Frank Fritz of American Pickers calls it “the bundle” when he groups multiple items into a single sale to negotiate for a lower price. I think as collectors we’ve all done that… You spy a few records you want in the box and decide to make an offer on the whole box so you can flip through all the vintage vinyl more comfortably at home. In fact, there are a number of regular picking places hubby and I buy in volume to get a better deal over all and I swear that on more than one occasion we’ve paid less for a van-load of stuff than we would have paid for just one of the larger items.
Of course, there were times we’ve blown our budget on such “deals” too because we miscalculated just what was all in that box…
Read it and the next time you are faced with a box of records or comic books, a stack of View Master Reels, postcards or other ephemera, you’ll make a wiser decision — leaving you richer for the read.
Fifty years ago last week, John Glenn orbited the Earth three times and splashed down five hours later…which was the signal for the US Post Office to release their commemorative stamp. When the stamp was announced, Will Black got his mom to drive to the post office to get some of his own, and that got him in the newspaper:
Fifty years later, Mr Black still has those stamps…well, four of the block of six he originally got. He parted ways with two of the stamps over the years, but the newspaper shows the proof of his original purchase.
Whether you’re a member of the Hollywood elite with a book addiction or a less notable bibliophile, you’ve probably desired to see the insides of a book up for auction but haven’t had the time or money to fly to the auction location to inspect it. While many auction houses have made it easier for you to bid long distance, with online and phone bidding, getting a good look at the goods (or bads) remains a problem.
Books are especially difficult to fully represent with photography, or to completely describe to someone else in words. A 300-page book has about 320 surface areas to show, counting the covers, all sides of the book, any preliminary pages, and so on. So, here in the rare books department, whenever we can, we take advantage of Heritage Auctions’ continued commitment to employ technology to make the auction process easier, faster, and more transparent, and to deliver to bidders as much information as possible in order to help them make an informed decision about a lot. One particular way we do this is through the use of Video Lot Descriptions (VLDs) for premium lots in our auctions.
A Video Lot Description is a two to four minute video presentation of an auction lot, produced entirely by Heritage Auctions, and hosted on a given item’s webpage once online bidding opens.
Along with a national event to be held March 10-11 at the Mall of America, many troops are planning celebrations. For example, Girl Scouts from across southeast Louisiana will be celebrating with an Extravaganza on Saturday, March 17 in Gonzales. Part of this event will include a historic exhibit showcasing Girl Scouting over its 100 years — and volunteers are seeking memorabilia to include in this display. “Vintage Girl Scout uniforms, photos, books, newspaper articles, or any other Girl Scout-related items are welcome,” said Kevin Shipp, event coordinator.
If you’re a collector of Girl Scout items, or a former Girl Scout with goodies saved, contact your local Girl Scout troop or council to see how you can add to the celebration near you. You may also want to participate in their Oral History Project.
Not just some master of ceremonies, Valentino was both the star and the prize of this contest: “The Most Beautiful Woman In America May be the Leading Lady of Valentino’s Next Picture.”
When the silent film star walked out of his Famous Players-Lasky (FP-L) contract in 1923, the studio suspended him without pay and won an injunction that prevented him from working for another studio, leaving the decadent dandy desperate for money. In Rudolph Valentino & the Mineralava Tour of 1923, Edward Lorusso explains:
Desperate for money, Valentino and Rambova decided to create a dance act and tour the country for Mineralava Beauty Clay cosmetics. Starting in New York City’s Century Theatre at a benefit for the Actors Fund on a bill with Will Rogers and Jeanne Eagels, the couple caused a sensation and received 20 curtain calls. Valentino was stampeded by 300 fans as he left the theater. A Boston headline claimed “10,000 Girls Mob World’s Greatest Kisser.” The mobs became so predictable that Valentino and Rambova often escaped theaters over rooftops. The couple performed in 88 cities in the United States and Canada during a grueling 17-week tour. The hysteria followed them wherever they performed.
The dance tour garnered a tremendous amount of publicity and earned the couple a big weekly salary plus a percentage of the gate. They broke house records in several theaters. But while Valentino was mobbed by hordes of fans in every city, local newspaper coverage often sniped at his romantic movie image and professional dancing as being “unmanly.” Plus, Valentino was hawking beauty products that he claimed to use himself.
Following the example of dance idols Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Denis, the Valentinos created exotic dances and sumptuous costumes to the accompaniment of their own traveling orchestra. They performed a number of dances, but the tango routines were the ones that always brought down the house.
The beauty contest (the Miss America contest started in 1921) was another publicity angle of the tour. Mineralava sponsored a contest in each of the tour’s 88 cities and Valentino “judged” all the contestants. Then all 88 beauties descended on New York City, where they were paraded up Fifth Avenue to the Madison Square Garden. A young David O. Selznick made a short film of the contest called Rudolph Valentino and His 88 American Beauties; the film survives and is a fascinating glimpse at a “natural” Rudolph Valentino as well as the beauty contest styles of the day. Selznick shows the terrifying hordes of people who mobbed the streets outside Madison Square Garden, hoping for a glimpse of Valentino. Inside the Garden, the 88 girls come out onto a stage that is surrounded by crowds. Each girl (most with bobbed hair and bee-stung lips) parades in a gown and sash proclaiming her city and carrying (for some unknown reason) a ribboned Bo-Peep staff.
Along with being a great advertising piece, I find this vintage booklet to be a lovely little piece of women’s history, combining the power of the women as consumers with their status as prey for marketers. Along with the testimonials from “women in American Homes,” collectors of silent film will also enjoy all the celebrity endorsements from silent film stars such as Nazimova, Mae Murray, Marion Davies, and Marie Prevost.
Along with trophies, Mineralava gave out boudoir dolls of Rudolph Valentino and Natacha Rambova to contest winners.
As fabulous as this pageant was for Valentino (it did get him a better contract — if also assisting in the “Pink Powder Puff” slur) and, one presumes, Scott’s Mineralava Beauty Clay, at the time, the story doesn’t really end well… Valentino’s life lasted just a few more years and Mineralava seems only a footnote in the life of Valentino.
Image Credits:
Images of the 1923 Mineralava Beauty Pageant booklet, measuring 5 1/2 by 8 inches, via Grapefruit Moon Gallery.
I love board games, especially vintage ones. Bonus points for awesome graphics on game boards and boxes. And this unused, like new straight out of the 1930s, board game sure gets the bonus points!
Made by American Toy Works (ATWO) Products, this vintage game box contains two games: Checkers and Avion, and aviation themed game. Again, unused and complete with all accessories. The box measures 9 1/4 by 11 1/4 inches.
Among the over 800 items of Hollywood memorabilia and historic Americana, the Houston tems up for sale include a pair of earrings and a brown satin vest worn by Whitney in The Bodyguard (1992) as well as a black velvet dress owned by the legendary performer.
Celebrity auctioneer Darren Julien said Sunday the pieces and other Houston items became available after the singer’s unexpected death on Feb. 11 and will be included among a long-planned sale of Hollywood memorabilia such as Charlie Chaplin’s cane, Clark Gable’s jacket from “Gone With the Wind” and Charlton Heston’s staff from “The Ten Commandments.”
Julien said celebrity collectibles often become available after their namesakes die.
“It proves a point that these items, they’re an investment,” Julien said. “You buy items just like a stock. Buy at the right time and sell at the right time, and they just increase in value.”
But could it be too soon to profit from Houston’s passing? She was just buried on Saturday.
“It’s a celebration of her life,” Julien said. “If you hide these things in fear that you’re going to offend someone — her life is to be celebrated. These items are historic now that she passed. They become a part of history. They should be in museums. She’s lived a life and had a career that nobody else has ever had.”
Houston is “someone who’s going to maintain a collectability,” he said. “For people who are fans of Whitney Houston and never would have had a chance to meet her and never got to talk to her, these are items that literally touched a part of her life. They are a way to relate to her or be a part of her life without having known her.”
Whatever you think of profiting off celebrity, in life or after death, this isn’t anything new. Julien’s, naturally, takes the rather pragmatic position of collecting entertainment memorabilia as investment:
Accumulating these coveted treasures is often a twofold endeavor; obtaining tangible nostalgia and making a sound investment choice. Acquiring such a collection gives buyers the opportunity to gain intimacy with fond memories anchored in the property. The other reason is based on the steadily increasing prices, which has been recently noted as a solid asset for Wall Street investment bankers and executives around the globe.
If there is any such thing as a cultural rule about the length of time which ought to pass before we profit by selling off items connected to a recently deceased celebrity, it is far less a matter of morbidity and more a matter of our capitalistic nature. The market dictates that we bid as high as our emotions run; and emotions run pretty high when there’s a death.
As my friend and fellow columnist at Collectors Questsaid upon the passing of Michael Jackson, “One’s fame is directly proportional to how fast people will learn the intimate details of your life, or death, as the case may be… Where celebrity meets mortality, there is eBay.”
Celebrities thrive by this very rule — they use our emotions to sell us less than proper things while alive, such as Michael Jackson “Thriller” panties. So why wouldn’t we buy-buy-buy when they die?
Etiquette rarely, if ever, applies to celebrity.
And how can Perez, of all people, complain about this when he’s “beyond tacky” and a “bloodthirsty” parasite living off celebrities himself?
I’m not sure there’s anything inherently wrong with buying Whitney Houston’s movie-worn clothing weeks after her death than there is buying Clark Gable’s jacket from Gone With the Wind decades later. Do you?
These little button easels are a great way to display your vintage and antique buttons on shelves, in shadowboxes and antique printer’s trays, you vanity — anyplace, really! Each is hand made by happyhoarder66, who says that each little wire easel is made of “very workable metal so if you need to bend one slightly to accommodate an unusual shape there should be no problem.”
A slightly lager size, measuring just over an inch tall, is available for displaying jewelry and ephemera, such as on postcards, matchbooks and photographs. I bet they’d work for displaying pinbacks too.
Both sizes of the little collectible display easels are sold in lots of one dozen — bur larger order amounts and custom sizes are welcome.
The first scene filmed for Gone With The Wind (1939) was the burning of the Atlanta Depot. And it remains some of the most iconic film images of all time.
Shot on December 10, 1938, using some nine cameras — including all seven of Hollywood’s then-existing Technicolor cameras, the 40 acre set was actually many old MGM sets that needed to be cleared from the studio backlot. Flames 500 feet high leaped from old sets, including the “Great Skull Island Wall” set from King Kong. The fire was so intense, Culver City residents, thinking MGM was burning down, jammed the telephones lines with their frantic calls. Ten pieces of fire equipment from the Los Angeles Fire Department, 50 studio firemen, and 200 other studio help stood by throughout the filming; three 5,000-gallon water tanks were used to put out the flames after shooting. This and other costs put the bill for this famous film fire at over $25,000 for a yield of 113 minutes of footage (some of which was later used in other films; for more on this and the special effects in Gone With The Wind, see Matte Shot).
Now it seems fire plays another role in Gone With The Wind; on February 10, 2012, a fire spread through Hudson Self-Storage in Stockbridge, Georgia. Though firefighters extinguished the fire, all 400 storage units and their contents were damaged, sustaining some degree of fire, smoke, or water damage. Among the storage units, was one leased by the Road to Tara Museum, containing rare memorabilia from Gone With The Wind.
While many items remain safe in the museum, such as the priceless signed first editions of the movie script, Frenda Turner of the Road to Tara Museum fears much of the $300,000 collection in storage was lost. Turner said that among the items not currently on display at the Jonesboro museum and stored in the unit included the large oval paintings of Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh seen hanging prominently from the front of the Loew’s Grand Theatre during the movie premier — Loew’s itself caught fire on January 30, 1978, the damage led to the demolition of the historic venue.
If you collect vintage fashions, you tend to end up with a lot of heartbreakers — not only items which won’t fit, but garments which are in such poor shape, all you can do is salvage pieces of fabric, buttons and other trims. And if you collect vintage sewing items and notions, you typically end up with a lot of vintage buttons too. You can certainly collect buttons. But if you’re looking for another way to enjoy them, get creative!
The buttons and beads are woven onto heavy duty beading wire, with the last button going through a loop at the end to fasten it. (She also takes custom orders, if you are all thumbs working with suck little bits and bobs.)
There are no marks for maker or anything — but like this vintage valentine with soda pop bottles, this one has red printing or stamps on the back too. There’s another baby cupid and hearts with arrows through them and the words or names “Bud” and “Dick” too. You can make of all that what you will. *wink*
PS I just realized in the scan of the front of this valentine one one cupid’s foot was bent back. It’s there, just creased.
The photograph itself is a 20 x 16 inches gelatin silver print, signed and dated on verso. But what’s most fascinating to me is the powder compact, clearly from Coty. The Coty Airspun powder-puff design debuted in 1939 and now has been around so long it’s iconic enough to be spotted easily.
Antiques & CollectiblesLast year was an excellent year for collectors.
A plethora of television shows debuted on the subject, along the new seasons of the established favorites. I haven’t seem them all, but here are few mini-reviews of what I haven’t yet covered in full reviews here at Inherited Values:
It’s Worth What? managed to make it into the prime-time line-up at NBC in the summer. Though the horrible forced catch phrases were annoying, I really disliked the game show focus on monetary value. However, it should be stated, from a parenting and cultural point of view, that the money focus clearly illustrates our societal fascination with celebrity and luxury over history; food for significant thought.
History’s Real Deal has a concept I really like. Like Auction Kings, it shows the realities between estimate and actual prices realized at auction. This maybe it will, maybe it won’t, scenario is amplified against a backdrop of Las Vegas style gambling as deals for cold cash are negotiated as an attempt to avoid going to auction. However, Real Deal, even more than Auction Kings, suffers from a lack of cast or characters with enough quirk, drama or intensity to really hold interest.
Storage Wars spin-off, Storage Wars: Texas, seems to be holding up well. Perhaps the organic dynamic of rivalry in bidding, especially on camera, brings out a certain kind of person that makes the show work.
The popularity of collectibles and antiques in TV land is said to have “spawned an American collectible craze,” according to this article in USA Today:
Greg Dove of the National Flea Market Association, noting the reality-based programs have also helped level the playing field between serious collectors and the yard-sale set.
“It’s bringing in new faces, people from all economic strata,” says Dove. “We’re seeing more and more middle-class and upper-class folks coming to flea markets. Some are just curious, others are seeking collectibles and others are trying to stretch their dollar in a bad economy.”
Though no empirical data exist, Dove says the flea market industry, with estimated annual sales of $30 billion, has been energized by the renewed interest in antiques and collectibles.
Other venues are also benefiting from the uptick in demand for collectibles, however, namely online auction site eBay, which redefined the art of collecting when it went live in 1995.
In the third quarter of 2011, sales volume for its collectibles category reached $557 million, up 18% over the same three months in 2010, says Colin Sebastian, a senior analyst for Robert W. Baird & Co. asset management firm in San Francisco.
Its antiques and arts category posted sales of $263 million, up 17 percent over the third quarter last year; and coins and stamps hit $415 million, up 47% year-over-year (likely due to the skyrocketing price of gold.)
“It’s still a rough economy and I imagine there are still people trying to create some cash by selling things they have around the house,” says Sebastian, noting part of the category’s success stems from efforts by eBay to make its marketplace more appealing to buyers and sellers.
Those of us who have painfully been experiencing the snub of eBay’s nose regarding the lack of concern over the antiques and collectibles categories relish the numbers. Surely this will lead to better treatment, right? Don’t count on it.
Despite eBay’s own “Top Shopped” list for 2011 (a list, with an infographic, the company describes as “editorial in nature” and “focused on pop culture crazes”), eBay continues to move away from antiques and collectibles to it’s apparently preferred place as the Big Box Marketplace, catering to clients with contemporary inventory, big lots of identical new products, even if last year’s styles and lines. That’s not to say you can’t find a good deal there; it’s just that they are not going to focus on the needs of dealer and collectors of vintage and older items which are unique and certainly do have different requirements from the listing of multitudes of identical products.
I feel I must whine.
I just don’t understand eBay’s complete abandonment of what it was built upon: collectors and collectibles. We’re still here, in greater numbers even; why don’t you have our backs, want our bucks?
To illustrate my point, I draw your attention to this quote from eBay, Inc. covering the 2011 “Top Shopped” in more depth:
Retro Glamour: Between “Mad Men” and “Pan Am”, the small screen has never been so blessed with pitch perfect vintage style. And despite its mid-season cancellation, shoppers were still inspired by Pan Am, flocking to eBay to snatch up related items – 41,003 in total. Mad Men (30,378 related items sold) may have more seasons under its belt, but when it comes to memorabilia, the coolest fictional ad agency in the world can’t compete with the romanticism of 1960s air travel.
Clearly those seeking “retro glamour” want the actual iconic stuff from the past. (And, as a side note, Pan Am has not officially been cancelled… Fans like myself can hope!)
While eBay focused on pop culture, TIAS (The Internet Antique Shop) Hot List for 2011 focused on the old stuff. In this recap and interview with Phil Davies, you can see that vintage living and classic items for the home top the list.
All this seems to indicate that collecting is up and that collectors are looking for more places to buy their antiques and vintage collectibles — online and off. That tells us here at Inherited Values that we’ll need to focus more on helping you find the best places; so look for plenty of shopping reviews here in 2012.
Would you trust them to mind your coats and hats? What about your children’s belongings? I spotted this vintage wooden novelty coat rack in an antique mall. Painted blue and white, the cat tails are the pegs to hold your children’s clothing.
I recently acquired a small lot of vintage valentines. Most of them were the type kids passed out at school, and each of them has a number penciled on the front, placed in a circle. While this may detract from their value, I find the idea of a youngster implementing some sort of ranking or even an organizational system rather charming!
According to this post at Reddit, which appears to be a quote from Perfumes: The Guide (page 148, to be precise), there’s a reason the “old book smell” is so lovely:
Lignin, the stuff that prevents all trees from adopting the weeping habits, is a polymer made up of units that are closely related to vanillin. When made into paper and stored for years, it breaks down and smells good. Which is how divine providence has arranged for secondhand bookstores to smell like good quality vanilla absolute, subliminally stoking a hunger for knowledge in all of us.
This should apply to most paper ephemera too, right? (Provided the old paper isn’t stored in wet or humid places where mildew will overpower any other scent.)
A number of original Joseph Jasgur photographs are up for auction from Grapefruit Moon Gallery right now. Astonishingly, along with winning the vintage photographs now being auctioned off via Grapefruit Moon, the winner owns the copyright for the images, meaning that the buyer will be legally allowed to reproduce and sell copies of the photographs upon purchase. Most of these vintage photographs are of pinups, film stars, etc.
Jasgur is most know for the previously unseen photos of a 19 year old Marilyn Monroe, during her during her Blue Book Model Agency days as Norma Jean — photos caught up in a costly legal battle, which left the photographer penniless upon his death in 2009.
Joseph Jasgur stalked Hollywood celebrities and crime scenes alike, driving “his tricked-out Lincoln Zephyr, which had running water, a cot in the back and a radio-telephone, a rarity in the 1940s.” So who knows what other photographs of his will show up at this auction?
I found this retro advertising spot made to look like a column called Travel Talk From Kaymax Travel Agency published in the Tri City Herald, July 15, 1981.
In it, Joe Jackson offers motivation for antiquing abroad:
If you’re an antique buff, you’ll have the time of your life browsing in foreign countries. Let’s face it, most of them were in the business of civilization many centuries before Columbus stepped ashore here.
Along with recommending going to a “flea market” — and, yes, he puts that in quotes — there’s also a tip:
Don’t forget that bargaining is the name-of-the-game abroad, and the older the clothes you wear at flea markets, the better the price.
I never really thought about that before. Typically, we wear old clothes when we go picking for the sheer practicality; one never knows what they’ll have to carry, where they’ll have to climb or crawl, etc. We wear old clothes so we don’t ruin good stuff. And heck, we call it “going bumming” for a reason. *wink*
But I suppose that wearing newer or more fancy clothing may communicate that a person is a “newbie” to collecting. And less experience might mean that a person will be less familiar with an item’s rarity, pricing, etc., perhaps less comfort with bargaining too, which may lead a seller to think they’ll have the upper hand in negotiating — and get a higher price.
So there you go; your “going bumming” clothes may make you look like a bum, but that may help you clean-up at a flea market.
Pick & Grin, The Collecting Couple, Ready For The New Year
Grin: With the holiday season ending, I look forward to peace and quiet for the next few months.
Pick: Good luck with that thought. We have two antique shows booked and we need to start setting aside the goods we want to sell. One is high-end antiques and the other we do well selling advertising items, collectibles and indoor décor.
Grin: They better not be during football playoffs.
Pick: Goooood LUCK WITH THAT THOUGHT TOO!! Check it out, I have the calendar marked with every weekend filled with speciality collectibles shows for the next few months.
Grin: Indoor shows I hope?
Pick: Yes!! Smarty Pants, Even if the weather has been superior, they will all be indoors, but I might leave you out in the cold.
Most of these shows are annual events and once you attend one you can get on a mailing list for the next one. The speciality shows bring together collectors/dealers with a certain niche.
They include advertising, soda bottles, breweriana, sports collectibles, depression glass, toys, dolls, firearms shows, a Scale Auto, Hobby & Toy show, a Red Wing show and one called a rec-room show dealing with everything Retro 60s.
The advantage to these shows is their limited scope, where a collector can truly see the wide choices of items in their special category. For me, it’s an education, I want to see what interests collectors, what’s hot at the moment and what price things are currently going for. I talk to these dealers to ask about trends and the current condition of their market.
Grin: How did you get such a list and how many will you force me to attend?
Pick: Our newspaper carries advertising for most of these shows in the classified section and our auction paper has ads also. And of course, I check the the net for shows within driving distance. And once I attend that show, I always check for flyers from other promoters left at the entrance door.
Grin: Makes good sense! Let’s look at your list and the calender to see how many shows we can attend,
Pick: That a Boy, now you have the spirit of the New Year!
The Discovery Channel’s Dirty Money may seem like just another formulaic collecting reality TV show, complete with a cast of family members — but if you believe that, you’re wrong.
Sure, the show features brothers John and Jimmy DiResta, along with John’s son Matthew aka “Rat-Boy”, in pursuit of getting their junk on, dumpster diving & making deals in order to turn trash into treasure selling their fab finds and resurrected relics at Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market. And that may seem familiar — maybe even too familiar. But have you forgotten why you like to watch these shows?
Plus, Dirty Money has some aces up its sleeves…
First of all, the show starts with a bang. There’s a parental advisory which suggests that in order to avoid the not-for-kids language and humor on the show, adults should put their kids out in the car. It’s not that the show is wildly inappropriate or even overly risque, but the boys talk like, well, boys. And I happen to find them to be pretty funny. The show should be funny, for in researching to write this post I discovered that John is comic John DiResta, “the funniest human being that ever lived.” I like humor with my collecting, in case you hadn’t noticed. *wink*
Perhaps most importantly, Dirty Money succeeds where shows with promise, like American Restoration, Cash & Cari, and even Picker Sisters has failed: It realistically brings to life the joy of transforming vintage and found objects into something collectible and coveted.
The DiResta Boys
It’s not a true step-by-step “how to” show, but with an authentic creative builder in Jimmy DiResta, Dirty Money does focus more on the process and pitfalls of restoration, recycling and other projects. And in an affordable way, for both collector and creator. Examples: An antique Gramophone turns out not to be worth the money & effort to restore, but is revitalized as a beautiful decorative, functional, and affordable player any record lover would want. And a vintage kid’s bike, also not worthy of an authentic restoration, is turned into a chain-saw powered, Evel Knievel-esque bike.
Plus, Dirty Money shows the realities of what happens at flea markets, i.e., you don’t always get the money you’d like — but you will meet some great characters!
However, the best characters are the cast. It’s clear that the humor and antiquing skills are hereditary; they’ve got “the sickness,” the love of other people’s junk, from their father, who is known as the “Lord of the Fleas.” It’s not just a name. When John & Jimmy’s dad shows up at their flea market booth with a suitcase full of “chum” (smalls items for the boys to sell), the Lord of the Fleas then takes his now emptied suitcase out into the flea market to fill it back up again. I love it!
I wish Dirty Money had a regular set schedule. Not only does it make it hard to find an episode to watch, but such things lead to rumors that the show’s been cancelled. I hope the show lands a steady, stable spot on Discovery.
. (Photo below taken by 
