March 29, 2026–Just a reminder that The History Bank’s sale of world’s fair tickets begins tomorrow (Monday March 30) at NOON Pacific Daylight Time.

If you did NOT receive an email announement about the sale please let me know immediately. Your email address should have been added to our database previously; but no one and no application are perfect. I am sure if you are a regular reader of our WCE Journal you will want to have your email address included in our data base.

Just email me (norm@thehistorybank.com) and I will see that your address is added so that you will receive any/all updates and news from The History Bank, beginning immediately.

I am quite pleased with the ticket lots and individual tickets in the sale. It is very easy to list the “most expensive” and rarest tickets; but those designations are based strictly on factual ticket history over the years. But any given ticket atop your want list is YOUR most important ticket.

We have done a great many things to make tickets readily available for you and other collectors. For example, we now are listing multiples of tickets rather than specifically avoiding listing tickets multiple times. I want to be sure you have the best chance to obtain a ticket that has eluded you in the past. It’s quite common that a collector may have some of the toughest tickets to find, but somewhere down the list of scarce or even somewhat common is a glaring hole. Even “common” Columbian tickets are still scarce/rare compared to other fairs’ tickets.

While the camera permit (one of two styles known to exist) in this sale is one of only three known tickets in this style. It is listed for “only” $1295; other similarly rare tickets might be offered at twice as much. This specific ticket is one of three that our consignor purchased from the seller lucky enough to have just the three known examples. FYI, the collector decided to keep one and sell the other two. He sold the 2nd example a few months ago and consigned the last exaple for this sale.

Several years ago we listed the highest priced WCE tickets in this newsletter. There are only two known tickets that sold previously for more than $3,000, the Camera Obscura unique ticket for the Midway concession that never opened. The other highesst priced WCE ticket was one of two known from the Kilauea Volcano exhibit on the Midway. The camera permit, with three known examples, should be in the same price range as the two noted here; and ultimately would be if we could wait perhaps months to find a buyer. We also looked at the option of selling it at auction, which would mean anywhere from 13%-$30%+ percentage taken as a seller’s commission for the listing application.

The sale also includes a commissioner’s one-time use ticket for the expo’s intramural electric elevated railroad. This ticket was a tear-off perforated ticket from a ticket book. It stands to reason that others from that ticket book would still be available; we purchased and sold a group of approximately 10 tickets and kept this last one just for a sale opportunity such as our ticket sale. Other quite scarce WCE tickets in the sale include those from the Chocolat Menier, Movable Sidewalk and Oceanic Trading Co. (South Sea Islanders) concessions.

There are a lot more expo tickets in the sale other than “just” the WCE tickets, including a1916 Panama Canal season ticket and one from the 1895 Cotton States Exposition. We decided to leave a few of the rare passes from our recent Civil War sale in this sale. And while we haven’t yet determined how we will sell a terrific group of expo medals, we decided to leave a few in this sale.

Please do take a moment to scan the tickets from the WCE and other fairs, as well as examples from those not from other fairs, among them tickets from the Olympic games, and a few that aren’t, among them are rarities from Disneyland, presidential (Democratic and Republican) conventions and the Olymic Games.