Any vintage table tennis collectors here besides myself?

[Navin323i]

This is my first time I'm posting in this subforum... I'm normally in the Outerwear subforum, so allow me to kindly introduce myself and my vintage table tennis collection...

My name is Navin and I have a unique, special story to share. I was born with a congenital heart condition and I'm a survivor of 5 open heart surgeries. My heart is partly mechanical now and made of carbon fiber (the same material that many of today's table tennis paddles have layers of).
Doctors didn't think I'd survive my last surgery and I was engaged to my wife at the time so with a lot of love and a lot of praying I lived to see the day I married the woman of my dreams and lived to see the days I got to hold my 2 baby girls in the hospital after they were born.

To show my gratitude for being alive, I have dedicated the rest of my life to raising heart awareness and inspiring others to maintain a healthy heart. I do this in 2 special ways...

1) I customize BMW cars as a hobby and I've modified my twin screw supercharged BMW 323i sedan with the same carbon fiber material in the hopes of telling people my heart story and raising awareness for congenital heart conditions and inspiring folks to maintain a healthy heart.
I've been featured in magazines, newspaper, and television (MTV interviewed me last year at a car show in Chicago but I'm not sure when it aired on TV)
You can see my online feature links below:
Eurotuner Magazine Feature
http://www.eurotuner.com/featuredvehicles/eurp_0811_2000_bmw_323i/index.html

Washington Examiner Newspaper Feature
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/l...close-to-this-customizers-heart-42690682.html

2) The second way is thru my recent table tennis sponsorship with Paddle Palace, a well-known table tennis company in Portland, Oregon USA. My goal here is to promote the sport of table tennis as being good for the heart, plus I've been away from the game now for 20 years (went thru a long "burned out" phase) until recently while on a cruise to Bermuda with my wife and her family, my brother-in-law and I won the cruise's doubles table tennis tournament and we did this despite a knee injury I was suffering at that time (I'm completely better now though). My goal is to improve my game playing (I'm being coached by a former #1 ranked U.S. player, Cheng Yinghua) and hopefully lose weight and keep my heart healthy.

I've always had a fondness for vintage paddles... my dad bought and still has an original Dunlop Barna paddle that he bought new back in the 1950s in India which he has now given to my younger brother.

Recently I had the honor of purchasing on eBay a vintage brand new 1960s Stiga Kjell Johansson blue stickered paddle with the original Yasaka red Cobra rubber still intact from a collector in Sweden (who is like a brother to me) who had kept that paddle and many others including several identical Johansson paddles that are blue stickered and red stickered all in storage for all these years.

I received it yesterday in the mail and I'm just AMAZED with the quality of the paddle. With rubber it weighs 160grams and as the seller told me (he's an expert when it comes to Stiga history), the wood used on these older 60s and early 70s Johansson, Alser, and Bengtsson paddles all originally came from the Amazon rainforest trees until laws were enacted making it illegal to cut down trees from the rainforest. Also I learned that the red stickered Johansson paddle was geared more as a defensive to all around paddle while the blue stickered Johansson paddle like what I got was geared more as an offensive paddle.

I have a second vintage paddle arriving in the next day or so... a 1940s Stigma Star paddle. For those of you who don't know, Stiga used to be called Stigma and became Stiga back in 1949. The Stigma Star paddle has the old archer symbol that Stigma used and Stiga briefly used before changing to their current logo.

Pictures are below...

1960s Stiga Kjell Johansson Paddle

The Amazon Rainforest wood feels simply amazing to hold

1940s Stigma Star Paddle

I plan on using this paddle as my dedicated hardbat paddle. For those of you who aren't aware, there is a movement within table tennis industry to bring the game of hardbat table tennis (like how it used to be played in the early 1950s and earlier) back to popular mainstream play.

For any of you collectors here, please post up pics from your collection.

Thanks for looking.

 

[Navin323i]

I also purchased a vintage 1950s table tennis robot on eBay that I'll post up pics of as soon as I receive it. It's nice because I can use the robot to shoot table tennis balls at me which I can hit back with my paddle, then the ball would hit a net that's connected to the robot and fall into a trough and into a hole and then shoot back out again at me. Only drawback, if any, to this robot is that it can't use today's standard sized table tennis balls.

Back in 2001 the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) decided to make new rules in which the table tennis balls are now a bit larger and are orange instead of the white table tennis balls that we all grew up with prior to 2001. Also table tennis games are played to 11 now instead of 21, and players switch as servers after every 2 points instead of 5.

I'm still getting used to these new rules. That's what I get for being away from the game for 20 years.

Navin

 

[vitanola]

Fascinating!

I have for some time been looking for a 'Twenties vintage Table Tennis set, the sort with a net that clamps to the dining table. They seldom surface these days, it seems.

 

[Navin323i]

Fascinating!

I have for some time been looking for a 'Twenties vintage Table Tennis set, the sort with a net that clamps to the dining table. They seldom surface these days, it seems.

Ahhh, a reply to my post finally!

Thanks for your reply, my friend. I've been seeing sets similar to those surface on eBay from time to time. The key though is to look at all vintage table tennis listings for sets because you never know whether the seller has any detailed knowledge of table tennis and might not realize what they're selling so you can get a good deal for such a set.

Do you collect vintage table tennis paddles/bats as well?

 

[vitanola]

No, I just collect artifacts and furnishings of the 'Twenties, and of course here in the Midwest a table tennis kit would have been a more universally owned item than, say a Mah-Jong set. The table tennis fad was well advanced among the upper crust here in the 'States in the decade before the Great War, but it became a popular after-dinner or rainy-day occupation amongst middle -class youth in the 'Twenties.