This cardboard diorama for Mayo-Skinner Automatic Windshield Cleaner, graded 8.5 out of 10, sold for a surprising $5,060 at the Fall Peotone Petroliana & Advertising Auction on Oct. 16, 2009.

PEOTONE, Ill. – A dazzling cardboard diorama, advertising Mayo-Skinner Automatic Windshield Cleaner and graded 8.5 on a 1-10 scale for condition, sold for $5,060 at a Fall Peotone Petroliana & Advertising Auction held Oct. 16 in advance of the annual Fall Chicagoland Advertising Show in Peotone.

“The diorama was just a great piece with great graphics, in all-around good condition,” said Dan Matthews of Matthews Auctions, which facilitated the auction “It also showed that cardboard advertising signs can command high dollar prices at auction right along with gas globes, lenses, porcelain signs and more glamorous items.” The diorama, measuring 27 inches by 32 inches by 12 inches, had minor damage at the edges.

Some 440 lots changed hands at the sale, which grossed a little more than $250,000. The event drew 125 people, while about that many bidders participated online, via Proxibid. An additional 25-30 people bid by phone, while more than 20 bidders left bids by fax and other means.

“We were very happy to take the online bids, but there’s nothing like selling to the room and by phone,” Matthews said.

“The auction did about as well as we expected,” Matthews added, “but how we got there wasn’t what we expected. Some of the lots we figured would bring top dollar ended up selling flat, while other items we didn’t think would do too well sold for way more than their high estimate. It made for an interesting day. And the good news is, people came to spend their money. Bidding was very spirited.”

Following are additional highlights from the sale (all prices quoted include a 10-percent buyer’s premium):

The top lot of the sale was this Marine Gasoline 15-inch lens in metal globe body, garnering $10,450.

• The top lot of the sale was a Marine Gasoline 15-inch single lens in metal globe body, with speed boat graphic and graded 8.9 for condition. It soared to $10,450. Also, a Hancock “Cock ‘o the Walk” 15-inch single lens in metal globe body, with rooster graphic and graded 8.9, brought $7,979; and an Oldsmobile Service 42-inch double-sided porcelain sign with crest logo and great gloss hit $5,170.

• A Conoco Gasoline 26-inch double-sided porcelain sign with soldier graphic, graded 8.5 and with good color and gloss, garnered $5,500; a Paragon Gasoline 25-inch double-sided porcelain sign with truck, derrick and refiner scene, both sides graded 7.5, with pole and generic base, changed hands for $6,600; and a (Red Indian) Gasoline Motor Oil single-sided 60-inch porcelain sign reached $5,500.

• A Buick Valve-in-Head Authorized Service double-sided 42-inch porcelain sign, marked Walker & Co. (Detroit) breezed to $4,400; an updated Refiners Gasoline Motor Oil double-sided porcelain sign, 36-inch (not 42-inch), graded 9.5 and with super color and gloss, attained $3,300; and a Studebaker Authorized Service double-sided porcelain sign, 42-inch, both sides grade 9, hammered for $3,025.

Hancock “Cock o' the Walk” 15-inch single lens in metal globe body, with rooster graphic, sold for $7,979.

• A Wesco 48-inch single-sided porcelain sign with big “W” and jet logo, graded 8.9 and with good color and gloss, fetched $4,125; Liberty Gasoline 15-inch lenses in original metal globe body with original “GILLCO” sticker, the body lenses rated 9, went to a determined bidder for $2,640; and a White Eagle Full Feather milkglass one-piece cast globe, graded a near-perfect 9.5, made a respectable $2,200.

• An 18 inch by 21 inch McColl-Frontenac (Red Indian) Products single-sided die-cut porcelain sign, graded 9 and marked P&M (1946) crossed the block at $3,740; a Weed Chains “As Necessary As Gasoline” single-sided tin price board sign, 24 inches by 17 inches and graded 8.9, rose to $3,575; and a Wings Ethyl Gasoline porcelain point-of-purchase sign, 6 inches by 7 inches and graded 9, hit $2,970.

• A spectacular Texaco Gasoline Motor Oil 42-inch double-sided porcelain sign with black “T” and both sides graded 9.5, with hanging ring, coasted to $5,225; a Dodge-Plymouth “Dependable Service With Dodge Trucks” double-sided porcelain die-cut sign, 48 inches by 48 inches, both sides graded 9, reached $4,620; and a Waverly Motor Oil double-sided porcelain die-cut curb sign hit $3,300.

Oldsmobile Service 42-inch double-sided porcelain sign with crest logo and great gloss was hammered at $5,170.

• A Mobil (Flame Socony) Vacuum Bottle Gas double-sided porcelain sign with iconic Pegasus horse bracket (sign 17 inches by 30 inches, Pegasus 32 inches by 25 inches) sold as one lot for $2,750; Frontier Gas “Rarin’ to Go!” 13.5-inch display lenses on a glass globe body, graded 8.5, commanded $2,750; and a Texaco metal globe, dated 1938, both sides graded 9 and with clean fields, made $1,705.

• A Hupmobile 8 & 6 double-sided porcelain sign, 24 inches by 35 inches, graded 7.5 on display side and 6.75 on reverse side, went for $2,090; a Standard-Vacuum Oil Co. Kerosene Oil porcelain flange sign with elephant graphic and Arabic lettering, 18 inches by 25 inches, graded 8.5, realized $1,760; and an updated, medium detail White Eagle milkglass one-piece cast globe, 9.5, made $1,430.

• A Johnson Gasoline Motor Oil double-sided porcelain sign, 48-inch, graded 9 (display) and 8.9 (reverse), with chrome hanging ring, achieved $2,750; a Rolling Ridge Polled Herefords (Paul Greening, Owner) double-sided porcelain sign, 48 inches by 60 inches, both sides graded 9+, sold for $1,100; and a Texaco Motor Oil “Free Crankcase Service” single-sided porcelain sign, 30 by 30 inches, rose to $880.

Dodge-Plymouth “Dependable Service with Dodge Trucks” double-sided porcelain sign brought in $4,620.

Matthews Auctions’ next big auction is coming up quick—an Absolute Petroliana & Gas Pump Auction slated for Saturday, Nov. 7, in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.

For more information about these auctions, call (217) 563-8880, e-mail to info@matthewsauctions.com or visit the Matthews Auctions Web site.

WorthPoint—Discover Your Hidden Wealth

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Before proceeding, I must inform you of my role in the numbers-tossing game. In the course of my career in the antiques and collectibles field, I have authored or edited 40-plus price guides. I do a dozen more appraisal clinic appearances, affectionately called “guess-the-goodies” clinics when I do them, in the course of a year. I host “WHATCHA GOT?”—a nationally syndicated antiques and collectibles call-in radio show—that airs on Sunday from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. EDT and is streamed live on the Internet. On the show I “guess-the-goodies” without even seeing the objects. Well, “That’s Entertainment,” the song states.

I try my best to provide reliable information—emphasis on reliable rather than accurate. Accurate is a term that defies definition when applied to antique and collectible value. An accurate price at one moment may be totally invalid the next.

Try as I might, though, I do not get the price right every time. I did not get a 100 in every test I took in high school and college, either. Just recently, I blew a value call on “WHATCHA GOT?” A listener called the show’s toll free number, 800-259-5791, and asked about a ceramic Cheadle luncheon set. I did not recognize the pattern name as one of Royal Winton’s chintz patterns and provided her a value for a 1950s generic ceramic luncheon set. Fortunately, Ian from Toronto, who listens to “WHATCHA GOT?” on the Internet, immediately e-mailed me urging me to revise my answer to reflect the value for Royal Winton chintz. I raised the value considerably.

I do the best I can. So do the Antique Roadshow appraisers, albeit I find myself disagreeing with their valuations more frequently now than I did in the past. The pressure to find an object that is “show worthy” has become highly competitive. I understand their desire and need to push the envelope, so they are selected for on air time, especially given that the Antique Roadshowdoes not reimburse the appraisers for their expenses or time.

Because of my participation in the numbers-tossing game, I am aware of the potential for abuse. As I already have pointed out, mistakes happen. I apologize for my mistakes and I can be forgiving of others’. I keep my mouth shut and comments stifled. More than I should, sometimes.

But when I do get mad, my dander rises. It happened recently, on July 25, when I was looking through the lead stories of AOL’s homepage and came across a picture of a 1954 Superman lunchbox captioned:

“A 1954 Superman lunchbox broke records when it sold for a whopping $11,500 in auction. Though most vintage lunch boxes won’t score a sliver of that price, many good-condition carriers still hold their weight in worth. Here’s a countdown of classic lunchboxes’ blue book value. Who knows? You might have some cold hard cash collecting dust in your attic!”

If the person who wrote this caption has a college education in English/Writing and, heaven forbid an MFA in Creative Writing, he wasted his money. What does “sliver of that price” or “weight in worth” mean? These phrases are not creative writing. They are pure crap. Their false cleverness is enough to make a sensible reader gag. Poor writing aside, the phrase “blue book value” raised my hackles. There are no blue book values in the antiques and collectibles business. Values float. There are several Blue Books (see bluebookinc.com) in the trade. My recommendation is that the owner of these titles considers having his attorney contact AOL and demand it stop abusing the phrase Blue Book, Inc., it tries so hard to honor.

An example of the 1954 Superman lunchbox in question.

I often share auction prices realized with my “WHATCHA GOT?” listeners. Someone getting $11,500 for a lunchbox is worthy of comment. However, when I researched the auction on the Internet, I discovered the 1954 Superman lunchbox in question sold in a December 2003 MastroNet, Inc. auction. An identical 1954 Superman lunchbox sold on eBay in mid-2006 for $4,649, suggesting the market fell by more than 50 percent in less than three years. Who knows what the value is in these tough economic times. Given this, what is AOL doing touting the $11,500 value?

The answer is that AOL was using a list of values from lunchboxes.com, a site devoted to selling lunchboxes: “Here you will find rare, all-time classic lunch boxes from the glory days of yesteryear – maybe even the one you carried to school as a kid. These boxes are the originals, and all post-1960s lunchboxes in mint or near-mint condition . . .”

What do all these lunchboxes have in common? The answer is that they had not sold by the time they appeared on AOL.

Their appearance on AOL was a blatant infomercial disguised as a factual presentation of lunchbox prices. As it has already has been proven, a buyer who is willing to comparison shop can find these same lunchboxes at far more affordable prices.

Shame, shame, shame on you AOL for posting deceitful information. Now that I understand what you have done, how can I trust any information that appears on your site? You tossed around these lunchbox price numbers without any concern for their accuracy. The tragedy is that your subscribers accepted them as gospel. Hopefully, the owner of lunchbox.com gave you a handsome commission for any boxes sold in the month following their appearance.

The values that accompanied the lunchboxes pictured on AOL are referred to in the trade as “feel good” numbers, numbers tossed around indiscriminately by appraisers and others to avoid the resulting pain from telling the truth. No appraiser will ever say “it’s a piece of junk,” albeit he may think it.

There is an appraiser I know of—who uses an academic degree in her moniker—who is renowned in the trade for the most ludicrous feel good numbers imaginable. Her reputation is such that local auctioneers often refuse to sell any item that she has appraised. Why? When they do, the final value is often less than half of what she told the owner. When this happens, the owner blames the auctioneer and not the appraiser for his misfortune. The appraiser is supposed to be the expert. How could she possibly be wrong, especially since she charged so much for the appraisal?

In addition to her blatant use of feel good prices, this appraiser also specializes in misidentifying objects. I speak from personal experience. Individuals who have taken objects to her to be appraised have brought them to me for a second opinion. Alas, on these occasions, I must play the heavy; the person who tells them that (1) what they have is not what she told them and (2) it is worth nowhere near the value she assigned.

It is not difficult to understand why she does what she does. It is good for business. Audiences love her, especially when she discovers hidden treasure after hidden treasure in the material presented to her for appraisal. She reaffirms the “it is worth a great deal of money” dream. It is a great dream, as long as the person never needs to wake up.

There are thousands of Halls of Fame. None exists for the antiques and collectibles field. It is for the best. It would generate too much controversy and ill will. What the antiques and collectibles field does need is a Hall of Shame, an institution in which those who harm the trade can be enshrined. The appraiser I’ve been carping about above tops my list of candidates for the inaugural class of inductees.

The careless tossing about of numbers in the antiques and collectibles field is endemic. It is part and parcel of how business is done. It is a lesson everyone active in the trade must learn. The only defense is to question every number. Check and double check. Do background research. Try to understand from where the value came and the length of its validity if reliable.

Finally, beware of any individual who takes a God-like approach to the numbers. Even when an individual provides qualifiers, be suspicious. Dreams, hopes, and aspirations in the antiques and collectibles field, especially in the area of values, are a far cry from cold, harsh reality.

—————————————

Rinker Enterprises and Harry L. Rinker are on the Internet. Check out his Web site.

You can listen and participate in “WHATCHA GOT?,” Harry’s antiques-and-collectibles radio call-in show on Sunday mornings between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Eastern Time. It streams live on the Genesis Communications Network.

“SELL, KEEP OR TOSS? HOW TO DOWNSIZE A HOME, SETTLE AN ESTATE, AND APPRAISE PERSONAL PROPERTY” (House of Collectibles, an imprint of the Random House Information Group), Harry’s latest book, is available at your favorite bookstore and via Harry’s Web site http://www.harryrinker.com.

Harry L. Rinker welcomes questions from readers about collectibles, those mass-produced items from the 20th century. Selected letters will be answered on this site. Harry cannot provide personal answers. Photos and other material submitted cannot be returned. Send your questions to: Rinker on Collectibles, 5093 Vera Cruz Road, Emmaus, PA 18049. You also can e-mail your questions to harrylrinker@aol.com. Only e-mails containing a full name and mailing address will be considered. Please indicate that these are questions for WorthPoint.

Copyright © Rinker Enterprises, Inc. 2009

WorthPoint—Discover Your Hidden Wealth

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Brimfield, Mass., is a small New England town with a population of about 5,000 or so. Settled in 1706, it shows its traditional New England quaintness rather well. It has its large, steepled church, and with the leaves of autumn or the snow of winter, looks the part in any Norman Rockwell painting. And then for one week every spring, fall, and summer, the population doubles with 5,000 antique dealers converging on Brimfield to create the “Antique Capital of the United States.”

I had the most unique opportunity to go antique hunting with Will Seippel, CEO and founder of WorthPoint.com, and to learn about furniture and other things that caught his eye. Will is quite the collector himself, and he finds the most fascinating items.

That is certainly true today as I accompanied Will on his antique rounds at Brimfield. We came across dealer John Eagle, who specializes in a most unusual collectible—the face jug.

“These particular face jugs are all done by a gentleman called Bill Flowers from North Carolina,” Eagle says. “The slaves used the devil motif for their grave markers because the Africans believed that that would scare the evil spirits away.”

Will mentions that the origin of the face jug goes back to the early slaves in the southern United States, particularly in the Carolinas. “The makers are generally known of the old face jugs and can go up in value to tens of thousands of dollars,” Will says.

The ferocious and exaggerated faces on a face mug may easily drive the evil spirits away, but while I found them fascinating, I was ready to move on myself. That’s when Will came across something just as unusual and just as collectible—the early condom tin.

“When you come to Brimfield, you never know what you’re going to find,” Will says.

The condom tins of the early 19th century particularly are sought after primarily for their high-quality artwork. “These are extremely collectible. I have seen condom tins go up to $4,000,” Will says. Because the use of condoms in the early 20th century was strongly discouraged, even unlawful in places, the manufacturers needed to create artful names and colorful packaging to promote their product through the 1920’s. Now, of course, they are highly collectible ranging in value from less than $100 to several thousands.

And speaking of marketing, Will came across an unusual pair of advertising signage not normally seen in the United States—the male and female oil drips used as logos for Esso.

Esso was used as a brand for the Eastern States Standard Oil company after the breakup of the Standard Oil company under John J. Rockefeller in 1911. The Esso brand itself began its use in 1941 in the Eastern States, but because of litigation, was replaced by the current Exxon brand in 1973. Today, the Esso brand is primarily used only overseas. One oil drip logo sign featured in the Worthopedia sold at auction for $110 in 2006.

Walking with Will Seippel at the fields in Brimfield has allowed me to see all manner of antiques and collectibles through the eyes of a consummate collector. I’ll certainly look at condoms differently, that’s for sure.

To watch a video of Will Seippel’s tour of Brimfield, click here.

To see an example of n Esso sign with oil drip logo from Worthopedia, click here.

Tom Carrier is a general Worthologist, with an expertise in a wide variety of subjects, including vexillology, or the study of flags.

WorthPoint—Discover Your Hidden Wealth

If you’re one of those folks who wears a sweatshirt in December that says “Let It Snow,” then you should be talking to Bob Eckstein. He has had such a fascination with the snowman that he not only has a unique collection of snowman memorabilia, he has written a book about them.

Eckstein first amassed a personal collection of about 1,200 antique paper and historical objects—probably the world’s largest known collection of snowmen. Many are advertising memorabilia, such as Snowman brand ‘Can’d Ice’ that “cools everything,” and magazine covers featuring the snowman for its winter editions. There are also postcards from the turn of the 20th century featuring the snowman to sell ice or to illustrate children at play in the winter. There are plastic snowmen on skis, Christmas ornaments, some made of paper mache, others used for holiday decorations.

“The book began about six years when I decided I wanted to solve a big mystery: Who made the first snowman,” Eckstein says. “I’ve talked to top professors and leading historians on the subject and I’ve learned that the snowman has this amazing history. I started initially that the snowman would originate at the turn of the century or with the movies or with TV.”

Instead, he says, he discovered that the snowman can be traced back to the Middle Ages. The colored images of early depictions of snowmen show them as part of the illuminated manuscripts of the era, drawn to illustrate an aphorism or to define a part of the written story. Over time, the snowman is depicted as benign or wicked in children stories, too.

However, by the early 20th century, the snowman, particularly in postcards, has been depicted as a drunkard or a womanizer, and used increasingly in advertising something cold, like beer. “This is known as the ‘Dean Martin Years,’” Eckstein says. A plastic snowman he has holds up a plastic bottle of Oertel’s Lager Beer, circa 1950, for example.

But with the environmental issue of global warming and the disappearance of ice from the world’s glaciers, the fate of the snowman may be meeting its inevitable end. All we will have left, like the life of dinosaurs, are books that show the evolution of a once common feature of everyday life, like “The History of the Snowman.” Perhaps, in time, there will be a museum of the snowman, too, right next to the museum of the tree. Not any time soon, I hope.

So, it’s true that whatever you collect, whether it is fine art, classic cars, or snowmen, it all has to start somewhere. Eckstein’s book “The History of the Snowman,” with its warm side as well as its cool side, makes me want to find snow and relive its ancient history by building a snowman, right next to the snow angel. And I’m cool with that.

By the way, the world’s largest snowman was created in Bethel, Maine, in 2008. Technically, it’s not a snowman, but a snowwoman, as “she” stood 122 feet, 1 inch tall and was named in honor of Olympia Snowe, the senior senator from Maine. Global warming isn’t winning yet.

Watch a video of Bob Eckstein discussing the history of the snowman here.

Tom Carrier is a general Worthologist, with an expertise in a wide variety of subjects.

WorthPoint: Get the Most from Your Antiques & Collectibles.

It’s an extraordinary moment that stamps an exclamation point on hundreds of years of shameful history. Slavery. Jim Crow laws that segregated buses, restaurants and restrooms. Separate-but-not-equal schools. Restricted civil rights and liberties. All of which served to make blacks second-class citizens.

It took decades upon decades of sacrifice and sit-ins, lawsuits and lynchings before President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And one man who championed the movement and gave his life to it was the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Collectibles and memorabilia shed light on an era

Collecting artifacts and memorabilia from the Civil Rights era helps preserve and contextualize both the facts and the emotions of this complicated time. Few commercial dealers have tackled the topic like Syl Turner, owner of the Broad Street Antique Mall in Chamblee, Ga.

Syl Turner

For two decades, Turner has maintained one of the nation’s largest commercial inventories of Black Americana collectibles. Online, Turner also operates the BlackHistoryStore.com and offers items on GoAntiques.

He has several King-related historical items on GoAntiques in the weeks leading up to the MLK holiday.

Interest in Black Americana grows

Turner said interest in King collectibles spikes around the holiday. But King collectibles—and Black Americana generally—have been steadily growing in importance and price. The holiday and the Obama inauguration draw extra attention to what’s available, but it’s a category that has transcended any particular event, he said.

“I see a little spike in activity around the King birthday, but that’s about it,” Turner said. “The additional interest actually continues through February because that’s Black History Month.”

The slain civil-rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate was born Jan. 15, 1929, but a national holiday and day of service honoring him is on the third Monday in January. It was observed for the first time on Jan. 20, 1986. Speaking of the importance of service, Dr. King said, “If you want to be important— wonderful. If you want to be recognized—wonderful. If you want to be great—wonderful. But, recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That’s a new definition of greatness.”

King collectibles are difficult to come by even though he was a prolific writer, Turner said, because his widow, Coretta Scott King, and others “exerted direct control” over most of his documents.

Most King documents in institutions

More than two years after Mrs. King’s death, most of the large collections of King documents and personal effects are in institutional collections.

In 2006, Morehouse College—King’s alma mater—acquired 10,000 items from the King family for an undisclosed sum raised with the help of a private coalition of business and civic leaders. Sotheby’s, which had announced an auction date for the collection, estimated it would command up to $30 million.

The collection includes items ranging from canceled checks, to a term paper King wrote as a student at Morehouse, to a draft of his most famous speech, “I Have a Dream,” delivered at the 1963 March on Washington.

Anti-Vietnam speech outline withdrawn from auction

In December 2008, the King Center in Atlanta prevailed upon Sotheby’s to withdraw from auction three important King documents that singer Harry Belafonte sought to sell. Valued up to $1.3 million, they included an outline of King’s first speech opposing the Vietnam War and notes found in his pocket following his assassination.

“There’s not much out there for the average collector,” Turner said. “A handwritten letter is very difficult to find because most are in the hands of institutions.”

More commonly available are collectibles related to significant events in King’s life and items related to his family. Recently, Turner sold a 12-page program of installation services of King as Pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala., on Oct. 31, 1954. The church was the headquarters of the Montgomery bus boycott that propelled King into the national spotlight. The program was in excellent condition and commanded $3,500.

Turner has acquired several other examples of King-related items, often from parishioners at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta where King was co-pastor with his father.

For example, Turner is offering a rare eight-page Ebenezer Baptist Church bulletin dated June 30, 1974. During that service, King’s mother, Mrs. Alberta King, was shot and killed at the organ console by a deranged gunman as worshippers recited the Lord’s Prayer. Her husband, Martin Luther King Sr., was the pastor. The program has handwritten eyewitness notes of the murder, including the comment, “Worship began on Earth; completed in Heaven.”

Ebenezer Baptist Church program

Inside program

Another collectible related to King’s parents is a 1984 funeral program for Martin Luther King Sr. listed in near-mint condition. “It was in a lady’s Bible and looks like it came right off the press,” Turner said.

MLK Sr.'s funeral program

One of the larger collectibles is a limited-edition poster commemorating King’s life by artist Edie B. Eisenberg. The 40-by-30-inch poster is designed as an American flag and features famous King quotes. It is listed in excellent condition. “I don’t think it was ever circulated,”

Memorial flag poster

Also rare and unusual is a 20-page program for the Coretta Scott King Freedom Concert Program on May 23, 1965. The concert was presented by the Philadelphia Beauticians’ Association at the First African Baptist Church in Philadelphia.

Freedom concert program

Turner isn’t the only GoAntiques dealer with MLK collectibles available this month.

Alan Radwill of Guaranteed Autographs is offering an autographed copy of Dr. King’s 1964 book, “Why We Can’t Wait.” He used a fountain pen with blue ink to sign the title page.

"Why We Can't Wait"

Autographed page

Antique Goodies of New Zealand has a Martin Luther King, Negro Funeral Home advertising fan. Advertising fans were often distributed at funerals as a way to stave off the heat.

Funeral fan

Lake Murray Treasures has a gold-tone, filigree-metal double picture frame. On one side is a photo of Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King, on the other Robert Kennedy. Between them is an electric clock.

Clock

If you are interested in viewing Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, click here for a 17-minute video that includes it, or click here for a video with only the speech.

WorthPoint—Get the Most from Your Antiques & Collectibles

You bet!

New Year’s resolutions should be achievable and make sense. Here are some:

1. Plan what you want the antique business to do in the upcoming week.  I have a friend who tweaks his antiques-business operation each Sunday evening. He is constantly changing how and where he buys inventory, displays it, advertises, etc.
2. Replace things that require your attention.  A computer that locks a jammed cash register or an employee with baggage distracts you from important chores. Replace them.
3. Become active in an organization that will benefit your antiques shop.  The chamber of commerce will provide many contacts. The historical society will put you in touch with people who have an intense interest in antiques.
4. Manage your time.  Study what you do daily. Keep written track of how long things take. When it’s in front of you in black and white, you’ll easily see if you’re wasting time. It may have become a cliché since Benjamin Franklin said it, but that doesn’t make it less true: Time is money.
5. Improve business promotion.  We all have ideas for business promotion. However, the cost of consulting with a promotion expert will be returned many times.

Make New Year’s resolutions few and simple. And then keep them.

– Jim Sturgill is a director of WorthPoint and founding partner of Sturgill & Associates LLP, a DC and Baltimore area CPA firm.

More Jim Sturgill Dollar & Sense columns

Tax Day: Mileage Pays

More Mileage Cents = More Dollars for Antiques & Collectibles

Estate Planning—Antiques, Collectibles & Greed

Estate Planning: Stop Squabbling, Save the Family

Financial Turmoil: Antiques Hold Value

Buy Antiques Now, Have No Regrets Later

Financial Turmoil: Antiques Hold Value

Gift Annuity: You Give, Then Receive

Make Profit Your Holiday Mantra

WorthPoint—Get the Most from Your Antiques & Collectibles

Reaching out to regular customers is the first step. It is hoped that your friend has a mailing/e-mail list of previous customers. If she does not—a majority of dealers do not—she needs to start one immediately. Customers like to shop where they feel welcome and appreciated. Continuing contact strengthens both these concepts.

Repeat customers, especially those who are collectors, are the one certainty in these difficult economic times. These individuals are hooked—they love to buy antiques and collectibles.

Seek out customers

Your friend can no longer afford to wait for customers to come to her. A monthly newsletter should be launched. It should focus on new merchandise and include collecting, decorating, display and care tips. Every e-mail address saves 42 cents in postage and reduces printing costs.

Advertising is expensive. Yet, your friend needs to set aside money for it. The first investment should be a business sign that is easily readable from the road. Create an attractive yard sign if zoning permits.

Your friend is a merchant, identical to those selling clothing, home décor or firearms. Study other merchants’ promotion ideas and adapt them. Consider joining the local chamber of commerce. In tough times even more than in good times, local merchants support each other.

Offer creative sales and promotions

Run sales and special promotions. David Lindquist of Whitehall at the Villa in Chapel Hill, N.C., runs an annual name-your-own-price sale. There is only one rule. David has the right to say no. When he first tried this, he expected customers to ask for discounts as high as 50 percent or more. Much to his surprise, the highest request he received was one-third off his sticker price. The average discount-price request was less than 25 percent.

Dave uses a times three-plus markup. Hence, even at a 50-percent discount, he is making money. Items flew out the store. David governs his final sell or no-sell decision based on how long a piece has been in inventory—the longer the time in inventory, the higher the acceptable discount. His initial sale far exceeded his expectations. The concept is so successful that regular customers mark their calendars a year in advance. David scheduled the first sale in his worst cash-flow month. It is now one of his best.

Three steps to improve sales

Reaching out also involves getting out. Few antiques shops survive relying solely upon through-the-door buyers. First, the primary reason to own an antiques shop is not to sell but to acquire. You want locals to come to you when they plan to dispose of their antiques and collectibles.

Second, an antiques shop is only a base of operation. Economic survival requires cash flow from multiple sources. Your friends should select five to 10 antiques shows, half within a 100-mile driving radius and the other half farther. Adding new buyers to the customer base needs to be your friend’s primary goal. Sales are a bonus. A photo album of merchandise that remains behind in the shop should occupy a prominent place on one of the tables.

Finally, your friend needs to be aggressive in making herself visible in the community. Civic and other clubs always are looking for speakers, especially those who will appear for free. Develop a 30-to-40-minute talk, and put out the word. There will be plenty of takers. Join one or more civic clubs. Do volunteer work for organizations with high traffic, e.g., the public library. Volunteer at Goodwill or a charitable “white elephant” shop. Not only will you get some great buys but some leads, as well.

In conclusion, the worst thing your friend can do is sit in her store and lament. The solution is to get up and do something. Anything is better than nothing.

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Rinker Enterprises and Harry L. Rinker are on the Internet. Check out his Web site.

You can listen and participate in “WHATCHA GOT?” Harry’s antiques-and-collectibles radio call-in show on Sunday mornings between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Eastern Time. If you cannot find it on a station in your area, WHATCHA GOT?” streams live and is archived on the Internet.

“SELL, KEEP OR TOSS? HOW TO DOWNSIZE A HOME, SETTLE AN ESTATE, AND APPRAISE PERSONAL PROPERTY” (House of Collectibles, an imprint of the Random House Information Group), Harry’s latest book, is available at your favorite bookstore and via Harry’s Web Site.

Harry L. Rinker welcomes questions from readers about collectibles, those mass-produced items from the 20th century. Selected letters will be answered on this site. Harry cannot provide personal answers. Photos and other material submitted cannot be returned. Send your questions to: Rinker on Collectibles, 5093 Vera Cruz Road, Emmaus, PA 18049. You also can e-mail your questions to harrylrinker@aol.com. Only e-mails containing a full name and mailing address will be considered. Please indicate that these are questions for WorthPoint.com.

WorthPoint—Get the Most from Your Antiques & Collectibles

Poster Artists: Alvan “Hap” Hadley

By Allan Maurer

Born in Illinois in 1895, Alvan Cordell Hadley, known to history as “Hap,” created posters for some of the best-loved silent movies, as well as some early talkies. The few original examples that have survived bring astronomical prices at auction, while the reproductions of these classics are some of the best-sellers in the marketplace.

The best known of Hap’s work are his posters of Buster Keaton’s 1927 classics, “The General” and “College,” and Charlie Chaplin’s 1928 Oscar-winning film, “The Circus.” Christie’s East sold the only known surviving original of the three sheet for “The General” at auction in 1994 for $46,000. A restored one sheet of the “blue style” poster for “The Circus” recently sold at auction for better than $13,000.

Hadley’s soulful depiction of the Little Tramp reflected his background as a caricaturist and cartoonist. He began his career during World War I working as an official artist for the Marine Corps, producing propaganda-laden cartoon strips. After the war, he settled in New York City where he dabbled in acting, appearing in the review “Greenwich Village Follies of 1920,” as well as a silent feature directed by George Irving, “Floodgates” (Lowell Films, 1924). His advertising agency developed a reputation for designing the covers of sheet music, including “Show Me the Way to Go Home,” a popular hit in 1925.

Hap’s first known movie poster is a depiction of Clara Bow as the female boxer in “Rough House Rosie” (Paramount Famous Laskey Productions, 1927), surrounded by cartoon faces, all with black eyes. His career continued for some 30 years, during which time he produced movie posters and film titles for all the major studios in Hollywood, especially MGM.

During the 1930s, Hadley produced posters for a number of Howard Hughes films, including “Hell’s Angels” (1930), starring Jean Harlow, and the controversial “Cock of the Air” (1932). Paper from these productions occasionally still shows up at auction. The only known original poster from “Cock of the Air” recently sold for $5,600 at Christie’s London, while a window card from “Hell’s Angels” brought about the same price this year.

Other Hadley posters from less high-profile productions fetch more modest prices. A window card from “Laff It Off,” a 1928 Broadway stage production, recently auctioned for $96. A one sheet of Hadley’s poster for “Reform Girl” (Tower, 1933), featuring rather grim-faced images of Noel Francis and “Skeets” Gallagher brought just $215, while the slightly more attractive poster for “Cheating Blondes” (Equitable, 1933) sold for over $800.

In the 1940s, Hadley created the huge likeness of Roy Rogers seen on billboards during the Republic Productions Roy Rogers publicity campaign and widely reproduced in rodeo magazines.

Hap Hadley died in Los Angeles in 1976.

WorthPoint—Get the Most from Your Antiques & Collectibles

Hand drawn movie posters

By Allan Maurer

The magazine Architectural Digest has an interesting piece about the hand-drawn chalk and paint movie posters by staff artists Charles Reese Collier and Sid Smith for Loew’s Grand Theatre on Peachtree Street in Atlanta.

Lowe’s, which showed primarily MGM films, hosted one of grandest premieres in movie history, that of “Gone With the Wind,” on Dec. 15, 1939. With the theatre exterior transformed into a replica of Ashley Wilkes’ Twelve Oaks Plantation, 30,000 Atlanta citizens greeted star including Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard and others.

Herb Bridges, who collects memorabilia associated with both the book and the film, one day received a call from the owner of about 70 of the original handmade Lowe’s movie posters, which had been in storage for more than 60 years.

The collection include posters from “Lady of Burlesque,” the 1943 film based on stripper Gypsy Rose Lee’s novel, “G-String Murders,” from “The Outlaw,” the notorious Howard Hughes-produced western introducing Jane Russell and her equally notorious bosom, and from “The Yearling,” among others.

For art from the collection see, click here.

These items are coming up for auction on November 15th. and 16th. in Kyoto.
The first item is a Korean teabowl. It doesn’t look to be exceptionally old. The minimum price is 10,000 yen. It measures 15 cm by 15 cm by 7.5.
The next item is a set of 10 underglaze bowls. They have a pattern that is called tako kara kusa, best described as a swirly pattern. They measure 7.5 cm by 7.5 cm by 1.3 cm. The minimum price is 5,000 yen.
The last piece is a framed advertising poster from the Cascade Beer company. It measures, with frame, 72 cm by 115 cm, and has a slight rip. The minimum bid is 35,000 yen.