VERY SCARCE JAVA VILLAGE ADMITTANCE TICKET AT THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPO
Interestingly, this is a ticket that for many years was not thought to be scarce. Other concession tickets on the Midway (such as Dohomey or Cairo Street) have always been viewed as quite scarce, while this one was not for some reason.
I would call it scarce--not rare at all--but scarce enough that over the last 10± years on ebay, I don't think I've seen it more than two or three! I think that perhaps that the many two-part Java tickets are viewed as relatively easy to find, perhaps collectors simply lumped this one in with those as not quite as rare as others. I think the Java two-part tickets have been viewed as such because they were issared in so many denominations that any one might be seen a bit more frequently. Of course, I am quite sure that even dating back to ebay's beginning SOME of them have NEVER been seen.
Further clouding the issue is that no one has ever found confirmation of how they were used. Logic has it (and I've never heard anyone objecting to this theory) that the two-part "tickets" were in fact sales tags rather than actual tickets. It is assumed that when purchasing something, the buyer would keep one half and the other would be retained by the clerk in the Java Village store.
There are myriad questions about all types of tickets and passes (and Java tags) from the WCE. This is due in part to management's unique way of dealing with ALL tickets except the advance sale colorful admission tickets.
My forthcoming book about WCE tickets will detail the many stories and ticket policies at the expo. For those looking forward to the book, I should reiterate that it is neither a price guide nor a traditional catalog.
It actually is much more than either. I will discuss rarity and include my decades of monitoring prices realized in actual sales. I will discuss the most expensive tickets, the most expensive selling prices and the rarity of each, as well as the pertinent stories about a variety of tickets.
Because I have been so obsessive about tickets and ticket sales for literally decades, I have an incredib le wealth of information. All of my data is in digital form, as well as paper files. I have several boxes of my notes and details that I subsequently digitized. this wealth of information will make this book dramatically different from any other.
While I will not assign a "value" to each, it will in many ways be better than a price guide. Rather than arbitrarily assign a value, I will share actual selling prices. The rarities may only have two or three actual cases of being sold. I will include that information, what I believe to be several reasons for those prices...and it will be up to the reader to assign a "value" for their purposes.
HOW DO YOU EVALUATE AND DETERMINE PRICES
AND RARITY OF ITEMS YOU COLLECT?
I don't like being looked at as the man with all the answers, but I am more kknowledgeable about Columbian tickets than anyone I know or have heard of. That's because there is no brilliance involved--just a whole lot of hours. I began jotting down notes on all aspects of WCE tickets long before my Midway book was published in 2017. My first book, published in conjunction with the fair's centennial celebration (and the 500th of Columbus' first voyage to the "new world"), was published by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The subject of tickets was extensive in both books; but my forthcoming third will include a wealth of never-before published material.
By the time my ticket collection was sold in 2008, I had been making rather incessant notes on my computer and on far too many pieces of paper! I will be able to assemble comprehensive rarity information in my forthcoming ticket book because of the years I spent detailing the history of WCE ticket sales.
I don't feel like my forthcoming ticket book is moving as fast as I wish it would. I need to remid myself constantly that I have spent years of research and compiling sales data. Everything, including short articles, photos and sales data are all foundation for what I write. I have boiled down thousands of pieces of paper so that everything is sorted, now in computer files and I only need to finish that little task of writing the book! I have not yet decided how manyt sections the book will have. And each section--for example something like "train and ship transportation to the fair" would be an example of such a schapter, and it will include an article about the subject and then information on tickets included. This part of the exercise of writing this book is complicated because so many tickets could easily fit in multiple sections. I do promise that the final product will be inclusive and indexed so any given ticket will be easy for the reader to find.
Most every collector and seller, unless they are awfully young, can point out how collecting and selling have changed dramatically with the advent of ebay. Collectors can find more in a couple of ebay searches than they probably could have discovered over time at dozens of shows and hundreds of antique store visits over many years.
Most collectors obviously are looking to acquire tickets rather than research them. I have always been both a buyer and seller, but I am also a historian and writer. Research is the backbone of EVERYTHING I write. I cannot think of a single day (except when out of town) that I have not searched the common to the most obscure items on ebay. That someone sold a ticket for $250 today and just last week another dealer sold one on ebay for $80 as an example is very typical of the sales history of any collectible, including tickets. You cannot infer much about rarity and price from just discovering a ticket, but as you continue to find information next month or next year about the same ticket, you build on your storehouse of knowledge--and when you see five more sales this year (for example perhaps at $70, $75, $85, $100 and $110 to add to your knowledge from seeing those earlier two sales noted of $80 and $250, your knowledge about that particular item grows dramatically with every sale you find.
For one thing, you have seen that hypothetical ticket sold 7 times in one year which tells you it is not rare. It probably isn't scarce either. You have also confirmed that this ticket is not "worth" $250. You can also assume that the reason for that one ticket not aligning with all the others is because of two aspects of the selling history you have logged. Perhaps the buyer was not particularly knowledgeable about tickets overall or just this one in particular, OR it sold at auction and two bidders wanted it very much--and they bid back and forth until one gave up and the ticket sold to their competition for the noted $250.
Most every collector understands that the "value" of a ticket or any collectible is what one person will pay. Having two collectors vying for this ticket causes a great deal of consternation among the bidders, both of whom are aware that the ticket will now cost much more than it would have if there was no competition. And finally, ANY collectible, including a world's fair ticket, is worth whatever amount someone pays--and sellers are always pleased tyo see two competitive bidders raising that price!
Hunting for sales information on ebay is NOT like research on most historical subjects. One uses myriad places to compile historical information and to verify facts. You CANNOT do that on ebay, just as you shouldn't on the internet in general. Buyers and sellers on ebay indiscriminately quote as fact something someone once heard and that information may be somewhere between possible and ridiculous.
Ebay is not the place to research and look for accurate history, but it has become one of the best places to find an item to purchase.
What ebay does, however, is provide by far the largest single source of sales data, including world's fair data. In the dozen books I've written, ebay was only of value for superficial information, speculation, rumors....and what no one else provides: a past record of prices realized on the site.
I am somewhat of a bridge between collectors and academics, as I do live in both worlds. Researchers (not collectors looking for items to purchase) understand that searching for facts is better done elsewhere.
Before ebay, you would go through every antique store you could find, multiple times in your city and in every city you visited on business and pleasure trips.
You studied auctions, but you could easily miss more than a few. You spent time at shows collecting information. The extent to which information hunting has changed from before ebay to the present is dramatic. Do you recall how many important sales catalogs were poorly produced? I remember looking through mailed price lists and catalogs that hadn't yet reached the quality of an IBM typewriter or a decent printer.
So that is much more information than youy bargained for when you looked at a listing for this Java admission ticket. And our pricing of it at $99 is also a bargain.