Where We Started

Over three decades ago, the Bradford Exchange—the flagship in what has become a worldwide business enterprise—was founded by a remarkable man, J. Roderick MacArthur. A feisty, independent leader, the white-haired MacArthur was known as a marketing genius, and his entrepreneurial spirit paved the way for the present day collectibles market.

Foreseeing the need for a centralized collector-plate market, Rod MacArthur began modestly enough, importing collector plates from Europe and selling them to distributors, dealers, and individual collectors through his company, which was then called the Bradford Galleries Exchange. By 1973, Mr. MacArthur dropped the word "Galleries" from the company name and set up a trading system—an exchange—that enables collectors to buy and sell collector plates to and from each other, and to obtain current market prices.

At the heart of the Exchange was its computerized trading, where plates were bought and sold, and even now thousands of transactions take place every year.

However, while the Exchange's role as the center of the secondary market is an important part of its heritage, it is only the first chapter of the story. This foundation as the authority in the collectibles plate market led to the Bradford Group's leadership role through the '70s, '80s, '90s and into today as an innovative and dynamic marketer on the primary market of an ever-growing array of collectible forms.

The Bradford Group has become the recognized leader in new product development and sales of collectibles ranging from plates and dolls, music boxes and ornaments, to architectural villages, diecast cars and more.

Along with our growth into new product forms, the Bradford Group has dramatically expanded its presence from beyond our home base in the Chicago suburb of Niles, Illinois to a number of places around the world.