Collection of gum wrappers

German (German translation)

HWelcome to the website for collectors of chewing gum wrappers. If you visit this site
If you happen to open it, do not leave it immediately. My hobby – “collection of
Chewing gum wrappers” may be interesting for you.
As a product, chewing gum has its individual packaging, from a small paper to the
Vending machine. I am a collector of these items “chewing gum” (further “KG”). In the
In general, there are several types of collection of “chewing gum” items:
-Papers and packages (excluding KG) (№1).
-Inserts (pictures in the package) (№2).
-Packs of the KG (unopened, with KG) (№3).
-items related to KG (vending machines, sales equipment, advertising products, etc.) (№4).

I am enthusiastic about “Papers and Packets”, although here too there are favorite and priority items: “Papers from rectangular chewing gum plates” (№5). I put together a detailed catalog of these items alone and each piece of paper gets its number. Today (July 5, 2015) there are 43,347 pieces of chewing gum paper in the collection. In total, the collection contains approximately 88,000 pieces of paper and packaging of chewing gum of various shapes from 126 countries around the world (according to current territories). This hobby has fascinated me since childhood, in the early 70s, along with other types of collecting (stamp collecting, match label collecting, coin collecting, and others). Later it became my main hobby for years to come.
Our topic is not so widespread in the world, but the Internet gave the opportunity to get acquainted and interact with colleagues from different parts of the world. I made friendly contacts with colleagues from the Czech Republic, USA, Chile, Japan and Korea. In Russia and former republics of the USSR there are few collectors, although earlier in the 70-80s collecting envelopes and inserts of chewing gum became popular. But a few years back the situation began to change and we observed the revival of our collectors, both old and young, and that makes me very happy. I would particularly like to recognize the Czech Republic. It's strange, but our topic is very widespread in this country, there is even a single section in the Prague Collectors' Club, and I am also a member of it. I have known many Czech collectors through correspondence since pre-internet times. In 2011 I managed to communicate with them in reality when I spent a week traveling through different cities in the Czech Republic where my colleagues live (№07-12). By the way, the largest collections in terms of numbers are in the Czech Republic.
Excited about this trip to the Czech Republic in 2013, I made another dream come true. I visited Japan, met the collectors and my old correspondents, I was also a participant in the television program “TV Asahi”, dedicated to Chewing Gum Day. This day is celebrated in Japan on June 1st (№13-19). The Japanese theme is very noticeable in my collection. Actually, it all started from Japanese envelopes... And now the share of my Japanese envelopes is in first place. In general, the Far Eastern countries, not only Japan, but also South Korea and recently China, are very exciting in our hobby. This is mainly due to the production of chewing gum in the form of strips, with various colorful themes dedicated to the subjects of films, video games and comics. Here is freedom for a collector... I have already visited Korea, but I haven't had the opportunity to go to China. I hope to rectify this in the shortest possible time, but as experience shows, it is not always possible to buy something interesting while visiting China, it is too big a country. Sometimes you can buy Chinese chewing gum in interesting envelopes in other countries, but you can't even find it in China. I once had such a case when I bought interesting Chinese chewing gum in Cambodia and later received the same from Mongolia, and these are the countries where the chewing gum was never manufactured. At least there are none in the collections of collectors. To our delight, Ethiopia, Nepal, Bahrain and Kosovo have recently left this “blacklist”. (№20-21). But there are still “white” spots in the list of producing countries.
In general, chewing gum is an old product; it was patented in the USA in the middle of the 19th century. I have a box of chewing gum myself with the date February 14, 1871 (№6). This is the oldest example in my collection. I also have others, for example, paper envelopes made at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries (№22-23). But anyway, the majority of specimens in the collection are gum wrappers made in the last 40 years. But there are collectors who only collect pre-war examples before 1940.

I add to my collection mainly after swapping with colleagues, but sometimes I manage to find small old collections through advertisements and buy them, but in recent years this has been a great rarity.
I should also get involved in other types of collecting so that I can trade with collectors of other types (coins, stamps, phone cards, cigarette boxes, chocolate envelopes, etc.). Such simultaneous collecting also leads to enthusiasm. But it is more about storing the exchange inventory than collecting it. If it is necessary to abandon what has been saved in favor of swapping on the main topic, I will undoubtedly do so. And for today I have a complete collection of transport tokens of the city of Samara (№24). I've also had success with phone cards and chocolate envelopes, but because of the sheer volume of copies I'm unlikely to feature them online. I have little time to fully catalog my gum wrappers on the internet, let alone other types of collecting. The collection is also replenished as a result of purchases of new chewing gum during trips abroad and purchases in our stores. But such novelties are very rare, although in recent years Russian manufacturers of chewing gum have been pleased. These purchases are particularly useful for supplementing the exchange inventory. I also use Internet auctions very actively for new purchases.

A little about me, I live in Samara, I'm married, I have a daughter and a granddaughter. In the free time from my hobby I should work to maintain my hobby.
Are you the collector? Do you have other collecting themes? Would you like to make a mutually beneficial exchange with me? Do you have the old collection of gum wrappers? I am ready for any cooperation. Please feel free to contact me in any way and I will be sure to respond.