Look at all the gorgeous old perfumes in this vintage photo of a young Elizabeth Taylor at a dressing table!  Do you recognize any?

Another Blog from Anti-quips – the Collecting Couple Pick: Have you ever looked back and said “boy, I wish I had bought that!” Grin: You’d run out of ink in the cartridge before I could print out that list. P: Oh, really, that many? Give me an example. G: How about that hotel ice bucket [...]

When an old friend let me sort through their old baseball cards I figured the market had enough life to squeeze a couple of hundred dollars out of them. I’d mentioned a couple of nice dinners, how about a burger and Coke instead?

As an online seller of vintage collectibles, I hit a lot of garage and yard sales. And when I say a lot, I mean A LOT. They are really the main way I find inventory, and over time I’ve developed a great system to maximize my results, and to minimize my time and effort. I [...]

I have a modest collection of vintage vanity items; my collection and I have even been featured in Collectors News magazine. Included in my collection are various vintage powder tins, compacts, and refills. Once you get past the pretty packaging (which I’ll admit might take some time!), you notice the names of shades of old [...]

I know next to nothing about hot rods, dragsters, automobilia or even cars in general, but I do recognize the value of vintage car part catalogs, like these Almquist “Equipment of Champions” catalogs, to fans and collectors of such things. And I’ll admit, looking at old hot rod custom sport bodies, kits, 3-D chrome emblems, [...]

After dwelling about how much I missed reading Steinbeck on one of my blogs I recently dusted off a favorite from the bookshelf and found myself immediately absorbed and quickly turning pages just like the old days. But when I came to an abrupt halt during the very start of Steinbeck’s journey in Travels with [...]

I continue to be delighted with vintage magazines, this time another article in that November 1957 issue of Good Housekeeping has me thinking how advice on buying typewriters from 1957 might be of use to the collectors of typewriters today. According to The Latest Word On Buying Typewriters, 1957 was a (at least semi) pivotal [...]

A couple of years ago, my son Hunter scored a sweet purchase at a garage sale: a NFL All-Pro Football game (Ideal # 2520-5, from 1967) for $3. He helped me review the vintage National Football League board game too, which prompted an email from Larry — and if you ever wondered why I spend [...]

Antiquips Pickin & Grinin Pick: This is going to be our first article for Inherited Values so let’s show off some of our unusual collectibles. Grin: How about your hand mirrors? You are always bragging to anyone that will listen, just how great you think they are and how well you display them. Pick: Oh, [...]

Most collectors already have accepted the fact that on any given day they may wind up looking for collectibles; summer brings an unexpected garage sale or flea market sign, but winter also has church rummage sales, thrift shops, and antique malls. So, Boy Scout or not, be prepared! 1. A List Of Specific Items You [...]

One of the first things that people usually ask me when they find out I’m a dealer of vintage collectibles is, what do you collect? My answer is usually short and sweet – “Anything that is chipped or cracked!” My shelf in the kitchen holding my misfit kitchen collectibles – lots of chips, cracks and [...]

One of the great things about collecting old photographs are the things in the photos — not only the objects and persons the photographer intended you to focus on, but the little extras which make the scene. Like in this vintage photo of Alice White. Clearly designed to promote the movie star, but (as pretty [...]

I don’t collect bookmarks — so why am I presenting at The First Bookmark Collectors Virtual Convention? Because founder-slash-host Alan Irwin asked me to, even though he knows I don’t collect bookmarks; I guess he just knows I appreciate “everything,” and therefore am quite capable of collecting anything. Truth is, I once had an unintentional [...]

More than a handful of people who’ve known me have joked that I’d sell anything. While I don’t believe that’s true I will admit to looking for margin in just about everything I buy because you never know, one day you might want to move it. Shoot, I’m looking for wholesale prices on dinner even, [...]

February 20th and 21st there’s an online event which is rather like a Valentine’s Day celebration for collectors: The first annual Bookmark Collectors Virtual Convention. This two-day event you can attend in your jammies sitting at your computer is obviously focused on the collecting of bookmarks, but the rest of us can learn something too. [...]

In many ways, magazines haven’t changed much — but that just means that a lot of the information in vintage magazines remains as valuable as it once was. Today’s example comes from the November 1957 issue of Good Housekeeping; it’s an article on “How to Recognize 10 Chests.” The article gives tips on identifying 10 [...]

Condition, condition, condition, of course, the three most important facets of any collectible, but is it really? Well, in the sense of just how collectible an item is, sure it is, but as to what matters most to collectors I find it’s not necessarily so. I’ll qualify that statement further; to the experienced collector, one [...]

I tend to be vocal about my criticisms of Antique Week. It’s not some internet attitude talking, but human nature; we tend to be more vocal with our complaints than with our compliments. So I figured it was time I gave Antique Week it’s proper due and give it a proper review. Antique Week is [...]

While trolling eBay, I found this vintage Barbie ensemble and let out a, “Hey! I had that!” Hubby probably would have ignored me (I exclaim a lot of things while sitting at the computer, and if he paid attention to every one, he’d never get to enjoy his parts of the interwebs), but then I [...]

Monday night was the premier of the History Channel’s American Pickers. This hour long show is the channel’s latest foray into the world of collectibles and antiques, following one of my other favorite shows Pawn Stars. So I was wicked excited to see it. The show documents the actions of Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz [...]