Hello everyone, Long time no post!
Some of you may know me, I run "The Archery Collector" Web site
http://www.neoreality.com/archery/collect.htm I wanted to start this Topic to get people talking and thinking about our hobby of archery collecting and to make us aware of whats out there.
I started my web site over 6 years ago. While our hobby has expanded with more people taking an interest, (as evident from this forum), the information is slow coming. Some more websites have surfaced but we have a long ways to go.
Information on Bear bows is pretty good, I have a few articles on my web site about them by such noted authors and collectors like Al Reader and Joe St Charles.
http://www.neoreality.com/archery/collart.htm Gene Hopkins has an excellent website with some fine articles also
http://www.archerycollecting.com/ Gene Maslar has an excellent site devoted to Fred Bear with a wonderful Bear bow identifier
http://www.fredbear-online.com/ Plus the latest edition of Traditional Archery is running an article about Grayling Bows.
http://www.tradbow.com/INTERACTIVE/GETISSUES_Detail.cfm So Bears are being covered, but what about the others?.......not much there.
One of the few sites out there with information on bows other than Bear is Kelly Bridges excellent Archery Archives web site
http://www.archeryarchives.com/ Not only does this site have information on Ben Pearson but many other bows as well.
Another great source on all bows is the Archery History web site
http://www.archeryhistory.com/index.htm There may be a few others and I appologize if I missed them.
So what do we do? The information is there, somewhere. I have emailed the old manufacturers a few times asking about any history on their bows with no replies, maybe some of you would/will have better luck. Old time bowyers and employees are a great source, I asked the great Frank Scott several times about writing a book, which he said he was, but after his passing, I dont know what happened to it. Old catalogs help tremendously and may be our best source. There is an excellent Bear Catalogs on CD
http://www.wingsisp.com/red/hot/bear.htm (If you dont have it, get it!) It would be great if we could collect all the other manufacturs catalogs and do the same.
Besides finding out information on the bows, there is general information the collector, both casual and experienced, need. I attempted to start a Frequently asked question for this
http://www.neoreality.com/archery/colfaqi.htm I would LOVE any input from anyone else for this project! Maybe this topic deserves another thread.
And then there is bow value. Far and away, the most asked question I get. I wrote a couple articles on this subject
http://www.neoreality.com/archery/bowvalue.htm Including this grading bows article which goes hand-in-hand with the value article where I talk about the lack of a price guide.
http://www.neoreality.com/archery/bowcond.htm I even developed a crude price guide based on Ebay sales
http://www.neoreality.com/archery/col_price.html I appologize for linking my website frequently, I didnt mean this as a self promotion.
Thats about all I know. I would like to see what other people think, any ideas you may have and suggestions. This forum has grown and can be one of the focal points of our hobby.
Thanks
Tim Walker
Topic: The state of Archery Collecting (Read 1170 times)
