When I think of Prohibition, I don’t think of ready access to whiskey, but of a time when the government tamped down on the stuff. I’ve read about this era in the country’s history, and…
Category: Ephemera/Paper/Documents
As I stood there staring at the two photographs on the top of the glass case, I felt a bit disappointed. I had seen them listed as Negro League photographs on the auction-house website, and…
Friday at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources for them to determine the value of the items that they own. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but…
Christmas stocking stuffers buried in box lots
Posted in Beauty Products, bottles, Carvings, Christmas, collectibles, Dolls, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, Holidays, jewelry, and Personal items
The woman was as gleeful as a little girl with her boxes of Barbies and doll clothes. She couldn’t wait to get them home and go through them, she said. You never know what’s hidden…
A 45 record of Ethel Merman singing ZIP code song
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, Music, and Records
I distinctly remember the cartoonish ZIP code man with the stringy right-leaning body and bug eyes. I was still a young girl when he became the popular mascot of the Post Office’s then-new five-digit ZIP code. I…
The auctioneer could barely give away the mounted illustrated ads. I understood why, because I had tried to figure out where they had come from and how I could use them. None of the other…
The value of fine fountain pens
Posted in collectibles, and Ephemera/Paper/Documents
The two men were on me before I could take a good look at the two fountain pens I had just bought on-site at an estate auction. Their eyes shone eagerly, happy perhaps that they’d…
Readers ask about Fred Wesley’s lyrics & Kennedy newspapers
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Music
Fridays at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources for them to determine the value of the items that they own. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but…
Romantic postcards of a life most women didn’t live
Posted in Culture, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Women
I saw the title of the drawings under frame on the auction table before I figured out exactly what they were. The title was pretty comical in this 21st-century era, but I found it intriguing enough…