Last 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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

A reader of Inherited Values is in the beginning stages of planing an antiquing trip abroad and has asked me about travel insurance. Since I’ve, unfortunately, not yet left the country for this sort of thing, and never even considered what happens if you get ill overseas (I shudder to think of it now!), I [...]

Last night, History debuted it’s latest collectibles reality television series, Cajun Pawn Stars, in the now familiar two back-to-back half-hour episode format. (I don’t know why these guys haven’t yet just committed to the full hour episode yet.) The commercials for the show made it seem like a blend of Pawn Stars and Oddities, seasoned [...]

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 [...]

One of the things I love most about this vintage photo of a woman (obviously showing off her stockings in an erotic “French postcard” way) is the old boudoir doll on the vanity. You don’t see a lot of photos of boudoir dolls!

Sometimes dealers and other sellers of antiques and collectibles get a bad rap — OK, a lot of times they do, and I’m not going to go into all of that, but… As a collector there are times when your auction lots runneth over and you end up with more than you want (or can [...]

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, [...]

I shared this link on Facebook, but I thought it was interesting enough to note here as well… Louisiana Bans Using Cash In Sales Of Second-hand Goods: In a new law that could put every trading post, Goodwill, flea market, garage sale and Craigslist merchant in the state of Louisiana out of business, a bipartisan [...]

You accept a vintage pottery pig as payment for your work. I happily received this vintage cold-painted piggy bank as my fee for consulting work. I adore her sweet face and the red roses that decorate her — butt but it’s the curly tail that charmed me the most. So this little piggy came wee-wee-wee [...]

Have you ever watched one of the antiques and collectibles shows, or history shows, and screamed, “Put on your gloves!” Not the work gloves worn when picking (though we’ve gone that too lol), but the archival gloves worn to protect objects from skin oils etc.? Hubby and I do, so we were thrilled to see [...]

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 [...]