The International Brick Collectors Association
Comes To California

If you're a brick collector, you may be interested in this organization: The International Brick Collectors Association (IBCA), with current mailing address at 1743 Lindenhall Drive, Loveland, Ohio 45140. The IBCA web site is at www.tlgwindpower.com/tweety. This is a non-profit organization of collectors and others with a common interest in bricks and/or paving blocks as collectible items or as objects of historical interest or both. Their annual membership fee is only $15. Members receive a wonderful journal three times a year covering brick collecting, brick histories, and brick making. They hold brick swap meets across the country every year, where members bring and swap bricks for free. They have over 500 members knowledgeable about those antique and not-so-antique bricks.

Finally, after 20 years since its inception, the IBCA held its first ever swap meet in California, on June 7, 2003. Bill McDowell, an avid brick collector from Fair Oaks, CA, hosted the swap meet at the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Fair Oaks. Brick collectors converged on the parking lot at 8 a.m. to display and swap bricks from all over the country. The swap was over by 9:30 a.m. This was followed by a brick auction to help raise funds for the organization. Among the bricks auctioned off was a rare NILES brick from Niles (Fremont), CA. The auction was followed by a great buffet lunch. Everyone had a great time. A huge thanks goes out to Bill McDowell for bringing the IBCA swap meet to California.

On the right, Clem Reinkemeyer, Jr., President of IBCA, holds up a brick at the auction.


Left to right: Bill McDowell, Virgil Green, and Clem Reinkemeyer, Jr.


Left to right: Jack Bower and Bob Piwarzyk, a couple of fine California brick collectors.

Comments or questions are welcomed.
Please send email to Dan Mosier at danmosier@earthlink.net.