World Class Mouse Trap Collection

World Class Mouse Trap Collection AG WORLD Ag World 20-5-20 Dave Huffman, Galesburg, Ill., has been collecting mouse traps for more than six years. He now has more than 300 different models. Most are more than 70 years old, and some are up to 120 years old. "Finding a new-style trap gives me a thrill," says Huffman, who notes that more than 3,500 mouse trap patents have been issued over the years, and there have been many more home-made traps. "I prefer to collect homemade traps because they often have more ingenious designs than commercial models. Some look so odd that you wouldn't even know they were mouse traps. "More people are starting to collect mouse traps, but I think I got into it on the first wave. When I started going to antique shops to look for mouse traps and asked the owners if they had any, they'd often give me a funny look. It's hard to find a trap I don't have, even though we travel through-out the Midwest looking for them." Huffman's collection traces its beginnings back to 1982 when his wife bought him a mousetrap for Christmas - a French "Marty/Arouze" wire basket. He liked it and kept it. A few years later his daughter gave him another unusual trap as as a gift. Then he started going to antique shops. Huffman says he paid between $5 and $50 for most of his traps. However, he has paid as much as $150 for an unusual model and there are times when he finds a rare one and "I just can't dig fast enough for the money. If I've already got the same trap, I might buy it, but I won't pay what I'd pay for the first one." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dave Huffman, 201 Blaine Ave., Galesburg, Ill. 61401 (ph 309 342-2327).

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