Allright, Enough Already!

Art Deco celluloid ring box.

$34.99

It doesn't have to be gold to be worth something!

Gnome Pinecone Elves Ornaments

Verified, It is now time to sell your Christmas items on Ebay! The GENIUS strikes again!!

$56.05

Harold Gale, Kansas City Royals Santa Claus

In January of this year Stephanie attended an auction and saw this little Santa Claus standing with two of his Santa friends in a box on the junk rows. The junk rows almost always sell last at our local auctions so she needed to be patient to purchase it. After waiting for 2 hours and 45 minutes she purchased the group for $5.00. I threw them into the back of the truck (during a snowstorm) and brought them home. At home they went into hibernation in the basement until last week.

$172.55

That's right, one hundred seventy two dollars and fifty five cents. She's a genius.

Singer Sewing Machine 99K

Most older sewing machines are nothing more than novel relics from the past. The world is full of Lady Kenmore's, Brothers, White's and Singer's. Virtually every home that we go into has some type of sewing machine. They are easy to overlook and most people don't even consider them when they show up at auction. So, why should we care?

Because although most machines are worthless, there are many that are not. This particular machine turned up in a household that we recently purchased. I personally have become lazy when it concerns consul type machines. They are everywhere, I normally don't even bother to take them out of the houses. Once again, in steps Stephanie (my wife). I would have put this out at the curb. As she pointed out I need to spend more time considering the value of everything and not just the things that I like.

Her quick (I didn't bother to look) look at ebay showed that these are selling for $150 to 400. The best part is they come right out of the stand, which still allows me the joy of putting something out at the curb. The bottom line is to check out everything, and don't assume that because your not interested in it that someone else may be.

Oh yeah, people will even buy parts off of them. An old freind sent his kid to college on the parts off of old sewing machines.

I've been away! Not Really.

Over the last few weeks I have started and not finished numerous blogs on antiques. I haven't finished any of them. Why? Am I getting to picky? Lazy? Just plain ran out of things to say?

No, none of the above. The truth is I have been just plain busy. It seems that every time I sit down to write a new blog something happens to throw me off course. Anyone who knows me will tell you that all you have to do is wiggle something shiney in front of me any whatever I was concentrating on is forgotten. It comes with being ADD, or is it Dad, or is it any one of the other things that I try to be?

So, today I am going to try to describe just what I do for a living. I am an auctioneer, appraiser, auction helper, picker, garage saler, storage locker buyer, online auction photographer, estate buyer, ebayer, craigslister, flea marketer, antiques show dealer, auction seller, booth renter at an antiques mall and blogger. Usually I'm not doing all of these at the same time, lately it seems as though all of them have in fact been happening at the same time.

So, I've been cheating on the blog. It seems that I have more fans of the blog than I really knew. It all started as a way for me to write the book on antiques that I always thought I had the ability to write. As it has turned out maybe its better. This blog gives me the abiltiy to simultaneously write about antiques and tell all of you what I really think of the business. Bottom line; time for me to get back on the bloggin.

Beer Mugs

Beer mugs and steins were being sold by the millions in the 1990's. They became almost as common as collector plates. So what are they worth today?

In general not too much. Most mugs perfect in the box can be purchased for a couple of dollars each. I really don't recommend investing too heavily in this type of collectible. Millions were produced and in the 1990's people were beginning to catch on to keeping the items perfect in the box, so there are a lot of them out there. If you do feel the need to buy, use them. Keeping them in the original box just isn't going to payoff, at least not in our lifetimes.