Treasure hunter
P.E.I. teenager digs into the past with entrepreneurial flare
Meet Cameron Ralph: entrepreneur, historian, collector, teenager.
The South Melville resident is remarkable for both the type and number of items he has collected over the years, not to mention when and how this passion took root.
Three rooms overflow with military artifacts, sports memorabilia and many antiques.
The preoccupation began when, as a mere seven-year-old, Ralph stumbled across some very old bottles while walking in the family’s large woodlot.
Each of four bottles fetched the youngster $100. Pocketing $400 at age seven was like finding a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. “I was really elated,” he recalls. His parents encouraged him to continue digging and hunting for treasures. He did not need a push. For the next five years, he mined the family’s 30-acre property and elsewhere for bottles he could turn into bucks.
At age 12, he landed a job washing dishes at New Glasgow Lobster Suppers. He used his pay to buy a range of antiques. The buying has never stopped. He turns to online auctions, eBay, Facebook and antique stores to snatch up old valuables.
His collection has grown to about 1,500 items valued approximately $50,000 — about double what he paid for them.
“My family is always at me to sell,” he says.
Ralph sells primarily to antique stores on P.E.I. but has quite a collection of unsold gems neatly displayed throughout the entire basement and in an upstairs room of the family’s large home.
His most valuable item is an 1897 Edison phonograph in working order that he believes is worth $1,600 or so.
He recently declined an offer of $1,100 for a century-old advertisement sign of former Charlottetown tobacco company Hickey and Nicholson’s.
Collectively, the variety and uniqueness of items displayed in what amounts to a small museum-quality presentation makes for a fascinating visit to Ralph’s home.
There is a mining mask circa 1920s, an early 1900s Victor adding machine and a rare 1926 P.E.I. licence plate. Numerous cans are neatly stacked on shelves, everything from oil cans to Squirrel peanut butter cans.
Ralph collects military artifacts as a tribute to his parents, who served collectively for about 50 years, and to all veterans. Among his prized possessions are a bayonet from the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and a Second World
War Japanese combat knife carved out of stone.
His bedroom is filled with sports memorabilia, including a “very rare” Walter “Turk” Broda 1940 Toronto Maple Leafs card similar to one that just sold on eBay for $1,100.
He has one of the first jerseys worn by hockey great Guy Lafleur during “the Flower’s” legendary career with the Montreal Canadiens.
In total, Ralph has more than 100 authenticated signatures from NBA, NHL and MLB players. Close to 60 per cent were signed for Ralph during his trips over the years to the Toronto Sports Card and Memorabilia Expo.
“It’s pretty cool meeting the athletes,” he says.
The big fan of Toronto’s Jays, Raptors and Maple Leafs is in his first year of journalism at Holland College with the hope of pursuing sports broadcasting.
He has no plans, though, to stop collecting and selling special items.
He notes the treasures he most cherishes are the ones that were the hardest to find.
“A lot of it I wouldn’t sell,” he says. “To me, it’s mostly about the journey of finding it.”