Thursday, April 30, 2020

Vintage cards and things: 1927 Studebaker check

This is not the oldest check in my collection, but it is very interesting. A 1927 check from A.J. Atran, seller of Studebaker and Star Automobiles. Atran called themselves the oldest Studebaker dealer (though there is some dispute), as they started selling horse-drawn carriage products for the company in 1889. The Atran garage not only outlasted the short-lived Star Automobile company, but it even outlasted Studebaker, staying in business through the 1970s. (The last Studebakers came out in 1966.)

Being a 1927 check, my first thought was to pair it with a 1927 Yankees card, but I thought that was too obvious. Instead, here is the youngest photo I could find of Joe DiMaggio, who would have been 12 years old in 1927, growing up in San Francisco. Arbuckle is a small town about 100 miles northeast of San Francisco. Who knows, maybe young Joe D took a ride in an Atran Studebaker at some point?

4 comments:

  1. Old checks are awesome collectibles. I've lived in California my entire life and had never heard of Arbuckle until today. But after looking it up on a map, it looks like I've driven through the town a few times on camping trips up to Manzanita Lake.

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  2. I started to collect backdrop signs of beer in stadiums. I've started a package for you next time I go to the post office.

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  3. Very cool! Too bad we don't know what the check was for.

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