Head badges continued

Some of you know that I collect bicycle head badges, the small maker's emblems that used to be attached to the head tubes of just about every bicycle. This short YouTube video I made shows some fun ones you might like to see. I now have about 600 different badges in my collection and a lot of them are shown on my site. That's just the tip of the iceberg, though. I met a collector in Chicago who has over 2,000!

COLLECTIBLES: Head badges!!

I was lucky to find this Chief badge the other day. It's from a Chief bicycle built around 1915 by the Davis Sewing Machine Company and sold by Sears. To give you an idea of what it looked like when it was new I found a picture of a reproduction chief badge with full color. That's not paint, it's cloisonné (melted porcelain), which gives it the brilliant color.

My badge, the original, was recently found in Iowa in a field. Apparently a house had been there and the badge must have belonged to the owners and been lost at some point. During plowing this fall the badge was unearthed and put on auction on eBay, which is how I ended up with it. I like the original a lot more than the reproduction, but seeing the new one makes me want to find an original in newer shape someday.

If you like bicycle head badges (also called nameplates) there are many more wonderful ones at these links: my collection, David Spick's Argentina collection, German gallerie (lots of cool modern badges).

NEWSWIRE: Head Badge Site

Apparently, this Flickr Bicycle Head Badge website has been up for awhile but I just found it so it's news to me. Currently there are about 450 photos of head badges (also called nameplates), with some rare and great ones I've never seen anywhere else, such as this Germann in the photo. (There are some shots of head tube decals, too, which I don't consider badges, yet it's still nice to see the art.) I have about 700 different badges in my collection, which I've been working on for decades so it was fun to stumble onto this nice resource. Another great place to see photos of head badges is www.ebay.com where there's always a few interesting ones for sale.

Q&A: Finding head badges

QUESTION:
Hi Jim,
Awesome collection of bicycle head badges. How would one get started in collecting them? Any links or information on how to get started would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your time,
Derrick

ANSWER:
It's pretty easy these days, Derrick. Just go on http://www.ebay.com/ and search on "head badge" or "bicycle badge" and you'll see endless badges for sale. I wish ebay was around when I started collecting 25 years ago. Back then, they were much harder to find. The only problem with online auctions is that the badges sometimes go for too much money, but there are a lot on there and the same ones turn up over and over, so if you just wait, there's an excellent chance of getting the badges you like at reasonable prices. Here are some nice recent arrivals to my collection.

Other than ebay you can certainly try bicycle and vintage car swap meets, weekly flea markets, antique shops, older bicycle shops, garage sales, etc., etc. There are also some collectors that sell head badges. For example, http://www.thewheelmen.org/ is an international club and once you join you will receive their newsletter in which you'll see head badges for sale, well, at least once in a blue moon. Another resource is the Copake bicycle auction, which is a large bicycle auction in New York held each April. You can check their website to see everything on sale and bid online, or if you're near NY, you could attend, which would be a lot more fun. They usually have at least one lot of head badges each year. http://www.copakeauction.com/

Happy collecting!
Jim