Pennsylvania Game News - October 2022 - 34

That left just the two missing Bulletins.
COLLECT THEM ALL
While some issues of Game News
can be hard to find, you can build your
personal collection and help support the
newly opened Pennsylvania Conservation
Heritage Museum at the same time.
The museum committee has been
selling back issues Game News to raise
money to cover museum costs. Thousands
are available, the oldest dating
back decades.
For information or to order, send
email to pagamenews@gmail.com.
By early 2012, after a month or two of taking
pictures of my collection and developing
content, it launched.
Immediately, calls and emails from previously
unknown collectors - even Game
News staff - started coming in. Game News
editors asked in 2014 to borrow some of
my editions for the cover of a book on deer
hunting stories from the magazine's history.
I happily obliged.
In 2016, one collector I met through the
site invited me to look at his early Bulletins
and pre-1932 Game News. He didn't have
every edition from that era, even after 40
years of collecting. But he had 11 of the 30
I needed. So upon leaving his house, I asked
him to call me first if he ever decided to sell
them. Two years later, in July 2018, he did.
I cobbled together the money needed to
meet his price, which was 100% fair if also
non-negotiable.
By then that left me just four issues short
of having a complete collection. I needed two
Bulletins, from August 1929 and April 1930,
and two Game News, from September and
October 1932.
It took years - until February 2020 - to
find the September and October 1932 issues.
They turned up at a local auction, and in great
shape, no less. I bought both.
34
Fortunately, I knew who had them. Retired
Game Warden Bill Bower was not a collector
per se, but he appreciates Game Commission
history and so had acquired and kept the two
Bulletins I needed.
I called him to see if he might be willing
to sell. Invited to his house, I tried making a
deal, offering four of my extra bulletins for
his two. Bill, a tough negotiator, countered.
In return for the two Bulletins, he asked me
to donate a few pieces of early original Game
News art to the Pennsylvania Conservation
Heritage Museum that recently opened at the
Game Commission's Middle Creek Wildlife
Management Area. I happily agreed, thrilled
to have finally gathered in one place all of
the Bulletins and Game News published
over 91 years.
Not every issue is in perfect shape; some
early Service Bulletins are less than pristine.
But all of my Game News from April 1932
on are mint.
My collection is unlike any other. The
Game Commission has a complete bound set
of Game News at its Harrisburg headquarters,
available for use by staff. But mine is the only
set I know of that includes some legal-sized
Game News. These editions were put out biweekly
at the same time the monthly service
bulletins were being produced.
I have several rare copies of the magazine,
too.
In general, Game News editions from
November, December and January of any
year are harder to find. Though there's no
telling for sure, I suspect that's because many
readers took their copies to camp during
hunting season and, after reading them,
perhaps used them as fire-starting material.
My journey - quest, obsession, whatever
you want to call it - was awfully fun to complete.
I met a lot of nice people along the way
and am grateful to them all.
Now, as for the last 69 doe licenses I need
to finish that collection...
Pennsylvania Game News - October 2022

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