I’m of different mindsets when I pick things up for the collection: if I’m out and about in-person, thrifting, hitting up yard sales or what have you, I get a little less picky about what I’ll buy. Because I’m there and in the moment and whatever is in my hands, the thrill of the “wild find” tends to overrule the nagging question of “is this something you really need?” That’s not to say I won’t carry an item around and then pass on it after the initial excitement dies down a bit; that does indeed happen. Sometimes I end up regretting that decision later, sometimes I don’t. But, more often than not, if I get stoked over a find, it’ll come home with me. After all, I can always make more money, but I may not come across [fill in the blank] again. Take it from me, the regret of a passed item is far, far worse than the regret of blowing dinero on something that is, to put it bluntly, just not that important in the grand scheme of things.
HOWEVER, the other mindset is pickier. When I’m buying online, I get much choosier about things. Both because I’m generally spending more money than I would have had I found the same thing at a thrift, but also because, usually, I have more time to reflect on the purchase. Not always; sometimes something will pop up online that I know will probably sell, and fast, if I hesitate too long. (Granted, those things are usually good enough that I don’t end up regretting the buy later.) I guess what I’m saying is I’m less susceptible to impulse buys online – I can keep an eye on something that peaks my interest, and eventually decide against it. In those cases, the “aw I ain’t really need dat!” mindset wins out.
‘Course, sometimes that mindset doesn’t win out. I can go back and forth on an online item, know that it has no real practical value, I’ll probably be spending way more than it’s worth it, but darn it, I just think it’s cool. Cool enough that the other, more practical values of the situation just don’t matter.
This update now spotlights one such item.
What you’re looking at is a (presumably) vintage coin purse, advertising cable TV. Not a specific cable company or installer; just plain cable TV. “Yeah, I’m a big fan!” I can only assume these were produced, in this generic form, for specific cable installers to appropriately brand to their liking, but since no such thing was done with this one (there’s nothing on the back), well, I dunno.
The gold-on-brown color scheme is attractive, but what does it for me here is, to be frank, that antenna. I like the antenna. Granted, the antenna isn’t cable, though there is a cable hooked into the antenna, but whether that cable is cable cable or just a plain cable, I couldn’t say. I’m thinking too much about this. It gets the point across, at any rate.
I can’t even hazard a guess as to what years, or even decades, this is from. Cable TV didn’t really start taking off until the 1980s, but it was around before that. My only possible clue is that “stereo + FM” notation on the purse. Okay, the FM is self-explanatory, FM radio, but the stereo part is what has me wonderin’ a bit. If that’s referring to radio, which would make sense since it’s coupled with the FM, okay, fine, that apparently goes all the way back to 1961. But, if it’s referring to stereo television broadcasts, that evidently didn’t start in earnest until 1985. This coin purse, not that there’s much to go on, but it looks 1970s or maybe even early-80s to me, though I guess it could hail from as late as the early-90s. I have a hard time believing something so spartan would still be produced beyond that, but I’m really just spit balling here.
In fact, I’m first to admit that I’m going a bit out of my area of expertise (such as it is) now. I might be wrong about some or all of this. Maybe that antenna image is entirely appropriate. It’s just that, I mean, when I was growing up, cable TV was, you know, a cable. Or at least a set-top box that gave you access to those extra channels. Later on, you didn’t even need the box… until you did again. And then that was done away with in order to force me to drop coin on streaming cable, which I grudgingly put up with because I want to watch my local sports.
Also, I question the usage of a coin purse to carry the advertising. Maybe it made sense in a “look how much money y’all is savin’!” kinda way, though in that case you’d really need a specific cable provider namedropped. To me, it just seems like a keychain or a mug or something would be more fitting.
Not that it really matters though, because I just think this coin purse is neato. It’s an interesting little piece of broadcasting history, a reminder of a pre-digital world when things were more “hands on” than they are now. I’m not sure I can say much more about it, I don’t really have anything else left in the tank here. Look at the old cable TV coin purse, okay? I like the cut of its jib. Enough to spend money on it, anyway.
THE NORTHEAST OHIO VIDEO HUNTER 