Picking Up Free Matchbooks

By Randy (Guest Post)

The matchbooks are there to advertise the restaurant or for collectors. The restaurant doesnt care who takes them as long as they get their name out thats why they buy them. By the way I sell matchbooks to restaurants and bars. There are still plenty of buyers and it is a very good job

By niki (Guest Post)

I came across this post and so happy I did - we have a 1 1/2 year old that just discovered a matchbox collection of my husbands. I was going to throw it away but he had a fit. Now I might stand a chance if I sold them on ebay and gave him $$ instead.

By imaqt1962 (Guest Post)

i agree with you debbie .if they didn't want you to take them they wouldn't put them out.they would be packaged and marked for sale

By

Debbie52

Hey Lynda lighten up.....no I do not steal anything....I don't take ashtrays or glasses, etc. Taking a matchbook is not stealing....for one thing at the time, my husband smoked a pipe. I only took one at a time to be a little collection or freebie souvenir. After I had tired of them setting around I sold them. I feel I collected those matchbooks totally legally!

By Lynda (Guest Post)

So YOU'RE the ones stealing all of the matchbooks? And making a profit by selling them? for shame! lol
Do you also take ashtrays, flatware, and occasional
glassware when there's a name on it?

I know that this is a common "collectors" temptation and great loss to the owners of those places, but with the prices they charge, what can they expect from their patrons, integrity and the Golden Rule? Of
course, I say this "tongue and cheek". My suggestion is to collect things legally, not by stealing,
even if they are in a bowl for each patron to take one or two. It's common sense that they never intended to fund the world's collectors, don't you think? On the other hand, perhaps they love the
advertisement. Who but God knows?

By

Debbie52

You are right, matchbooks and matchboxes are harder and harder to find these days. When I first discovered ebay, 8 yrs ago I sold some matchbooks I'd picked up in Las Vegas. If you have any laying around from old casinos no longer there, you might do well selling them. I also sold some from Disney World and did quite well with those too.

You can still buy kitchen matches and fireplace matches if you just need them for lighting candles and such. I myself prefer to use one of those butane lighters....I think they are safer to light candles with. I've burned the end of my finger trying to light a candle with a match.