King of pawn: Rick Harrison of ‘Pawn Stars’ talks about the shop and collecting

~ An AmeriCollector.com Exclusive ~

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Rick Harrison of Pawn Stars

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of “Pawn Stars” on the History Channel (or HISTORY, as they prefer to be called). It should surprise no regular visitor to this site, then, that I’ve been trying for many moons to get Rick Harrison, lead luminary in the “Pawn Stars” firmament and owner of Las Vegas’ Gold & Silver Pawn Shop (www.gspawn.com), to tell us about starting out in the pawn biz and what he himself collects.

Rick’s a real busy guy, especially now that the shop is expanding (I hear it’s a regular stop on the Sin City tourist itinerary now); nevertheless, he was gracious enough to reply to a few of our questions. Thanks, Rick!

AmeriCollector: How and when did you get the business started?

Rick Harrison: I’ve been working in the business for close to 30 years. But the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop was not exactly an overnight success. I sought out a pawn license for most of the 1980s, but there was a long-established ordinance that no pawn license would be issued in the city of Vegas until its population exceeded 250,000. The good ol’ boys, back in the ’50s, figured we’ve got our pawnshops, we don’t want any competition, so they passed a law saying that they would issue one more pawn license when there’s 250,000 people in Vegas. This was when there was only 20,000 people in Vegas and nobody ever thought it would get to 250,000. But lo and behold, in 1988, I was the first to get a license.

AC: You’ve said several times on “Pawn Stars” that you might keep for yourself something you bought on those episodes of the show. We know you are excited by unique historic items (like shipwreck salvage), rock and roll (especially The Who) and fast cars. What do you consider your serious collecting areas?

Rick: Rare/historic books, old cars, fine art, military items … really, anything unique and unusual intrigues me.

AC: How do you build your collection? (e.g., through auctions, by visiting shops/dealers – or strictly from people who come into your shop?

Rick: Customers coming into the shop to sell items … or pawn them.

AC: What do you look for when choosing a new addition to your collection?

Rick: Is it rare? Will it make me a profit when I sell it?

Image courtesy of History Channel Press.

See new episodes of “Pawn Stars” Mondays at 10 p.m. EST/9 p.m. CST on the History Channel.

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Hardcore history: 6 reasons I love ‘Pawn Stars’

1. They’re current – and they’re hip. Like “Antiques Roadshow,” the hit History Channel show “Pawn Stars” appeals to the collector – as well as the profiteer – in all of us, because they both attempt to answer the most enduring philosophical question in human history: “How much?” One notable difference, though, is that PBS generally doesn’t have to bleep out anything from “Antiques Roadshow.” Another is that the “Roadshow” is a local event wherever it goes, attracting A LOT of people with lots of things to choose from, virtually all of them, well, ANTIQUES, as the show’s name indicates (although they do have some recent pop-cultural items). “Pawn Stars” often gets into newer stuff that is not antique per se but is nonetheless collectible: Super Bowl championship rings, video games, collectible athletic shoes, “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” items, etc. In short, the collector’s next frontier …

2. They feature interesting stuff with broad appeal – but it’s still a “guy” show. Loyal watchers of “Antiques Roadshow” know the drill: Each hour-long program features one or two pieces of furniture, a painting, a couple of ceramic or glass pieces (often Asian), a sports item or firearm, some jewelry, a toy or doll and something distinctly American, like an NRA or War Bonds poster, plus odd item that may not fit into any category. Personally, I’m not fascinated by jewelry, dolls or ceramics – but that’s just me. The “Pawn Stars” guys tend to focus on the stuff that I personally find more exciting, even if I don’t collect it: antique weapons and militaria, motorcycles, pinball and slot machines, old lunch boxes …

There are good reasons for this, of course: Part of it is the personality of the “Pawn Stars” folks, Rick Harrison, “Old Man” (Richard Harrison, Rick’s dad) and Big Hoss (Rick’s son Corey). These guys run Gold & Silver Pawn Shop (also called Gold & Silver Coin Shop, www.GSPawn.com), a working 24-hour pawnshop in Las Vegas, with comic relief from Chumlee (Austin Russell, Big Hoss’ boyhood buddy).The Harrisons have a much better chance of selling a Kentucky long rifle than a stack of old issues of Vanity Fair or Playgirl. And while I don’t know the demographics, I suspect the viewership of “Pawn Stars” is mostly male as well.

It also comes down to numbers. The “Roadshow” has a huge pool of folks bringing in their treasures and trash, in cities around the country, and an army of appraisers to pick out the more interesting stuff – and they aren’t shelling out their own money to buy any of it. “Pawn Stars” is set in a working pawnshop in Las Vegas: They have a much smaller staff; they feature only items that they have an interest in selling in the store; and you better believe an item has to tickle their interest or be an easy sell for them to make an offer.

That’s the business of collecting right there – the buying, the selling, the haggling – and that’s something that “Antiques Roadshow,” by its very G-rated non-commercial nature, can’t match.

3. They show the importance of doing your homework. “Antiques Roadshow” appraisers are experts in their fields: They know what things sell for and, if unsure about an item, they research it online or consult their colleagues before their segments are filmed and they give a price range. On the other hand, again, they are not there to buy what people bring in (although I don’t doubt that some people contact them after the show), and therefore they’re not supposed to be have an interest in the sale or purchase of what they appraise.

The “Pawn Stars” people do. Therefore, it’s not only prudent for them to call in experts to describe and appraise the higher-end stuff – especially things that require restoration – but it provides a little drama, a little education, some basis for negotiation. That makes for great TV. It is also a constant reminder to collectors and sellers alike that it pays to know your, well, stuff before you make an offer or accept one. DO YOUR RESEARCH!

4. They’re pretty up-front about how much an item is worth. When the “Pawn Stars” guys know something about an item, they can be pretty firm in their bargaining, especially if the item in question is not that unusual, not that expensive and/or not in great condition. That’s understandable: As the guys explain, they need to make a reasonable profit; display space is limited and they don’t want the thing sitting around; and if it needs some kind of restoration, well, that’s got to be figured in. However, sometimes they do go out on a limb a little and throw out an offer on something they aren’t sure about, either on a hunch or an impulse. God knows, I do …

(On occasion, Big Hoss has risked a bundle on, say, a Chris-Craft runabout in need of major restoration, but it usually worked out in the end, and he gets a lot shrewder with every new season of the show.)

When the guys DON’T know the value of a potentially rare, high-end or counterfeit item, they call in an expert – and this is what makes “Pawn Stars” great TV. Everything is laid on the table, once an expert prices a piece; it’s just a matter of whether Rick and company want to buy it, and if they can make a deal. That’s when Rick invariably has to explain to at least one dummy on every show that he can’t purchase an item at the retail price and sell it for a profit.

I’ve noticed that Rick generally offers somewhere between 50 and 70 percent for stuff that he wants, with the higher percentage for really cool stuff that he takes a fancy to and feels he can sell easily. Most collectibles dealers won’t settle for that percentage, let alone tell you what they expect to sell an item for: As I have said more than once in this column, even so-called respectable dealers will screw an unwitting seller to the wall in a New York nanosecond if they can, paying only a small fraction of what they will resell the item for. So I can’t help but laugh when some guy brings in an old flintlock pistol, for example, and wants $500 for it, and Rick brings in an expert who says it’s really worth $2,000, then the seller gets miffed when Rick won’t offer more than $1,200 for the gun. Talk about chutzpah!

5. The show features restoration as part of collecting. The collector’s mantra: “Condition, condition, condition!” It’s ideal to get an item in perfect or near-perfect shape; in fact, the trick is to get stuff in as close to its original, mint-new state as possible.

Unfortunately, life rarely shakes out that way. Sometimes unique or hard-to-get pieces need some professional TLC to transform them from flea-market trash or junkyard rats’ nests to highly prized collectibles, and the “Pawn Stars” guys are quick to get master restorers in on the act. In fact, one of the best “Pawn Stars” spin-offs or imitations that I’ve seen is “American Restoration,” which features one of the guys who restores the “Pawn Stars” purchases. To me, this is one of the best things about the show: seeing a rusty old clunker transformed into a Big Daddy Roth dream machine, with flaring chrome exhaust pipes and liquid-fire detailing. For these guys, restoration is a labor of love – and the results are spectacular!

6. They love history! OK, a visit (real or virtual) to a Vegas pawnshop may not be the same as a pilgrimage to the Smithsonian or the British Museum, but I’m one of the few people I know who has been to both (as well as CBGB), and I barely got past the front door in any of those places. In fact, all I can remember of the British Museum was some Egyptian statuary and the Reading Room, where Marx (Karl, not Groucho) wrote “Das Kapital.” (I also remember the open sewer that was the pissoir at CBGB – and even less about the Smithsonian.) In the case of the two museums, that is a lifelong regret: I just didn’t have the TIME to see more – another reason to be thankful for the Internet: A virtual tour is the next best thing to visiting a lot of places in person …

But I digress. My point is that “Pawn Stars” absolutely screams history, even if it’s pop cultural history. And if you manage to retain a stray fact or two from the segment on the colonial lottery ticket signed by George Washington, or the recent one about the metallurgy book owned by Isaac Newton, that’s worth more than all those hours in a junior high school history classroom from which you took away zilch.

The Harrisons LOVE history: These guys have a certain amount of charisma, but they are not actors; yet, you can see enthusiasm pouring off them – even the normally saturnine Old Man – whenever they talk about an item’s place in history and its possible importance. They may not offer much for the piece, but that fascination with the past – priceless!

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History Channel: Wheels of Fortune

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Images and video courtesy of History Channel Press.

Coming soon! 6 ideas for improving Pawn Stars

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‘Greetings from AmeriCollector’:
The art of linen postcards

I just went to eBay’s “Collectibles” category and clicked on “Postcards”: 1,788,849 results were noted, in categories ranging from “Advertising” and “Amusement Parks” to “U.S. States, Cities & Towns” and “International Cities & Towns” (along with “Supplies & Reference” – i.e., postcard sleeves, album pages, etc., for collectors – and “Other,” some 100,000 miscellaneous cards).

That’s a lot of postcards! And yet, almost all of the categories concern the subject matter of the images on the cards; only one, “Real Photo,” relates to the artwork, the production process or the texture of the cards.

This is interesting, because postcards have changed a lot over the past 125 years or so that they have been in regular use – since before most people had telephones, and in some places the mail was delivered twice a day. Most very early postcards that I’ve seen were plain-Jane functional – basically, index cards with printed postage on them, a design that the U.S. Postal Service was still selling up until fairly recently, if they aren’t still. As lithographic processes advanced, postcards got more artistic and more colorful and were generally printed on better card stock to hold the ink.

In the early 1930s – when art deco style was the look – “linen” postcards (printed on paper card stock with a linen-like appearance) went into large-scale production. They are easily recognizable, the “Greetings from [fill in the place]” kind (known as large-letter cards, which were actually depicted on a series of U.S. postage stamps) being the most famous examples: printed in striking pastels, with a matte cross-hatched textured finish that, if you hold the cards up to the light, actually looks like a linen weave.

Rare, striking and unusual linen cards are highly sought after by collectors, not simply for their graphics but because they absolutely scream post-Depression, World War II and postwar America. There are 1939–40 New York World’s Fair cards, “Keep ’Em Flying” wartime cards, direct-mail product adverting cards, Route 66 cards and diner cards and a gazillion other roadside cards from the early baby boom, when many American households bought their cars and started to hit the road to see the country they had defended against fascism.

To me, an avid although sporadic collector of linen cards, these are windows to an era, a time when people actually WROTE messages to one another, stuck stamps on and popped them in a mailbox. Some linen cards are just so cool, they are models for advertising artists even today – and just light-years ahead of e-cards in terms of design sense. (Again, if art deco is your thing, then linen postcards may be just the collecting area for you: Check out the many Miami Beach hotel cards and the ones featuring streamline diners and locomotives and Greyhound bus stations.)

The guy who “wrote the book” (the first real book, as far as I’m concerned) on linen cards – as well as a price list for the clueless – is Mark Werther, a Pennsylvania architect and orchid grower who collects a lot of different things (porcelain, flamingos, Mexican sombreros) who not only hits all the postcard shows he can but has also written many articles for Barr’s Postcard News (www.BarrsPCN.com), the Time magazine of postcard collecting. Mark’s volume, co-authored with Lorenzo Mott, is titled “Linen Postcards: Images of the American Dream” (published in hardcover 2002 and available for $39.95 on Amazon.com) is both art book and reference work, as is his paperback “Linen Postcards: Images of the American Dream Price Guide 2004” ($11.95 on Amazon); in fact, considering that many sellers of postcards on eBay don’t really know a linen card when they see one (and beware the difference between “linen” and “linen era” cards: Read on …), I think these are a must. (Note: Mark is working on a new price guide, hopefully available this summer.)

I first read about Mark in 2002, when “Linen Postcards” was just published, in an article about linen cards written by Bart Ripp, one of the best writers the Tacoma News Tribune has had in recent years. (They got me hooked on linen cards – as if I needed another hobby.) I have asked Mark his advice many times over the years and am much impressed not only with his experience but his artistic sensibilities (again, he’s an architect): You may not be lucky enough to find a Rembrandt etching at your local Goodwill thrift shop, but Mark may help you spot a great and possibly valuable linen card among a box of postcards the next time you go to a garage sale or flea market.

Recently I asked Mark for some basic information on linen postcards:

AmeriCollector: When were linen postcards produced?

Mark Werther: There were forms of linens produced in the United States as early as 1906 or 1907. What is considered a classical linen postcard was first issued in 1931 by Curteich of Chicago. Linen cards were produced until about 1959.

AC: What’s the difference between a linen card and a “linen era” postcard? How can you identify a linen card?

Mark: A linen card has a raised pattern of fine lines usually perpendicular to each other, similar to linen fabric. All the linen cards required intensive rendering work from craftsman. The number of lines, depth and pattern vary greatly from manufacturer to manufacturer. There were other cards produced during the 1931–59 linen era using matte paper with no raised line patterning. I believe that these matte cards are as valuable as the linens. Other types of cards, like chromes (shiny picture-type cards), also started during the linen era but are in totally different category

AC: Why did postcard makers stop making linens, and what were they replaced by?

Mark: Linens were produced for close to 30 years. That is a long run. When the chrome-type cards were perfected by the mid-1940s, they caught the interest of the public and were far less labor-intensive to produce than the linens, thus the start of the demise of linens. The popularity of the chromes, combined with the availability of inexpensive cameras in the mid-1950s, like Brownies and Anscomatics, allowed the masses to take their own color pictures of the sites, so the linens were less desirable.

AC: What is the price range for linens? Are they going up in price? What are the rarest cards?

Mark: Linens have steadily risen in price, but they can still be found in 25-cent boxes. Usually, individual linens are in the $2 to $6 range. As the artistic quality, scarcity, and interest in the subject increases, so do the prices of the cards. Better-quality cards in categories like diners, drive-ins, great restaurants and advertising are commonly priced from $10 to $75. Great advertising cards that are scarce can command prices up to hundreds of dollars.

AC: What are the hallmarks of a great linen card? What are the most popular categories?

Mark: Lorenzo Mott, my friend and co-author of the “Linen Postcards: Images of the American Dream,” used the term “stunner.” A great linen card usually falls under the “stunner” category and is a card that is superior based on better graphics, color, contrast, sharpness, composition and display of subject. These cards stand out from the average cards. Luckily, the “stunners” can often be lesser-priced cards. The popularity of linens is in the eye of the beholder/collector.

AC: How important is condition in general? What condition issues make a card unacceptable for a collector?

Mark: I have always believed that unused, near mint to mint linens are the most valuable cards. (Note: “Mint” means no rounded corners, edge wear, creases, stray marks, stains or fading. – DC)

AC: How important is condition if a card is really rare?

Mark: I rarely purchase a less-than-near-perfect card, even if very rare. If it is extremely rare, I might make an exception, but not often.

AC: Should collectors avoid postally used cards?

Mark: There are collectors who like cancels and messages. It is a matter of setting one’s own standard. I have avoided the used cards, as they most often do not meet my requirement of near mint to mint condition. I do make an exception with those with special advertising, salutations and commemorative cancels and with important addresses and messages on the backs.

AC: What advice would you give a new collector? Where are the best places for collectors to find great cards?

Mark: I avoided postcards for nearly 30 years of collecting. There needs to be a catalyst that lights the collecting fire: a special subject, color, a time period, historical references. When I started, I relied on postcard dealers at paper and postcard shows. Unfortunately, they were not providing all of the answers. There was no one book on linens that covered the subject. My friend Lorenzo and I then decided, since we were doing the extra research, we might as well condense it into a book and published “Linen Postcards: Images of the American Dream” in 2001. This was followed by the price guide in 2004. So this sounds like a self-advertisement, but the book is still the only all-encompassing reference guide. It is a short course in one location and gives the new collector a great advantage in appreciation and identification of linens. For further information, there are individual references to diners, “large letters” and hotels, and specialty books on cartoons and some locations.

AC: When will your new price guide due to be published? How many price entries and photos will be in the book?

Mark: I plan on about 40 pages with updates on prices on the 500 images in the book: 100 images in the 2004 price guide plus another 200 images and prices. Hopefully it will be out by mid-2011.

AC: Are you discovering anything new about linen cards?

Mark: I am discovering new linens all the time and am amazed at the wealth of historic information contained in the images and descriptions. Especially rewarding is to find “stunners” that represent the best of the linens.

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All images courtesy Mark Werther

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What the experts collect: Christopher Lane, The Philadelphia Print Shop

It always amazes me that people would buy some mass-produced framed print or some other tacky reproduction from a department store instead of getting a genuine old print – even an attractively designed book page or an illustration from an old newspaper – and having it framed, preferably with preservation materials (acid-free matting, conservation glass – the subject of an upcoming AmeriCollector.com story). Even though there’s a multitude of beautiful images and typographical examples available in a wide price range – with many beautiful engravings and chromolithographs costing not that much more than a print from Target – some folks would rather decorate their homes like a Motel 6 than put a little piece of history on their wall. Go figure.

An old print or poster makes a fantastic gift as well, and if skillfully framed can become the centerpiece of a room, more furniture than accouterment. Having a print (or photo or document, like a vintage stock certificate) custom framed can be pricy – and may even cost more than the print itself, especially if you have it done with the archival materials, which you should – but my motto is: If it’s worth framing, it’s worth framing right. Believe me, there’s a world of difference between a beautiful print that’s beautifully framed and one that looks like your kid framed it in arts & crafts at summer camp.

It’s also a lot of fun selecting an old print, especially if you want an image that connects to your or a loved one’s collection. Sometimes that just means riffling through old magazine ads to find one for Harley-Davidson if your boyfriend’s other passion is his hog, or an old “Police Gazette” engraving of a twelfth-round knockout if Uncle Rocky is an ex-pug. Of course, if you dream big – a long rail journey to Istanbul or a passage to India, perhaps – an old travel poster in your living room or home office will keep you focused and on course.

Prints can really make a statement: who you are, where you want to go …

However, I’m just a casual print collector: What does a bona fide print maven – a print professional – collect? I asked “Antiques Roadshow” appraiser Christopher Lane, co-owner (with Donald H. Cresswell) of The Philadelphia Print Shop (www.philaprintshop.com), who I introduced in my last post and who will open The Philadelphia Print Shop (West) in Denver in October, about his love of prints …

AmeriCollector: What do you primarily collect?

Chris Lane: I got into this field because of my interest in maps. I was a graduate student in philosophy and went looking for a map to give to my sister as a wedding gift. The dealer I bought the map from offered me a job and so I took a break from my thesis to work for a year and learn as much as I could about old maps. I got hooked and at the end of the year decided to start my own business, which I did in 1982 with my partner, Donald H. Cresswell.

I have always had a bit of the collector bug and of course had to collect antique maps. Because I didn’t want to compete with my clients – partly because it wouldn’t be fair to Don – my wife, Lindsey, and I decided to collect maps of the British Isles and Oxfordshire. I had met Lindsey when studying at Oxford (she is British) and so this was a natural thing for us to collect and a subject for which there were not a lot of American collectors.

Early on we both got interested in American ornithological prints, particularly through the wonderful prints of Mark Catesby. Our first non-map was the Catesby “Blue Heron” and now we have nice examples by almost every naturalist who made prints of American birds.

AC: What do you enjoy about collecting maps and prints?

Chris: The thing I enjoy most about collecting – other than the thrill of the chase – is that in building a collection one builds a graphic history of the topic you collect. My background is not at all in art; it is in history. While I primarily studied philosophy, history was always a “minor” in my studies. I found that I was able to envision history, and remember it, much better when I had contemporary images, prints and maps, of the subject I was studying. When you put together a collection of prints or maps of a particular place, you can visually see the history of the place: the changes in society, the physical structure, the economy and pretty much everything else. Then when you read about a period of history, you have an image in your mind that you can hang the text on and that really broadens your appreciation and understanding of that history.

AC: How do you build your collection?

Chris: Probably the thing that Don and I spend most of our time on here at the shop is buying inventory. It is relatively easy to sell when you have good items – the problem is finding those good things. So in our constant hunt for good inventory we regularly come across things that fit my collecting interest. We do most of our buying privately, but we also buy from other dealers and a little (probably about 5 percent of our inventory) at auction.

AC: What do you look for when choosing a new map or bird print to your collection?

Chris: I look for items that will fill in “gaps,” mostly by date, but also in trying to have items by all the major print or mapmakers who made items that fit our area of collecting. Also major items, even if I have other things that are similar, and those items that are “special” in some other way – such as a map that was particularly well colored at the time. Sometimes, though, we’ll buy something simply because we like it, mostly when it makes us smile to look at it, whether it is important or not. We are always concerned about condition, but if the item is rare enough, we’ll add it to our collection, hoping that maybe someday we’ll be able to upgrade.

Price is rarely a consideration. Now, of course I do have an advantage at usually being able to buy at “wholesale,” but it still costs me money when I add something to our collection, as I have to make good with my partner. If there is a map or print that fits our criteria and is something that should be added, unless the price is totally out of line, I’ll go for it, even if I think the price is too high. In the long run, I will be far unhappier if I pass it up than that I paid a bit too much. I have seen that many times with collectors I have worked with, and while I usually warn them (of course, they think I’m just trying to make a sale), usually a collector doesn’t learn that lesson until they pass something up that was “too expensive,” only to regret it the rest of their collecting days.

AC: Is there a “holy grail” that you’re trying to find?

Chris: I would love a nice example of the George Lily map of the British Isles, first drawn in 1546. The “holy grail” for maps of Oxfordshire is the map from Christopher Saxton’s atlas of 1579. I have a wonderful example of that with original color which I found at an auction in Ohio and was able to buy for $200! I heard about the auction — that it had some British maps — and got a list, which included an unidentified map of Oxfordshire. From the description I recognized it as the Saxton map and after talking to the auctioneer on the phone I became convinced it was an original with original color, though it was laid to a backing. I didn’t want anyone to realize what it was, so I just asked the auctioneer if I could bid on the phone for a number of the British maps. I had decided I would pay as much as $5,000 for the Saxton, but bidding started at $50. When it got up to $200 I didn’t hear anything more. I was terrified the person on the phone might have missed a bid, so I kept saying, “Am I still high bidder?” Finally, I was assured not only was I high bidder but that I had won the map. As a business, The Philadelphia Print Shop has had a few great buys like that, but it was particularly fun that this time it was for me personally!

AC: Any advice for collectors of prints and/or maps?

Chris: The most important thing to me is for a collector to focus on a theme for the collection. Without a theme, it will just be a “group” of prints or maps, not a collection. The theme is what gives form and coherence to the group, making it a collection. The theme can be anything you are interested in: a time period, a style; prints showing canoes, maps of a particular place, presidential prints or whatever. Make it something you like and the collection will have meaning.

The next most important thing is to educate yourself. Learn how prints and maps were made and in what form they were issued so that you can recognize an original (we still find reproductions being sold as originals in some of the major auction houses!). Also, learn about the history of whatever theme you have chosen; this will help you appreciate those items you have and also to learn which items are important to your collection and which aren’t. Also, learn what is out there within the scope of your collection and how rare or important things are. That will help you decide whether to get something, even if you have to pay a premium or it isn’t in great condition.

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All images courtesy of The Philadelphia Print Shop, www.philaprintshop.com

The Philadelphia Print Shop on facebook

Many thanks to Christopher Lane for the great interview.

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You CAN judge a book by its cover – or, rather, its dust jacket

Serious collectors – actually, collectors of ANYTHING mass-produced – know that, apart from the writer’s, artist’s or maker’s signature or something that imparts association value (Herman Melville’s annotations in a natural history book on whales, for example), it’s all about getting the item in as close to its original state as possible. With books, that means as close as possible to mint, right-off-the-press condition, and complete – with the dust jacket if one was issued, and if possible without the price clipped off. That’s how particular (or anal, if you prefer) book people can get.

Dust jackets, especially the ones produced from the 1920s to the 1940s, often featured spectacular, stylized artwork; after all, they were in large part intended to tempt browsers to buy the books. The problem was, then as now, it was a pain in the neck to read a book with the jacket on, so people removed them, set their coffee cups down on them, tore them, misplaced them … The result: books with damaged, soiled or – worst of all – NO jackets!

Little did those readers of yesteryear know, but those dust jackets can add geometrically to the value of the book, because of the great artwork, certainly, but much more importantly because of their rarity. To pick one example, the first edition of Nelson Algren’s first book, “Somebody in Boots” (1935) features a really cool image of the proto–James Dean/Elvis Presley–type hero. A copy of the book in pretty rough shape lists for $180 on Bookfinder.com; there’s only one copy listed with a jacket – both book and jacket in fine condition – for $2,600!

Needless to say, not all vintage books in knockout dust jackets are high-end; what’s more, given the beauty of the artwork, small wonder that some folks collect books specifically for their dust jacket art. For those collectors – and those who are looking for specific books that happen to have great jackets – a Connecticut bookseller, Babylon Revisited (www.YesterdaysGallery.com), has a really terrific selection and has just issued a new catalog. I asked owner Michael Manz about his books:

AmeriCollector: Your Web site used to say your specialties are “photoplays, mysteries, fantasy literature, plays, romances, Westerns, Hollywood interest and business fiction” – along with children’s literature and 19th-century literature. Seems like an odd mix, doesn’t it?

Michael: The common link between the genres, more or less, is the era in which they were published. We like the way books were made during the Jazz Age and the Depression era, they have an appealing solid quality, often with dust jacket art that demonstrates real contemporary artistry.

AC: How old is your business, and about how many books do you have in stock right now?

Michael: My father started the business in the late 1970s. I’ve been involved one way or another since I was about twelve. You might say I grew into the business, literally. We have tens of thousands of books, but less than ten thousand currently online for sale.

AC: What is “business fiction,” anyway? And what is a “photoplay”?

Michael: We found that the typical genres – mysteries, romances, etc., didn’t always encompass the varied subject matter that novels from the 1920s and ’30s dealt with. We’ve created a few more genres, such as business fiction – that is to say, novels dealing with businesses, companies, executives and office workers.

Photoplays were a way for publisher’s to bank on the popularity of current feature films by printing, or usually reprinting, novels that the films were based on and including plugs and stills from the film.

AC: You also concentrate on pre–World War II material – which I take to mean Depression-era works – in their original dust jackets, many of which are wonderful artwork. In fact, your catalogs feature some amazing Art Deco images. Do a lot of people collect books of that period just for the jackets?

Michael: Collecting novels not typically considered important from before World War II – when the quality of jacket artwork seems to have taken a nosedive – is appealing to some of our customers simply for the artistry of the book and not the quality of the prose. Most collectors are interested in authors, but more than one are interested in the book itself as a piece of contemporary art.

AC: Sometimes paper quality prior to and during the Second World War wasn’t that great. Was the jacket art intended to compensate?

Michael: There were some reprint houses that used pretty cheap or acidic paper; many of their books are now in the junk heap. Perhaps the jacket was a way to draw people into buying a book in which the quality of the book itself was substandard. However, we have found that many publishers from this period used high standards of production and their products live on today, and possibly will outlive many of their more modern cousins.

AC: I know that a scarce dust jacket is sometimes worth much more than the book itself: for example, the jacket for Henry Roth’s “Call It Sleep.” Can you explain why? What advice would you give someone who wants to collect books in their original jackets?

Michael: Like many collectibles, the value is found in the most disposable part, or the most disposable items themselves – for example, baseball cards and comic books. Many a mom disposed of their children’s comic book collections and in doing so created scarcity and desirability in the collectibles market. This is the same with book jackets: They were the first to be discarded and are now the most valuable asset to a vintage book.

I would advise collectors to look for jackets in acceptable condition, keeping in mind that they have weathered 70 or 80 years of handling, as condition is always an important point for determining value. However, if a book has a damaged jacket, but there are no other examples available, that should not deter them from buying it.

AC: You have quite a selection of prewar books that appear from the outside to be pretty risqué. Were these writings really pushing the boundaries of acceptability? Were there film versions, and did they have to be toned down?

Michael: There were a number of publishers and authors pushing the boundaries of what amorous pursuits were acceptable for readers to consume. I think they were reflecting in their prose a growing sensibility among the populace, and meeting a demand for more realistic literature concerning what was actually happening in society. We’ve come across a number of Jazz Age titles that delve into “the fast life”: speakeasies, alcohol consumption and noncommittal romances. These were issues that were developing in society and needed to be addressed in literature.

AC: How did the look of dust jackets change after the war?

Michael: Books got thinner, paper quality got cheaper and artwork for jackets became more secondary in importance. There are still some great works out there by Salter and others, but the art of bookmaking definitely took a turn for the worse after the Second World War.

AC: What do you consider to be the highlights among the books you have in stock at this time?

Michael: I’m a big fan of early dust jackets, ones from 1910 to 1920 or even the turn of the century. These are naturally pretty uncommon, and they have a wonderful sense of appeal based on this scarcity. We also have some interesting photoplays for important films, and novels that deal with uncommonly found subject matter for the time, such as Hollywood, homosexuality, circus life, and women’s studies.

[Show as slideshow]

Images courtesty of Babylon Revisited Rare Books, www.babylonrevisitedrarebooks.com.

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What the experts collect: Spotlight on Elyse Luray of PBS History Detectives

Charismatic, inquisitive, intelligent, enthusiastic – did I neglect to say telegenic? – Elyse Luray, like her three fellow investigators on the PBS series “History Detectives”, brings to the field of history all the energy, relevance and wonder that somehow got bled out of too many junior high and high school classrooms.

You can tell I’m big on “History Detectives,” as a history buff and as a collector – although the folks who submit mysteries aren’t necessarily either: Someone in Oregon opens a trunk and finds a Revolutionary War–era poem apparently written by an American prisoner of war in Mother England; a guy in Seattle receives from his father a baseball signed and dated July 12, 1944 by former Major League pitcher Dizzy Dean, along his dad’s account of playing in an uncharacteristically integrated wartime Air Force ball game with Dean and Negro Leagues legend Satchel Paige … These are human-interest stories more than anything, but they demonstrate the kind of investigatory skills – the adventure of real research – that is part and parcel of world-class collecting.

What’s more, I note that “History Detectives” investigations often have a genealogical element. While many people think of genealogists as spidery and schoolmarmish, good ones know their beans about history and are as tenacious about pursuing a lead as Arnold Schwarzenegger was about tracking down Linda Hamilton in “The Terminator.” That’s an inspiration for collectors seeking as much knowledge about their treasures as they possibly can.

But I digress: Back to Elyse …

Originally from Baltimore, Elyse Luray graduated with a degree in art history from Newcomb College Institute at Tulane University in New Orleans. Her creds in the auction and collectibles world – what you won’t know just from seeing her on PBS – is extensive. For example, she was animation art specialist, managed the Popular Culture department and set up the Arms & Armor and American Indian Art departments at Christie’s, where she worked as a licensed auctioneer and appraiser for 11 years (in 2000 she auctioned one of the pairs of ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore in “The Wizard of Oz” for $666,000). She has captained the block for a host of other auction houses (Steiner Sports, Grey Flannel Auctions, Bertoia Auctions, etc.) and charitable causes as well. Elyse has appeared and appraised on the Home & Garden Television show “If Walls Could Talk,” HGTV’s “Endless Yard Sale,” “The Early Show” on CBS and “Antiques Roadshow” on PBS; and she has evaluated the personal collection of cartoonist/animator/producer/all-around creative genius Chuck Jones and the archives and collections of such little-known startups as Warner Bros., DreamWorks, Lucasfilm and Hanna-Barbera Productions. The list goes on …

So imagine MY elation when Elyse agreed to talk about her personal collections with AmeriCollector.com! Here’s our interview from earlier in this month.

AmeriCollector: You must collect a lot of things. What’s your main collecting interest?

Elyse: My main collection is actually Marx Brothers posters: one-sheets and inserts, not reproductions. My children’s last name is Marx and I have two boys, so they’re “the Marx brothers.” (Laughs.) All over my house are Marx Brothers posters. I got my first one maybe 25 years ago, before my children where born; but then I actually had boys, whose last name is Marx, and I started collecting more and more and more. The prices got really high, but then they went down again. So that’s probably my biggest collection.

It’s also hard, because you need to have the space for posters, and I don’t really have that much space anymore, so that limits my buying.

I went through a big stage of collecting bulldogs, since I had one – anything with a bulldog – and I probably ended up with a couple of hundred pieces of bulldog paraphernalia, things with an image of a bulldog and mainly old advertising pieces.

AC: So you don’t necessarily collect antiques.

Elyse: Well, you know, it’s funny you say that. I mean, I don’t consider my bulldog collection or Marx Brothers posters antiques, but nothing is later then 1950; in fact, some pieces are from the turn of the 20th century. Each is one-of-a-kind, and I stay away from limited editions. So I guess they are antiques. I also collect sterling silver serving pieces and trays, both American and European, and I don’t buy anything new. I don’t buy contemporary.

I don’t feel I collect that much because, with my show and with my work, I’m constantly around collections. It’s really weird for me, but when I work on an appraisal or a story, I feel like I’m sharing the collection with the owner for a while. Because of what I do and the nature of my business, I feel like I’m around collections all the time … Actually, I AM around collections all the time! (Laughs.)

AC: I know you were at Christie’s for a long time, and I think you were working in the areas of pop culture and art, so I assumed you collected art.

Elyse: Well, I have a lot of Western art in my house, which came from my parents, and I did help help set up the American Indian Art department at Christie’s. One area of art that I actually bought and collected recently with my mother: the “Les Maîtres de l’Affiche” series; they’re prints and posters from the turn of the century. Lautrec, Mucha and Cheret were some of the more known illustrators. And it’s a series of prints produced in the early 1900s. The whole series is about …I don’t know the exact number off the top of my head: Let’s say 350, 400. My mom has them, each framed on one entire wall in her dining room and I have a couple scattered through out my house. And that’s definitely artwork, but it’s more of what we call a “multiple” market, because prints are multiples, meaning they are produced in a series and there is more then one. Prints, posters, photography – they fall into the multiple category.

AC: How do you build your collections?

Elyse: If you want me to give advice on how to collect, these are my key points:

BUY WHAT YOU LOVE – hands down, buy what you love. If you find a passion, follow it. Anything that you want to collect is OK. If you want to collect Hawaiian shirts, ashtrays, bells – anything that what you find interesting – then that’s what you should collect. There’s nothing you can’t collect, because that’s the beauty of it. Follow your passion, follow your dreams …

When you do find that one thing that gives you some type of emotional satisfaction that you want to start collecting it, my biggest piece of advice, besides buy what you like, is BUY GOOD: Buy things that are in good condition, buy things that are not going to fall apart or have a lot of damage or have a lot of restoration on them, because I find that those are the things that sustain themselves the longest. And 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.

AC: Is there any particular “holy grail” that you’re looking for, in terms of posters or even bulldogs?

Elyse: No, I haven’t really found my “holy grail” yet.

I wish I DID have a “holy grail”: I always want more. I’d like to collect other things, actually, at this point.

I’m not sure that anyone should have a “holy grail,” because after you get it, then you’re kind of, like, what do I do now? You know what I mean? (Laughs.) I would hate for someone to stop collecting.

AC: What would you collect?

Elyse: Too many things to really answer. I love antique advertising. I love old jars: I kind of started to collect them; they’re not expensive, they look really good and they’re very decorative in your house.

I don’t have the room for it, but if I had room, I’d collect a million other things. I’d love to collect old photography – black-and-white – and when I say “old,” I mean early-20th-century photography, not contemporary.

The problem – and you would probably be the same way, because you’re a collector – is that you don’t think of some things, and then you walk into somebody’s house and you see what they collect, and you think: “That’s the greatest idea! That’s brilliant! I love it!”

I was just in Sun Valley, Idaho, on vacation over Christmas, and I walked into somebody’s house, and they collect nutcrackers. They were exceptional cast-iron nutcrackers, and they must have had 200 of them, and you know, the characters that were used and the mechanics of the nutcrackers – it was just a brilliant thing to collect! I would never have thought of that before.

The beauty is that there is always something to collect!

[Show as slideshow]

Images courtesy of Elyse Luray

Visit the History Detectives on PBS online at:  www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives

Visit Elyse’s Web site: www.ElyseLuray.com.

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Paper trails

Bob Kerstein is a “history detective” – specifically business history, a collecting area that most people probably hadn’t thought much about until the economy tanked over the past year. Not only are we all tied (albeit unwillingly) to Wall Street and the global economy, some people collect “business paper,” or documents and ephemera relating to specific companies, government projects and other enterprises. Or maybe they just collect a brand, like Coca-Cola. Well, Kerstein – a former executive at McCaw Cellular in Seattle and now based in Washington, D.C. – is the CEO of Scripophily.com , a company that sells vintage stock certificates and bonds, each of which has a story.

First National Bank of Seattle ( Became Seafirst Bank, now Bank of America) - Territory of Washington, 1884

Kerstein became interested in antique stock and other certificates after seeing Confederate bonds at a Civil War show some years ago. He remarked on how he likes to envision Gilded Age entrepreneurs traveling the country by rail or stagecoach, hawking beautiful, ornately engraved stock certificates in order to raise funds for their corporate ventures.

“It’s almost like they went to extremes to make the documents professional looking, engraved with nice vignettes” and sometimes marked “payable in gold” to reflect the financial standing of their companies, Kerstein explained. “It gave people a false sense of security (so to speak), because they didn’t have the gold set aside; they’d only convert them to dollars.”

Wells Fargo Mining Company - Virginia District, Story County, Nevada 1879

So, who are Kerstein’s customers? “We sell to everybody,” he says: people in the financial community, of course – for themselves or for friends, colleagues and family members – but also families with a connection to a particular company. “We sold something to a family whose grandfather was a secretary of the company, Pontiac Spring and Wagon Works, and signed it, and the company became a part of General Motors. It made the first Pontiac car; the certificate was dated 1907.”

Stock certificates make excellent conversation pieces for brand-loyal adults, and there are dozens to choose from. Got a Bill Gates wannabe on your gift list? How about a rare specimen share (an unused sample certificate) of Microsoft from 1990, with the engraved signature of then-president Michael R. Hallman, for $169.95? Does Uncle Bud like his Bud? He’ll appreciate a certificate for 10,000 shares in Anheuser-Busch (dated 1980) for $99.95. Want to broaden a youth’s capitalist horizons? A specimen certificate for Reebok ($195) or Nintendo ($149.95), or a single share of Sony ($59.95), will smell like teen spirit. For the woman in your life, how about a share in House of Taylor Jewelry (Elizabeth Taylor’s company, from $79.95), Frederick’s of Hollywood (from $24.95) or Hershey (from $69.95) to go with that diamond ring, lingerie or chocolate bar you were planning to give her? Was Dad a perfect Angel this year? A certificate for shares in Harley-Davidson (from $124.95) would look great in his den or garage? Americana aficionados can find everything from Krispy Kreme, Pepsi and Lionel to Boeing, Ford and Union Pacific. And for those with a bullish sense of humor, there are even certificates for the bad boys of business: companies like AIG, Enron, WorldCom and Lehman Brothers …

A number of factors influence price of a certificate – the pictures, the signatures, the company history – but a search of the Scripophily.com Web site shows many well under $100 and ranging to the thousands. Here in the Pacific Northwest, local trainspotters will like a 1910 Seattle-Tacoma Short Line certificate ($69.95), and baseball fans are bound to covet a 1939 Seattle Rainiers certificate signed by president Emil Sick ($695). And speaking of presidents, how about a 1927 certificate for The Buckeye Steel Castings Company of Columbus, Ohio, hand signed by president Samuel Prescott Bush – George W. Bush’s great-grandfather? “When Bush became president, that thing was hot, but now we can’t give them away,” Kerstein laughs. (Actually, it’s priced at $69.95.)

For those who find an old stock certificate in their attic or among family papers, Kerstein also offers a very popular stock research service to delve into the company’s history and determine if the stock is still active.

Want to give the gift of history? Visit www.scripophily.com.

Westinghouse Air Brake Company Check signed twice by George Westinghouse (Revenue Stamps on Back) - 1872

Images courtesy of Scripophily.com

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What the experts collect…
an AmeriCollector profile
Mike Gutierrez, sports autograph appraiser

If you watch “Antiques Roadshow” religiously – as I do – you’re bound to recognize sports memorabilia appraiser and autograph authenticator Mike Gutierrez of Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas.

Sports memorabilia is a BIG BUSINESS – to the tune of a $1 billion annually, I’ve heard – and a major chunk of that is autograph material. Amid this high-stakes collecting area, Mike is a voice of authority. According to his bio on the Heritage Web site (www.ha.com), “Mike has over 26 years experience and is one of the few universally respected authorities left standing in a field racked with fraud and forgeries. The industry has been plagued by FBI investigations of fraud and Mike is the single most respected repository of trust in the business.”

Mike has appraised sports memorabilia from the estates of martial arts icon Bruce Lee, NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle and heavyweight champ Muhammad Ali, as well as St. Louis Cardinals heavy hitter Mark McGwire’s 70th home run ball for the Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company.

A couple of years ago, when I was writing a collectibles column called “Northwest Collector” for the classifieds section of the Tacoma News Tribune, I called Mike to ask him about sports memorabilia. In the course of the conversation, I asked him what sports items he collected; to my amazement Mike said he didn’t collect sports material at all – he collected guitars! I never wrote that sports memorabilia story, but I did keep Mike in mind as a story subject himself.

Recently, I interviewed Mike about his guitars and mentioned that I’d seen a number appraised by other experts on “Antiques Roadshow.” Interesting, he replied that those are the guys he hangs out with off-camera or after the segment is recorded.

Some highlights of Mike’s guitar collection:

• A 1961 Fender Precision bass, “my first serious guitar that I got in 1970,” he said. “It’s probably my #1 piece for weight, for comfort, for body contour. I don’t have to think about any player issues and can concentrate just on the music and having fun.” (He plays classic and ’60s rock, by the way.)
• A 1966 Rickenbacker 4005: “That has the best neck that I ever put my hands on.”
• A 1978 ProE II bass guitar owned by John Entwistle of The Who, which Mike purchased at a Sotheby’s auction in London in 2003. Mike has a photo of Entwistle holding this particular instrument, which is the most valuable (in strictly monetary terms) in Mike’s collection.

Mike told me he always goes to the Dallas and Arlington, Texas, guitar shows – “the top two guitar convention shows in the business,” he said.

Here’s are a few more questions I asked Mike:

AmeriCollector: Have you collected only guitars? When did you start?

 Mike Gutierrez: “I used to have a collection of deceased Hall of Famers. At one point I had upwards of 90 percent of them, up to 1988 or so. Then I sold them off.

“As far as collecting guitars, I started around 1970. I have guitars that I would go to the grave with: because of the feel, because of the sound – NOT because of the collectability. You put your hand on that thing, the feel of the neck, and you think, man, I’m home: Everything – the comfort, the sound, is me.”

AC: What makes you want to get a particular guitar?

 Mike: “The design, the sound, the feel of the instrument and its response.”

AC: How do you manage your collection? Do you ever sell your guitars?

Mike: “It’s a revolving door. I have a connection with guitars that I’ll never move. Also I have a revolving group that changes.”

 AC: What advice would you offer to someone who wants to start a guitar collection?

Mike: “Always pick a guitar that feels good and sounds good. If you’re getting a collector guitar (as an investment), you’re a businessman. Decide which you want to be – and you can be both. But if you’re going to sell it, always go for the best condition, in the most original state.”

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