Uncovering Our History Through The Relics Left Behind
Posted in collectibles, Halloween, and Movies
Fridays at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources for them to determine the value of their items. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but I can do…
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Politics
The face on the brochure was both familiar and odious. Who could forget the image of the country’s most outspoken and virulent civil rights opponent who vowed that his way of life in mid-20th century Alabama…
At an auction recently, I bought a box of ephemera listed as mid-20th century African American items. The lot was among several containing African-American history-related papers and documents, and I checked out each of them. Black…
Posted in Black history, collectibles, Crafts, and history
Fridays at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources for them to determine the value of their items. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but I can do…
I don’t usually waste my precious moments on electronic items in box lots at auction. Most times, they are old and obsolete, and have lost their raison d’etre. They’ve had their glory years, many revolutionary in…
Bet you’re glad you don’t have to use one of these, the auctioneer said as I stood there looking at an old-style washing machine. He was right, but that wasn’t what was on my mind.…
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, Music, and Performers
Recently, a former employee of the Motown Museum in Detroit appeared on an episode of “Antiques Roadshow” with a 1964 passport belonging to singer Marvin Gaye. He found it inside a record album he had…
As a child, Deborah Johnson’s mother had a Topsy-style doll that she did not love. In fact, she hated it, Jennie Butler would later tell her daughter. Topsy was typically a dark brown-complexioned doll whose hair…
Friday at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources for them to determine the value of their items. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but I can do…
