Next stop: Nostalgia City!

Railroad Memories auction on Fri., Oct. 8, is loaded with great finds – from hardware to china

Imagine: A mere century ago most people went from town to town or from state to state by rail, and virtually all goods – from raw materials, farm produce and livestock to every conceivable kind of finished merchandise and even the mail – were at some point carried on a train …

In America in the 19th century, trains were integral to the country’s explosive growth, geographically, economically and politically: They sped the industrialization of the Northeast before the Civil War and the rise of the Midwest’s urban centers in the Gilded Age that followed. Then there were the transcontinental links through prairie and canyon that are so much a part of the romance of the Old West: These were monumental undertakings that demanded engineering genius from the planners and the toil of countless laborers of different races, homegrown and immigrant. Some of these triumphs of human endeavor had a flip side – corruption, exploitation, bigotry, violence, not to mention the displacement of Native American residents – and I can say with confidence that none of the Irish, Chinese, newly freed African-Americans and others who broke their backs laying track and digging tunnels got a fair share of the wealth once the last spike was driven in and business started booming. Such injustices are part of our heritage, and we have a duty to know of them and learn from them; but they don’t diminish the importance of railroads in our history.

Bear this in mind as we enter the second decade of the twenty-first century, when most people travel long distances by car or plane; when consumer goods are usually delivered to our doors by truck; and when more and more personal communications traverse the countryside not along paths of steel but through a series of electronic connections in that intangible void called cyberspace. Think of it, too, now that our economic vitality is flagging and our foreign debt looms large. Fewer of us may go long distances by train nowadays, but it was the railroads that first put iron and steel into America’s backbone, its commercial infrastructure; the railroads were the sinews connecting America’s sprawling expanses, the arteries that nourished its entrepreneurial muscles, carrying its workers and its travelers, its products and its news, transforming it into a living, breathing, economically agile nation. Long before cars and trucks and planes, before Wi-Fi and text messaging, it was the railroads that did all that.

That said, I want to alert collectors and early-bird holiday gift-givers alike to the latest Railroad Memories (www.railroadmemories.com) auction, which is now online and closes Fri., Oct. 8, at 5 p.m. Mountain Time (that’s 7 p.m. EST and 4 p.m. PST). There are some 500 lots with a wide selection of great items in an equally wide price range: Even if you are not a railroad enthusiast per se, there is a lot of crossover into other collecting areas – dining car china and silver, glassware, lanterns, playing cards, badges, advertising, equipment and instruments, furniture and more – so don’t wait to check it out! It’s all vintage Americana, it’s all in great condition – you’ll find no flea market junk here – and it all smacks of nostalgia!

I participated in the last auction by Railroad Memories – based in Denver, where the railroad buffs are every bit as dedicated as the ones here in the Northwest – and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience … and that’s not just because I won something I really wanted. Frankly speaking, I hate the ANGST involved in bidding in most other auction: the constant checking of how high the bidding is on an item; the conflict over whether and when to bid higher when I’ve been outbid; the clock on the auction sites ticking off the minutes and seconds remaining, which adds to the pressure; even the bending of the rules I’ve witnessed during live online bidding as an auctioneer reopened a closed lot to get a higher hammer price.

Railroad Memories is comparatively low-tech and very low-stress: You just e-mail your best bid using a simple online sheet, or you can fax or call in your bid. (As I’ve written before, this removes the awful temptation to get sucked into a bidding war, which other online auctions – from eBay on up – profit from.)

I also like the way the fact that the buyer’s premium for non-subscribing bidders is only 10 percent of the hammer price: Most auction houses charge about 20 percent. Or for $45 a year you can become a subscribing member of Railroad Memories, which means you pay NO buyer’s premium for items won, plus you receive a great catalog for each of the four annual auctions and a list of prices realized – excellent reference material for any “railroadiana” collector. The combined subscription and buyer’s premium exemption themselves are a great choice for the train lover on your holiday gift list.

“With this, our 77th issue of the auction catalog, we are proud to be offering many rare and seldom-found pieces,” Railroad Memories owner Susan Knous told me. “And the catalog has a wide, diverse selection, so that makes it even more enjoyable.”

I asked Susan about some of highlights of this auction. She noted, “One of the more unique items in this issue is a surveyor’s transit from the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (Lot 130), patented April 30, 1901. It comes complete with a wooden tripod and the first we’ve ever had the opportunity to handle.

“Our usual assortment of quality lanterns includes one from the Florence & Cripple Creek Railroad (Lot 415), a narrow-gauge line here in Colorado that was gone by the early teens,” she continued. “The lantern has a red etched ‘F&CC’ and an extended-base globe, which is what makes this piece so desirable: Very few have survived.”

Want to add some refinement – as well as a great conversation piece – to your dinner table? “We are also proud to be offering a beautiful cut-glass water carafe from the Soo Line Railroad (Lot 285),” Susan pointed out. “This amazing and beautiful piece boasts the Soo Line banner logo. Pieces such as this are such a wonderful reminder of the beauty found on board a train in the early days.

“This auction also features many rare locks, keys, depot items and so much more, and all are sold with a full money-back guarantee for authenticity and customer satisfaction,” she added.

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All images courtesy of Railroad Memories, www.RailroadMemories.com

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‘Collector’s items’

If Great-Granddad was a ship captain – or just an armchair adventurer with a real nice library – and you have old nautical books, logs or charts that you want to sell, Greg Gibson of Ten Pound Island Book Company (www.tenpound.com) of Gloucester, Mass., may be the man to contact: He’s looking to purchase good, rare maritime material. I recently sold a few things to Greg and found him straightforward and easy to deal with. He also has a great blog and very fine items at very reasonable prices, so you might check out his site the next time you get fed up with the rat race and, like Herman Melville’s Ishmael, “account it high time to get to sea”: If your family, your job, your mortgage and your dog prevent you from signing on for a long sea voyage, Ten Pound Island is the next best thing.

Of course, with a shop full of histories of seafaring, naval battles royal, pirates, typhoons and other exciting stuff, I couldn’t help asking Greg what he collects himself. He replied: “I have a dealer’s mind-set. By definition this mentality steers away from collecting anything, or only collecting it to ultimately sell it. Thus my two major collections of works by Melville, my world-class local history collection, my collection of works by Gloucester poet Charles Olson – all sold! In my view, you can’t be a good dealer if you are also a collector, because you will always be working against yourself. I want to work WITH myself, FOR my customers, who are, and should be, the true collectors.

“Having said that, there’s one thing I collect: reference books. I’ve been collecting references of all sorts pertaining to maritime history for 35 years. By this time I’ve accumulated an excellent working library, and I take great pride in it.”

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Images courtesy of Ten Pound Books Company | www.tenpound.com  

Print collectors in the Denver area will be interested to know that Christopher Lane, “Antiques Roadshow” appraiser and co-owner of The Philadelphia Print Shop (www.philaprintshop.com) – located, not surprisingly, in the City of Brotherly Love – will soon be spreading the love of prints to the Denver area: “My wife got offered a great job at Denver Children’s Hospital, so off we are going to the Mile High City! My partner (Don Cresswell) and I decided this would be a great opportunity to expand our business, so I am going to open a shop in the Cherry Creek section of Denver. I am moving out in September and the shop should be open sometime in October.” Chris told me that The Philadelphia Print Shop (West) will have carry the same material as the original shop as well as share the same Web site but that the Denver shop will focus on western images. “I will also probably start to pick up some antique shows in the western part of the county and am going to be exhibiting at The San Francisco Fall Antiques Show (www.sffas.org) on Oct. 28–31. A whole new adventure!” he added.

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Images courtesy of the Philadelphia Print Shop | www.philaprintshop.com

See Christopher Lane on “Antiques Roadshow” (Las Vegas) on Mon., Aug. 2, on your local PBS station! And watch for his upcoming “What the Experts Collect” profile here on AmeriCollector.com!

<p>Anyone who doesn’t believe that auction catalogs can be collector’s items themselves should check out Heritage Auctions Galleries’ (www.ha.com) 2010 August Signature Sports Auction catalog with a hologram cover image of one of the auction items: a large 1932 photo of Babe Ruth whispering something to an amused Lou Gehrig and signed by both (current bid at this writing, $25,000; expected to fetch $50,000+)! This is only one of 86 primo items from the world of sports that are being auctioned off in conjunction with the National Sports Collectors Convention (www.nsccshow.com) in Baltimore Aug. 6–8.</p>

Football fans will be drawn to 1960 Don Meredith game-worn Dallas Cowboys rookie helmet (now at $3,000; estimated to get $10,000+). “Any game worn gear from the first Cowboys season would carry tremendous collecting importance,” says Chris Ivey, director of Heritage Auction Galleries’ Sports Collectibles division. “It’s just the icing on the cake that (this helmet) happens to come from the locker of one of the greatest Cowboys of all.”

Some other choice lots that made my mouth water: a “Wahoo” Sam Crawford game-used baseball bat with a 1913 fountain-pen inscription from the Detroit Tigers outfielder to a collector (now at $15,000, estimated to get $50,000+); Ken Norton’s 1973 North American Boxing Federation heavyweight championship belt ,awarded for his victory over Muhammad Ali (now at $11,000; estimated to get $40,000+); and, speaking of The Greatest, a 1960 handwritten letter signed “Your Fighting Friend, Cassius Clay, U.S. Champ” written while the 18-year-old legend-in-the-making was training for the Rome Olympics (the return address on the mailing envelope, which is included and is also handwritten by Clay/Ali, says: “Cassius M. Clay, c/o Special Service, U.S. Olympic Boxing team, Building 5434, Fort Dix, N.J.”; now at $6,000; expected to fetch $10,000+).

The auction ends Thurs., Aug. 5.

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Images courtesy of Heritage Auction Galleries | www.ha.com

Check out the newly updated AmeriCollector.com Collector’s Calendar by clicking on “Calendar” (above), where you’ll find events of interest through December 2010 in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, California, Arizona and Nevada. It’s a work in progress: We’ll be adding more events to these lists as well as events in other states (we’re working our way eastward), plus a slew of online auctions. Keep watching for new listings in the weeks and months ahead!

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Reminder: Railroad Memories auction ends Friday

Having just entered my bids in Railroad Memories’ auction no. 76, which I wrote about on June 7 (“Trainspotters: Railroad Memories auction leaves the station on Friday, June 18”), I thought I’d remind my fellow railroad enthusiasts that a specialized auction like this is the ideal way to build a collection or get a unique gift for the collector in your life.

Why?

When you cruise antique malls and flea markets – not to mention the world’s biggest flea market, eBay – unless you are Johnny-on-the-spot, you are either picking through someone else’s rejects or competing against a slew of other people in search of the same thing you are. What’s more, you’ll spend a good long time picking through lots of junk to find anything good.

An auction like Railroad Memories’ not only features choice stuff, but there will be fewer bidders to go up against – and they’ll mostly be railroadiana collectors like yourself.

What’s more, in a Railroad Memories auction, you e-mail your bids using a simple online sheet, or you can fax or call in your bids: It’s not only relatively low-tech but refreshingly old-fashioned. This would seem to discourage the bidding wars that other auction houses foment through online live bidding and that many folks – myself included – truly hate: You have to fight the urge to overbid in the heat of the moment, and may even regret it when you actually win.

In my opinion, that takes a lot of the fun out of collecting.

By contrast, in a collecting field where steam power is romanticized, a Railroad Memories auction is, ironically, low-pressure. “Bidders may call to find out the current high bid only after they have placed their bids,” their Web site indicates. Among the other terms of their auction: “Highest winning bidder will be awarded the lot for 10% above the 2nd highest bid. EX: Winning bid is $50, second highest bid is $30. Winning bidder pays $33 for the lot. If the spread between the two top bids is less than 10% the winning bidder pays his full amount bid. If only one bid is received on any one lot the winning bidder pays the minimum bid only. We encourage you to bid the most you are willing to pay, this saves time and usually is the most successful.”

That last sentence is key: To me, “the most you are willing to pay” means you give it your best shot and then chill out. As I mentioned, I’ve submitted my best bids; now I’ll just wait to see what happens. Maybe they’re already too low, or maybe someone will go higher before the auction ends. But it’s strangely calming not to receive e-mails with “YOU HAVE BEEN OUTBID” in the subject box, or to feel compelled to stay up late to snipe the last highest bidder.

Anyway, as I wrote in the June 7 post, this auction also has lots of wonderful stuff for people who DON’T collect railroad memorabilia specifically: like collectors of glassware, tableware, silver, advertising, ceramics, tools and hardware, stock certificates and ephemera. (All you family genealogists: If you have railroad men among your ancestors, this auction’s for you too!) It may be too late to receive a catalog in time for the auction, but it’s a beauty, and great resource material, so consider subscribing (which will save you the 10 percent buyer’s premium if you win in an auction).

Meanwhile, Railroad Memories owner Susan Knous mentioned a few “stars” this time: “A Denver & Rio Grande brass top bell bottom lantern (lot 404) with clear cast globe – real treasure in great condition for this 1880s-era lantern: Not many of these have survived, so they are always desirable,” she explained. “We are also proud to be offering a St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba brass top bell-bottom lantern (lot 420), also with a clear cast globe: One of only a handful are known in collections today, so this one will be interesting to watch. Great Northern fans will find a Great Northern Express call card sign (lot 134), beautiful medallion silver serving pieces, porcelain signs and more.”

The auction closes on Fri., June 18, at 5 p.m. Mountain Time. Visit www.RailroadMemories.com to view the lots and register to bid.

Images provided courtesy of Railroad Memories.

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Trainspotters: Railroad Memories auction leaves the station on Fri., June 18!

It’s here, and just in time for Father’s Day: Ol’ No. 76, billowing steam, boiler clanging and ticking, is waiting at the platform, doors open and waiting for railroad enthusiasts to climb aboard for one wild ride …

Actually, it’s the NEW No. 76 – as in Railroad Memories’  (www.RailroadMemories.com) auction no. 76, featuring a trainload of unique memorabilia in variety of categories – everything from advertising, china, silver and watches to badges, passes, stock certificates and equipment – for railroaders, collectors in other fields (regional, china, silver, signage, lanterns) – even decorators.

I last wrote about Denver-based Railroad Memories (“All aboard! Railroad Memories Auction ends Nov. 6”) back in October; the specialized auction, held quarterly, is a collector’s event. Also, unlike the high-profile, highly staffed corporate efforts that I usually profile on AmeriCollector.com, Railroad Memories auctions are held on a much smaller platform under the supervision of owner Susan Knous.

I first found Railroad Memories – which is an online railroad memorabilia shop as well – last year while tooling around the Web, looking for the elusive autograph material of Otto Mears, “Pathfinder of the San Juans” (the mountains in Colorado, not the islands in the Strait of Juan de Fuca) and builder of the Rio Grande Southern, Silverton and Silverton Northern railroads. I gave a call and found Susan to be genial, helpful and very knowledgeable; I also started watching for her auctions.

Railroad Memories issues four beautiful color catalogs annually for their auctions, which are excellent reference material for collectors, as are the prices-realized sheets that come afterward. The subscription cost is $45 within the U.S. and $60 outside the U.S., and subscribers are exempt from the 10 percent buyer’s premium that non-subscribing bidders pay.

“This issue features over 500 lots, including some very scarce and hard-to-find items,” Susan told me. “Everything sold through our company comes with a full money-back guarantee for authenticity and customer satisfaction. Simply view and bid on the lots from our Web site. Should you have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to contact us.”

Just a few of what I consider to be highlights of the current auction: not one but TWO Rio Grande Southern stock certificates signed by Otto Mears (including one issued to Mears himself!); a great silver-foil-backed poster for the streamlined Burlington Zephyrs; a beautiful circular porcelain Great Northern Railway sign with mountain goat silhouette measuring two feet in diameter; a porcelain spittoon from the Pennsylvania Railroad; plenty of really nice china (including several from the Wabash Railroad); lots of some 50 pieces of dining car silver (sugar bowls, toothpick holders, teapots, you name it); lots of locks, keys and lanterns; office and rail yard equipment; books; passes; and more.

If you are or know a railroad buff – especially if you’re shopping for one this Father’s Day (an annual catalog/auction subscription makes a great gift!) – don’t miss this auction, which closes Fri., June 18, at 5 p.m. Mountain Time. Visit www.RailroadMemories.com to see the goods and register to bid.

Images courtesy of Railroad Memories.

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Alexander Autographs’ auction pulls in more than $1 million

I just got word that the 1,421 lots that the Alexander Autographs auction of Jan. 20 and 21, blogged on AmeriCollector.com on Jan. 19, realized more than a million bucks.

“Once again we saw very spirited bidding for fresh, high-quality material,” says Bill Panagopulos, president of Alexander Autographs, located in Stamford, Conn. “Collectors and investors never really left the autograph market – on the contrary, they see better material as a good investment and a potential hedge against inflation, and as a result, we’re seeing prices that at times exceeded our estimates be a factor of five or ten times.”

I’m not one to recommend collecting as an investment: As Elyse Luray of “History Detectives” says (AmeriCollector.com, Jan. 27), “BUY WHAT YOU LOVE – hands down, buy what you love.” But there is buying dumb and buying smart, for as Elyse also points out: “BUY GOOD … I hate to tell to buy things for value, but if you do ever need to sell your collection or want to sell your collection, you want to have things in it that are actually the best of the best. If you can’t afford to do that in the beginning, then ‘buy up’: Buy what you can afford and then trade it when you can get to the next better piece.”

I myself have won several lots in Alexander Autographs’ past few auctions, including two in the last one, and each time I felt I got great value – which is why I recommended checking them out. While I encountered a couple of glitches with the live bidding part of the recent auction – for example, it wasn’t clear to me that live bidding, which was handled by Artnet, required separate registration (on the other hand, I was approved in less than an hour while the auction was already in progress); and one of my live bids was inexplicably “withdrawn” and I had to reenter it (I won the item in the end) – others apparently were apparently as eager to bid as I was and hopefully got similar happy results.

Here are some of them:

• A letter by Abraham Lincoln to the secretary of the Navy confirming an appointment to the Naval Academy sold for $28,000.
• A large autographed photo of General George Patton took in $6,000.
• A signed photo in silver presentation frame from Adolf Hitler to General Gerd von Rundstedt went for $55,000.
• A written wartime bet between Dwight Eisenhower and British general Bernard Montgomery (signed by both) over the date Germany would surrender fetched $26,000.
• The signed contract I described on Jan. 19 in which Michael Jackson transferred his rights to “We Are the World” sold for $14,000.
• A biography of Albert Einstein signed by him got $4,750.
• A George Gershwin letter with a quote from “Rhapsody in Blue” made $8,000.
• A menu signed by Walt Disney hammered at $1,900.

Watch AmeriCollector.com for news of Alexander Autographs’ next auction, or visit their Web site: (www.AlexAutographs.com).

Part I of Alexander Autographs Auction: www.americollector.com/alexander-autographs/

Image courtesy of Alexander Autographs.

Your comments are always welcome and appreciated.

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Auction alert: Alexander Autographs Historical Autograph & Manuscript Auction closes Wed. and Thurs., Jan. 20 and 21!

Thanks to you, AmeriCollector.com now has a loyal readership, and it’s growing daily: We had over 18,000 visitors last week, which is hugely gratifying.

At a juncture like this, I can’t help but think it’s the ideal time to reaffirm our mission: to provide a fun, interesting, informative venue of interest to collectors in a wide range of fields. We will endeavor to do so by offering features, news and a calendar of events that will hopefully become a valuable resource in your collecting adventures.

Whereas most collector Web sites are narrow in their subject matter – focusing on toys, say, or photographs, or music boxes – we at AmeriCollector want to be more diverse: In fact, we welcome reader submissions on any collectibles subject in the form of leads, advice, comments and questions, as well as reviews of shows, exhibits and other events you have recently attended. (As we’ve indicated before, we just request that you be honest, sincere and nice; check your facts; and try to include supporting and even contrary opinions from others. Needless to say, avoid using offensive language or innuendo: We’ll only have to cut it.)

Also, unlike dealer sites, we are not selling anything except space: While we welcome collectibles-related advertising, we will not run glowing accounts of people, businesses, auctions or events that we don’t feel comfortable with, don’t believe in or wouldn’t recommend to our own friends or family members. Of course, it’s not always possible to know in advance what an upcoming antique fair or museum exhibit is going to be like: In those cases we’ll attempt to give you a taste of what to expect through interviews with the exhibitors, organizers and others involved, then follow them up whenever possible. (Again, we also look forward to hearing about them from YOU.)

That said, let me urge my fellow autograph and memorabilia collectors to check out the Alexander Autographs 2010 Winter Historical Autograph & Manuscript Auction (viewable online at www.alexautographs.com), which will be held in two parts on Wed, Jan. 20, and Thurs., Jan. 21.

I don’t know how many people view the various collectibles auctions held by the many auction houses around the country, but I suspect that Alexander Autographs, located in Stamford, Conn., falls beneath the radar. In other words, I believe they have A LOT of interesting stuff, yet I don’t think many collectors know about them, which means less competition and more opportunities to win great items at great prices.

In fact, I suspect Alexander Autographs auctions are a magnet for other dealers, who can pick up some real bargains and then resell them to their regular clients.

(I myself have participated in two Alexander Autographs auctions, winning one lot each time, and bought about three items from their online store. In each case, even with the buyer’s premiums for the winning auction lots, I felt I got well below the going retail prices for those items.)

Some things you need to know:

• As always, you must be registered to bid, so if you aren’t already – or aren’t sure if you are – get right on it! You’re supposed to register 24 hours before the auction begins.

• Alexander Autographs has absentee bidding (where you bid in advance and hope for the best), live in-person bidding, live telephone bidding and live online bidding, if you can be at your computer when your lot numbers come up. Live bidding goes fast. My advice: Watch the bids, and if you want something bad enough, don’t balk – KEEP CLICKING: Electronics are not as instantaneous as you may think! Two auctions ago, I lost a cache of letters penned by wild-animal collector Frank “Bring ’Em Back Alive” Buck – written while on expedition in China, no less – because I hesitated five seconds.

• The minimum bid for an item is half the low estimate given in the lot description or $20, whichever is greater.

• Alexander Autographs’ live bidding is handled by an outside company (not eBay), which takes its cut: 3 percent of the hammer price. The buyer’s premium for absentee, in-person and live phone bidding is 19.5 percent; the buyer’s premium for live online bidding is 22.5 percent.

• It’s a two-part auction. Part I (lots 1 to 538) begins Wed. Jan. 20, at 10 a.m. EST; Part II (lots 539 to 1421) begins Thurs., Jan. 21, at 2 p.m. EST.

There are LOADS of treasures in this auction, at ALL PRICE POINTS. I wish I could afford to bid on any number of them, but, well, my family likes to eat sometimes. Here is a brief selection, with some few highlights …

• A great typed letter dated 1914 and signed by legendary Western lawman William “Bat” Masterson (1853–1921), written to Robert Marr Wright (1840–1915), Dodge City, Kansas. Like his compadre Masterson, Wright was a former frontiersman, Indian fighter and Dodge City pioneer; he also served a term as mayor of the town and authored the 1913 book “Dodge City: The Cowboy Capital.” The letter reads in part: “Mr. Taub was in to see me the other day and told me he has received six books from you all in good shape. Mr. Taub reads your book with much enthusiasm. He is the sort of a young man who likes that western stuff.” As any serious boxing collector knows, “Mr. Taub” was sportswriter/radio fight announcer Sam Taub (1886–1979), Masterson’s assistant at the New York Morning Telegraph. Est. $12,000 to $15,000 (no bids yet).

• A .32 caliber bullet seized from the Barrow Gang (a.k.a. Bonnie and Clyde and Associates) in a 1933 raid in Dallas County, Texas. The description doesn’t indicate the exact circumstances under which the ammo was taken, i.e., if it was left behind or dropped or taken off one of the gang members. Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, of course, were killed by police machine-gun fire in Louisiana in 1934. The slug was lost for 30 years before being found in the attic of a Dallas County deputy whose father – who had been a Dallas County deputy as well – helped Sheriff R. A. Schmid chase the gang. According to the description, “the round is ‘live’ and should be handled accordingly.” Est. $400 to $600 (now at $200).

• A signed portrait photo of Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977), 5 x 7, black-and-white. A pencil notation from the original owner on the back reads: “I received this picture on August 23, 1919.” Small fold to top left corner, a little smearing to signature. Est. $400 to $600 (now at $400).

• Various African-American historical items. More on this subject as we move into Black History Month, but there are a number of items of African-American interest in this sale, including slave bills of sale, est. $150 to $300.

• Typed, signed document in which Michael Jackson (1958–2009) transferred the rights to “We Are the World” to United Support of Artists for Africa in 1985. The actual recording featured a veritable pantheon of pop/rock superstars: Jackson, Lionel Ritchie, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Smokey Robinson, Billy Joel, Tina Turner, Dionne Warwick, Bette Midler, Willie Nelson and loads of other, lesser deities. It raised over $63 million in aid for famine-stricken Africa, was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks and won three Grammys (Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group), an American Music Award and a People’s Choice Award. The biggest-selling single of all time, it has sold 20 million copies as of last year. Est. $15,000 to $20,000.

• An original doodle of a dog with a tin can tied to its tail by Norman Rockwell (1894–1978). It’s on the first free endpaper of a first edition of “Norman Rockwell: Illustrator” by Arthur L. Guptill (1946), above an inscription that reads: “My very best wishes to The Lenox Library, Sincerely, Norman Rockwell.” The description indicates that the artist’s wife, Molly, taught at the library, located only five miles from The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge. Est. $2,000 to $3,000 (no bids yet).

• Two documents (separate lots) signed by the Sun King, Louis XIV (1638–1715). Yeah, THAT Louis, of the trendsetting duds and the wild parties. These are untranslated: Maybe Louis was just cancelling his newspaper subscriptions, but try out your high school French on them and see. Both are small folio (about legal-size). One, signed in Versailles in 1687, has a damp stain on Louis’ signature, but it still looks good and is estimated to sell for $400 to $600 and is at $260 at this writing; the other, signed in St. Germain-en-Laye in 1670, has just a little bit of foxing on the edges and is estimated to go for $500 to $600 and is now at $320.

• An official 1930 New York Yankees Major League baseball autographed on the sweet spot by Babe Ruth (1895–1948) and by Lou Gehrig (1903–1941) on the opposite side. In addition to the Bambino and the Iron Horse, the ball’s signed by Lefty Gomez, Bill Dickey, Tony Lazzeri and twenty other players. The Babe’s signature is rated 4/10, and the ball comes with a certificate of authenticity from PSA/DNA, authenticator to major auction houses. Est. $4,000 to $5,000 (now at $3,750). This is one of three Ruth-signed balls in this auction.

All images courtesy of Alexander Autographs, www.AlexAutographs.com

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Auction alert: January R & R Auction ends this Wednesday!

If eBay is any indicator, the collectibles market is heating up again: I’ve noted a lot of interesting stuff and some vigorous bidding of late, a sure sign that the economy is improving. And while a lot of folks aren’t out of the woods yet, financially – many are downsizing their collections because they were downsized themselves at work – at least we’re not reliving the Great Depression, with soup lines and dust bowls and old ladies selling pencils on street corners (although I was hoping certain culpable Wall Street speculators would oblige us by taking swan dives out of high windows).

All of this is good news for sellers, the needy and the greedy alike. For buyers, it means that great deals are going to get harder to find: If you’re actively building your collection – and who isn’t, at least in spirit? – this is the time to be vigilant.

In the coming months here on AmeriCollector.com, you can look forward to notices of auctions worth checking out both for the uniqueness of the lots and the chance to nab a fine item at a good price.

This week, have a look at the R & R Auction (www.rrauction.com) January autograph auction, which closes Wed., Jan. 13 (the 10-minute rule starts at 10 p.m. EST). The buyer’s premium is 20 percent, and there are both high- and low-end items and, as of this writing, plenty that have no opening bids (which usually start at $100). Here’s a sampling across the price range:

• A pretty unbelievable album of autographs collected by the wife of a major general in the Civil War, containing more than 200 signatures of 19th-century notables. The collection includes three presidents, officers on both Union and Confederate sides, statesmen, authors and other. Among them: Ulysses S. Grant, Andrew Johnson, James A. Garfield, John C. Fremont, William T. Sherman, Philip H. Sheridan, William S. Rosencrans, Carl Schurz, Daniel E. Sickles, Henry W. Slocum, Lew Wallace, P. G. T. Beauregard, Nathaniel P. Banks, Henry Ward Beecher, Salmon P. Chase, Schuyler Colfax, Horace Greeley, Edward Stanton, William H. Seward, “Billy” Sunday, Gideon Welles and Thaddeus Stevens. Now at $1,612; next bid $1,774.

• A copy of mobster Mickey Cohen’s autobiography “In My Own Words” with an autograph note to a collector tipped in. Cohen had been a prizefighter in an earlier life, and I think it ironic that his handwriting – like that of some other pugs, like Jack Dempsey in his younger years – has a loopy, schoolgirlish look. Who woulda thought it? Now at $100; next bid $110.

• A great Walt Disney signed typed letter, on his personal letterhead and dated Dec. 1, 1941, to Louis Desser, managing editor of the Hollywood Star-News. It talks about the newspaper’s good review of “Dumbo,” and Disney encloses payment for a three-year subscription for Spencer Tracy’s son, a private-school student. Now at $2,716; next bid $2,988.

• Various Charles Schulz signed items, from inscribed “Peanuts” books (bidding unopened at $100) to a hand-inked comic strip panel from 1971 featuring Snoopy at his typewriter (now $15,700; next bid $17,270).

• Seven pages of diagrams annotated by former Major League catcher/OSS agent Moe Berg and Swiss physicist Paul Scherrer detailing atomic chain reactions. Dated Dec. 26, 1944, this precedes the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan by eight months. An amazing piece of World War II and science history (now $888; next bid $977).

• Beautiful satin-finish 8×10 color photo Yankees sluggers Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, signed in blue felt-tip (now $862; next bid $949).

• Two signed 8×10 photos of Michael Jackson, one with him posing with a whole bunch of cops (both now at $267; next bid $294).

• A 1955 songbook titled “The Elvis Presley Album of Juke Box Favorites,” signed “Yours, Elvis Presley.” Some condition issues, but on the 75th anniversary of the King’s birth, it already has 19 bidders (now $1,952; next bid $2,148).

• A George Gershwin cancelled personal check for $25, dated Oct. 26, 1935 ($294; next bid $324).

• A black-and-white 11×14 portrait of star-crossed Seattle-born actress Frances Farmer, inscribed in fountain pen “To Fred, with all love and gratitude, Frances” (now $900; next bid $990).

A framed autograph, especially a photo, makes a great Valentine’s Day gift. Remember, you have to register to bid.

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Photos courtesy of R&R Auctions, www.rrauction.com.

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Study your auction catalog!

I love auction catalogs: Even if I can’t afford to bid on what I really want – how many collectors can? – the catalogs make for fun reading.

Catalogs are also a great resource for collectors. Over time, they can give an idea of what’s out there on the market and – if you bother to check the hammer prices afterwards, which I strongly advise – what certain items may fetch. The operative word is “may,” of course; more on that in a moment.

If you collect within a narrow field, you may even see an item come up for auction more than once over a period of a few years. If it’s a rare or one-of-a-kind piece, it can help you to know what it sold for the last time it went on the block.

Lot descriptions are also informative, both for what they contain and what they don’t. A really good auction house with knowledgeable experts – Heritage Auctions in Dallas, say – will publish beautiful catalogs with insightful descriptions that contain valuable details about an item’s uniqueness, provenance, condition, etc. But don’t let that stop you from doing your own research: If you collect Theodore Roosevelt memorabilia, for example, and a letter from Teddy to a Mr. Joe Blow comes up for auction, do your homework and try to find out who Joe Blow actually was, if the auctioneer hasn’t done so already. Special associations often go unnoticed and only add to an item’s worth.

Here’s an example: A couple of years ago, a short 1909 Christmas greeting written by legendary 19th-century boxer/Civil War veteran Mike Donovan to a Capt. Jack Crawford came up for auction. Donovan’s handwriting wasn’t so legible, and the lot description querulously noted that Donovan referred to Crawford as “the Poet Scant.” “Scant”? I was confused too.

So I Googled “Capt. Jack Crawford, Poet Scant.” It turned out he was Captain Jack Crawford, “the Poet Scout,” who was a lot more famous than Donovan (at least, outside of pugilistic circles). Both men had been born in Ireland and served in the Union Army, so they obviously had some common bonds. Crawford became a cavalry scout in the Indian Wars and among the first to arrive at the site of the Little Bighorn after Custer’s Seventh Cavalry were massacred. Crawford was also famous as a frontier poet, hence the moniker: He used to pen his verse at campfires – while his compatriots were drinking, eating beans and farting, one imagines – published several books (pretty avidly collected today) and was active on the public reading circuit. AND he was a pal of Buffalo Bill Cody, with whom he later worked the Wild West show circuit.

All of this evaded the writer of the lot description, but it greatly enhanced the letter’s value – both to your humble correspondent and the guy who outbid me!

Anyway … bear in mind that while hammer prices may provide an indicator of an item’s fair-market value, nothing’s written in stone. Just as on eBay when two goons get in a bidding war and drive an item’s price ski-high up five days before the end of the auction, people in an online or live auction can get crazy and bid far beyond what they reasonably should. (Figure in the buyer’s premium as well.) So take hammer prices with a few grains of salt.

Conversely, you may get lucky – as I have more than once – and find a great item BURIED in an auction catalog among unrelated items: for example, an uncommon film star autograph hidden among sports memorabilia. Not only will other collectors of that film star miss the autograph (unless they collect sports memorabilia too) but the sports people will probably ignore the film star as well. Then you have the opportunity to nab a great item far below what it would ordinarily sell for.

In a nutshell: Look hard for those hidden gems among the other lots!

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eBay: The thin line between love and hate

Seven things I LOVE about eBay

1. It’s the world’s largest flea market. Virtually EVERYTHING shows up there sooner or later. If you’re patient and experiment with keywords, you can find some great stuff at incredible prices just because other eBayers miss them.

2. Entrepreneurs of all types can sell online and even make a living without having Web sites of their own. eBay is the embodiment of cyber-capitalism. I predict that e-commerce will achieve in this century what America and Pamela Anderson couldn’t in the last: the destruction of communism, once and for all.

3. It’s a great place to meet people with the same interests. I’ll introduce you to a fellow collector and rival bidder of mine in an upcoming blog on AmeriCollector.com. Stay tuned.

4. The countdown feature is a big improvement. When sniping, you no longer have to refresh the page to time your bid.

5. The rating system gives a decent idea of the kind of seller you’re dealing with. I’ve run into a few incompetents and several cheapskates – people who charged five bucks for Priority Mail shipping, then sent the item by media mail for a buck – but after 650+ transactions I’ve never really been ripped off by anyone. (Paying with PayPal helps.) And when a seller failed to communicate with me after I won an item – at a steal, I might add; I thought he was going to renege on my win – eBay was very good about giving me his phone number so I could call the schmuck.

6. The “Watch This Item” feature is a big help. Ditto for “Buy It Now or Best Offer.” And did you know that if you have the current high bid, you can ask the seller to end the auction early and sell the item to you on “Buy It Now” if you can agree on a price? It beats the hell out of running the risk of losing it to another bidder.

7. You can collect without leaving the house. Sure, that can be bad for brick-and-mortar collectibles dealers, who make their money face-to-face, but let’s be honest: More often than not, those same dealers buy and sell on eBay themselves (and even buy items on eBay and re-list them there). eBay is no different from any other auctioneer – from Sotheby’s to Railroad Memories – that allows absentee bidding; they just do it online, on a larger scale. If exhibitors at antique and collectibles fairs or the guy who owns the sports memorabilia shop in downtown Podunk hate it when visitors look at their goods and say “I’ve seen it for less on eBay,” then those vendors should price their stuff competitively instead of whining about overhead.

Seven things I HATE about eBay

1. Outside auctioneers can get away with auctioning stuff without disclosing that there’s an established reserve price. I was the high bidder on an item in a GoAntiques auction and there was no indication that a reserve price had been set – let alone that I hadn’t met that reserve price – yet, GoAntiques wouldn’t sell the item to me; instead, they re-listed it. In effect, eBay failed to regulate the GoAntiques auction they hosted, allowing GoAntiques to outbid me themselves in order to try for a better price later. How is that different from “shill bidding,” in which you bid in your own auction to up the ante on an item – which is COMPLETELY against eBay rules, and for which you can be banned from eBay? (I e-mailed complaints both to GoAntiques and to eBay, but neither responded.)

2. There are legions of idiots who use every conceivable keyword to get their items in your face. That’s also against eBay rules: Crack a few heads already!

3. The new system of encrypting bidders’ names sucks. Under the old system, when people’s eBay “handles” were shown, I learned the bidding habits of folks I regularly bid against: Some would bid high, some wouldn’t; some would bid in huge chunks, others would bid in little increments, like old biddies (no pun intended) at a high-stakes Vegas Pai Gow table; some were even professional collectibles dealers, who wouldn’t bid beyond a certain point if they couldn’t resell the item at a reasonable profit. This was valuable knowledge that enabled me to bid effectively. Nowadays it’s more anonymous, with names like “t***1.” (I haven’t yet tried to keep track of these encryptions, but I’m going to start making a list.) eBay claims this is to protect bidders’ privacy, but it’s not nearly as much fun as bidding against missfit and whitezombie.

4. The word count for feedback is too low. If you really want to blast a lousy seller, 80 characters aren’t nearly enough.

5. It’s a pain in the butt to sift through 16 pages of feedback to find the negatives and neutrals. eBay should make it easier to pull up bad and ambivalent feedback. And the way they figure the percentage rating seems calculated to make all but the crappiest sellers look like saints: I don’t think I’ve ever seen one with a rating of less than 98.5 percent.

6. I’ve NEVER gotten a free discount or premium. I’ve been eBaying since 2001, made 650+ transactions and have a 100 percent feedback rating, and I’ve never gotten so much as a free lady’s disposable razor or other piece of useless crap as a reward. How do you get one of these mythical discounts, anyway?

7. eBay junk mail is criminally boring. It’s more fun to read the reams of unintelligible paper that the Sierra Club mass-mails to solicit donations. Please, spare the trees…

www.ebay.com

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All aboard! Railroad Memories auction ends Fri., Nov. 6

You gotta hand it to the great state of Colorado: It produces some REAL SERIOUS collectors of railroad memorabilia.

It’s not surprising: Railroads played a huge role in the state’s history, especially during that iconic and conflicted era we call the Wild West. Sure, trains were essential to the development of other, arguably tamer parts of the country: rural New York State, for example, or Ohio, or Missouri. But Coloradans rightly find deeper inspiration in the conquest of their rugged landscape by mortal men – from the financiers and surveyors and engineers to the crews that dynamited and graded, laid down ties, pounded spikes and hauled in and set the tracks (“rust eaters,” the last were called) – than, say, your average New Yorker, who much prefers to grouse about the Long Island Rail Road than reflect on it.

Anyway … I often feel that these blogs focus too much on paper collectibles than objects of daily use, so I’m happy to report that Denver-based Railroad Memories, a buyer, seller and appraiser of railroad memorabilia, is currently holding their 74th auction, which closes on Fri., Nov. 6, 2009, at 5 p.m. MST (mind those time zones, Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore!). Railroad Memories is owned by Sue Knous, with whom I had a very pleasant conversation about railroad collectibles a few months back. While I haven’t yet purchased anything from Sue, I’ve been watching her Web site, with its wide range of railroad artifacts, and planning to get the word out when her next auction was announced.

The thing I love most about railroad collectibles is the huge crossover into other collecting areas, and this Railroad Memories auction doesn’t disappoint: While this isn’t a big, big auction – there are some 468 lots – it runs the gamut from paper ephemera (baggage tags, timetables, passes), to tableware (dining car linens, glasses, silverware, hollowware and china), to personal items (badges, pins, uniforms), to lanterns and lamp globes, to some really great locks and keys, to depot equipment like torch cans, water cans and other cool stuff.

It’s a little hard to find on the Web site, but Railroad Memories issues catalogs to auction subscribers, who pay $45 a year if they live in the U.S., $55 if they’re in Canada and $65 to the folks across the pond. When you subscribe, you receive a bidder number but pay NO BUYER’S PREMIUM if you win something. Non-subscribing winning bidders pay a 10 percent buyer’s premium, which is still pretty darn low. Either way, you should contact Railroad Memories early to get set up to bid.

With the holidays rolling around, this is a great opportunity to get something unique for that special collector in your life. Learn more and view the lots at RailroadMemories.com.

Check out our Events page for more details.

Images courtesy of Railroad Memories, www.railroadmemories.com

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