in the game actually before Meg Whitman started! I’m not sure how I found the site but it was quite intriguing. I remembering someone selling a bar of soap with Jesus’ face on it. It sold but not to me. My first purchase was a Rubber Baby Buddha designed by Rose O’Neill of Kewpie fame. A squeaky toy that I learned later was named “Happy Ho Ho” created in 1940.  I payed the starting price of $9 (I was the only bidder) its now worth around $60. Pretty happy with my purchase I decided to sell. We had an old Camel cigarette can from the 30’s that someone had left in our first home, a 1906 late Victorian. We kept pennies in it for years but I photographed it, scanned in the photo (before digitals were affordable) and put it up starting at a penny for the fun of it. It ended at $51. Amazed I asked the guy he would pay that much and he said he would have payed $80. I knew then that this was my game. Part time of course. It also allowed me to buy things, as I haunted the antique shops, that I did not collect but liked enough to sell.

I am not, by the traditional sense of the word, a gambler but ebay is gambling and not for the faint of heart. It’s more than just chance however. To do it right it takes an eye, knowledge and research, decent photographic skills, marketing and follow-up (my husband handles the after sales including shipping). Selling at first was a whim and then it became an income when I was laid off my job. It helped buy the house I live in, helped pay for my daughter’s education, and buy the groceries for a while. Now after thousands of transactions I don’t need to sell but I am back for the fun of it trading out collections for the fun of it. We’ve sold estates and remainders of a closed pawn shop auctioning only antiques, collectibles and art. Hankies, guitars, Kiowa paintings, pottery, furniture and vintage cars have left from here to points where they are appreciated most the time in the US and Canada but also to Europe as well.

So when I buy a photo album for $35 and sell one of the pictures for $400, buy a hanky for $50 and sell it for $140, a tin pail for $70 and sell it for $400 it’s all worth it. Sometimes is not the high price that it goes for it is the thrill of someone receiving it on the other end who’s been looking for IT for a long time.  Oh, our rating, well it’s 100%.

Times Up on Ebay

So what’s my passion? Now it is staplers. It’s everything I can find out about them. The who, when, where and how. A litany of names, Arrow, Ace, Bates, Bostitch, Neva-Clog, EM, Hotchkiss and all. I know it will take a while but eventually I will become a real “know it all” about these feisty little machines! And then what? Then I don’t know. I learned a whole lot about American arts and crafts tiles, the who, what, why, how, when and where and now I am selling few of them moving to new owners so they can learn. Oh I am keeping many of them but some are going. And then the offshoots, lateral thinking will begin. Obviously 3D work/ play. I am starting to formulate a way to display the staplers and how fun it might be to build a velvet lined box. Right now I am thinking the Neva-Clog, because it cost me a pretty penny and has great curb appeal.

Pictured here is the Hotchkiss Nº 1 from 1924. Their earlier models had more engraving but I like the no nonsense look of this one. And yes at $7, postage and a lot of elbow grease it is quite presentable.

First you have to love the name. I takes confidence to call your device the Neva-Clog but of course being that it was made in 1936 there was no fear of being slammed in a blog or on Epinions. But here it is 2009, this deco darling is now 73 years old and is still hanging in there. It’s particular on what staples you feed it. It has smaller than standard staple which means that it might not ever clog since it will run out of staples before I could ever lodge a complaint. And since the company is no longer in business it is moot point.

Creating art of the Neva-Clog is like reinventing the staple however I started on my 3D rendering before I actually owned this machine. A few details I was not aware of was its head came to a point (I’ll call it the button but I don’t know the real terminology), it appears to have nickelplating rather than chrome and what I thought were photography distortions in the angle of the base were not distortions, the base is actually slightly askew. I followed up with few tweeks to my art after buying the Neva-Clog.

I am somewhere in midst of series of anatomy of the stapler. More to come.

I had tried to construct a 3D version of a stapler from pictures but I had too many starts and stops to even count. It wasn’t until I owned a vintage one that I could actually create all the componants. I am after all an artist/ illustrator and references is essential. And the real deal makes it possible. The EM 230 was made in France in the 1950′s. I love the sleek profile the dark forest green. It took me a few days and nights. There was very little “that will do”. And then there was the sounds. I know I could go to soundsnap and find what I was looking for, the rustle of the paper, the distinctive click of the staple being applied. Nice!

So EM is my favorite of any stapler I have owned. I have owned some nice ones but they usually move on to ebay and get sold. This one, however, is going to stick around.

L’hourra pour pour les agrafeuses de tous les jours !