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 [...]

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 [...]

Back in November, I heard WDAY making the promo for that night’s broadcast — an alarming headline about model trains. I don’t recall word for word, but it was so alarming that I indeed remained glued to the station and watched the news especially for that report. While the headline sounded far more drastic (implying [...]

When I stumbled into this auction for original Katzenjammer Kids art, I was excited to read the story behind the piece: Grapefruitmoon Gallery just acquired an important collection of pen & ink original illustration art comic drawings from many of the leading Golden Age of Illustration comic strip illustrators that were received by a persistent [...]

At first look, this vintage fashion catalog from the 1930s is just a cool piece for ephemera and fashion collectors… But as you know, you should never judge a book by it’s cover! This is an incredible and unique vintage scrapbook as the 1931 Carlton Fashions catalog used as a scrapbook for crime clippings. According [...]

This is a photo of my dad, aka the Grinnin’ half of Inherited Values own Antiquips, aka The Dean. It was taken at the Elkhorn Antique Flea Market by Urban Flea Marketer, the photo-blogger of You Bought WHAT?! From Who?. My dad’s story from her post: I mean, he was just cute. He was totally [...]

Since I love all things pertaining to women’s history, from kitschy to suffragette, I’ve become smitten with these eight female figures in a suffragette band: I’d never seen anything like them before, so here’s what the seller, dahntahntoys, has to say about them: 54 mm solidcast women’s Suffragette Band by Charles Hall, bought in 1970s [...]

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 [...]

The following tips and scans of vintage hunting gun charts and guides come from The Standard Book of Hunting & Shooting, edited by Robert B. Stringfellow, copyright 1950, Stackpole & Heck, Inc. They are shared here to help gun collectors. (I’ve also posted some vintage hunting decoy designs from this book here.) Various types of [...]

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about antiques, vintage collectibles, and why I collect… This is the first, of quite a few, posts about these thoughts. Which, I suppose, is my way of warning you that a number of “pondering posts” about the subject are headed your way. *wink* Not many people know this, but [...]

SyFy added another collectibles show to it’s lineup. Sorta. Haunted Collector is a marriage of sorts between SyFy’s Ghost Hunter franchise and the ever-increasing television line-up of shows for collectors.  It sounded like a marriage made in heaven, but I think Ghost Hunters, the folks at TAPS, all collectibles programming, and all television viewers should [...]

I’ve long compared individual collectors and their collections to the work of professional curators managing museum collections, so I enjoy hearing how “real” museum curators approach their work. In What Does it Mean to be “Museum-Worthy?” How a Political History Curator Defines the Term, Larry Bird, curator of the campaign collection in the division of [...]

I was so thrilled when I spotted these vintage photos because it reminded me of this recent tweet by TheLarmy: All I have in the fridge is baking soda, camera film and boysenberry yogurt. Anyone got any recipes? I then knew it was the writing staff behind Cougar Town who wrote the tweet — because [...]