Absentee bidding ends tonight at Heritage Auctions for an unpublished screenplay of Anne Rice’s The Witching Hour. Dated June 13, 1995, this unpublished and unproduced script combines two of her novels, The Witching Hour and Lasher. The Witching Hour being one of my favorite Rice books aside, this work is spectacular for other reasons. Along [...]

In the latest issue of Jet Magazine (February 6, 2012), Iman Jefferson gets six tips from Ronda Racha Penrice, author of African American History For Dummies, on ways to educate and entertain children with history. These tips are specific to Black History Month — that doesn’t mean you have to be an African-American to learn [...]

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 [...]

You never know what you will find when you browse around at the thrift store. Do you remember the Love Is… couple? This glass had a stem and base. I wondered if it came with flowers originally. It would suit flowers for the bride. I’m only guessing, but it would have been a very nice [...]

OK, so you waited around, hoping just the right thing was going to pop up at eBay or some other site, and now, as the shipping delivery window narrows, you’re starting to worry that all you can do is go with the obvious eBay gift card or get something lame. Gift certificates, from eBay, your [...]

I don’t collect records by series or any other system, to be honest. Like everything else I collect, I mainly rely on the serendipity of stumbling into something and falling under it’s charm… Then, whether I buy it or not, the obsessive researching begins. So I didn’t know that the old Capitol Records series of [...]

More scans from that antique, turn of the century, Japan travel guide; these are advertisements found in the back of the book. S. Nishimura, “one price silk store,” founded in 1604. K. Kawata, another silk vendor ad, this one targeting “Ladies desiring Embroideries or Drawn Work.” K. Tamamura, “the leading photographer of Japan.” K. Kimbei, [...]

Welcome to the ninth edition of the New Vintage Reviews carnival, where we review items normally considered “collectibles,” to encourage use of items as originally intended. Books: At Bucket List Media Miz parker reviews Beloved (1987) and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) — along with a lot of other new and vintage [...]

There are many charming and antiquated things of note in this antique travel book titled The Club Hotel, Limited: Guide Book of Yokohama, Tokyo and Principal Places in Japan and I thought I’d share a few of them before this book and map sells. Printed at the “Box Of Curios,” No. 58, Main Street, Yokohama, [...]

When Hyperion, the publishers of License to Pawn: Deals, Steals, and My Life at the Gold & Silver (by Rick Harrison, of History’s Pawn Stars, and Tim Keown, a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine) offered me the chance to receive a review copy of the book, I jumped at it — I’m a huge [...]

It drives me nuts when appraisers, auctioneers et al. dismiss books (along with magazines and ephemera) as having “little no value” — unless, of course, they are ultra rare first printings of first editions, signed works, manuscripts and journals from historic persons or covering historic events, contain original art, etc. I mean, a-duh! These things [...]

American Pickers debuted on the History Channel last year and turned the wheeling and dealing of pickers Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz into the biggest new cable television show of 2010. Mike and Frank, along with Danielle and author Libby Callaway, now bring their expertise on rusty gold and antiques dealing to your bookshelf in [...]

Have you ever thought about the painted backgrounds in antique and vintage photographs? No?  Me neither. Not until I read The Painted Backdrop: Behind the Sitter in American Tintype Photography, by Jim Linderman (with an essay by Kate Bloomquist), that is. In fact, the story of and between 19th century painters and American photography really [...]

If you’re like me and enjoy collecting and have a creative streak, you’ve probably faced the issue of balancing your delight in making things with your collector’s desire to keep the integrity of your antiques and vintage items. While this clash of interests often presents a quandary for all artsy folk who collect, my primary [...]

Not everyone has to have a wonderfully fully registered private library with first editions in a specially designed humidity controlled room. That’s my favorite bit of advice from Advice to New Book Collectors from Other Book Collectors (which continues in part two) over at Private Library. Maybe I love that comment so much because it [...]

At an estate sale I recently was lucky enough to get this little, unassuming, antique book… Plain brown boards, penciled notes and a math problem… A slim 6 and one-half inches 3 and one-half by inches.   It may not seem appealing to you — and that, likely, is how I managed to procure it. [...]

Lauren Roberts is a bookmark collector I met when we were both presenters at the first Bookmark Collectors Virtual Convention. I’ve admired her bookmark collection — and collecting habits — so much I’ve been waiting for us both to have the time to do a proper interview. Lauren, besides being a collector and a blogger, [...]

When I stumbled upon Mimi and her Retro Weight Watchers Experiment, I couldn’t take my eyes away… I wanted to; but I couldn’t. *wink* You know what they say, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” so I decided to join Mimi — in an interview. When did you begin collecting Weight Watchers publications? A [...]

Some of the early postmarks from the feature article on the postal history and stamps of Haiti, by Clarence W. Hennan, found in The American Philatelist, Vol 66 No 8, Whole No 627, May 1953. The scan is from the vintage copy I have listed for sale at eBay.

Life announces a contest: Guess what? We are featuring another installment of FotoHunt this Thursday at 3 p.m. EST Not familiar with the game? FotoHunt is a photographic scavenger hunt through our galleries on LIFE.com. We will post a description of an image we are looking for; then, your mission is to find that photograph [...]

It’s funny how your perspective changes… I first wrote/posted about this November 1953 issue of Silhouette Magazine in July of 2008 — but when preparing to list it for sale on eBay, I found myself thumbing through the vintage publication with completely different eyes. For you see, when I first posted those images and silly [...]