Collecting Wind Up Toys

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If you're a kid in the 1940's, 1950's or 60's, i'm pretty sure you have fond memories of your childhood toys especially the wind up toys.

The action provided by the spring driven tinplate wind up toys whether hopping, nodding, walking or rolling were so cute and novel (at that time) that it attracted a loyal following and appealed to people of all ages.

As we got older and earned more discretionary income, we have that nostalgic urge to recapture those childhood days long gone and at least tangibly owned those wind up toys we loved as a kid.

The Europeans started the craze of commercially producing the wind up toys as early as 19th century, the Americans followed suit, only to be followed by the Japanese toy makers( post WWll period) as they were attuned to the lifestyle and culture of the American market.

As plastics were incorporated to the toy making industry and the advent of the battery operated toys, the wind up toys took a backseat especially after World War ll.

Highly collectible and sought after wind up toys were made from the 1930's to 1950's and from toy manufacturers such as Lehmann and Martin, Marx, Unique Art and TPS (Japanese) and many others.

Scarcity, condition ( no scratches and missing toy parts) and popular character name ( e.g. Popeye, Buck Rogers) would be the best guide to the wind up toy's value.

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Collecting Postcards

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Sending Postcards was a means of communications when telephone wasn't invented yet. Postcards were convenient because it cost half the price of paper and envelope. Very convenient indeed, especially for travelers.

Postcards made postage cheaper and mail lighter.

Postcards make collectible items because people love correspondence and are intensely interested in visual arts. We buy postcards as personal records of our travels.

But the message in the back of the postcard and recalling the circumstances in which they were written makes it even more memorable.

Collectors of postcards usually narrow down their focus on a single theme. Like, they collect only, vintage postcards, photo postcards, museum art postcards, color postcards, black and white postcards, linen postcards, white border postcards, multi-views (postcards with more than one pictures in them), postally used or unused postcards, postcards illustrated by a single artist, from the same publishing company, humurous or comic postcards, patriotic postcards, etc.

You can as well choose to collect postcards on a single subject such as writers, events, cities, universities, castles, roller coasters, lighthouses, dinosaurs, aviation, American Indians, cathedrals, advertising, movie stars, nudes, signed artist, African American, fairies, railways, British royalty, shipping, boating lakes, yacht racing, diners/cafes/drive-ins, gas stations, fireworks, bridges, stadiums, Olympics, hot air baloons, volcanoes, folklore creatures like unicorns, Greek/Roam gods etc.

Basically, you buy postcard that catches your eye. Forget value.

The most collectible and highly sought after postcards are Halloween postcards by illustrator Ellen Clapsaddle.

Shop around hotels, airports,post offices,yard sales,antique shops,coin and stamp shops to get a feel for the going rate of your chosen subject, artist, period or areas. In Ebay, if you find postcards you particularly like, bid aggressively. You might not see it again.

These are the variety of factors that can skyrocket the value of a postcard :

1. Vintage postcards from pre 1918 in the category of holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving, St. Patrick's day, Halloween,Fourth of July, Valentine's day and Easter.

2. If the subject is a town no one has heard of.

3. If the subject is a famous sports figure.

4. Postally used postcards. The stamps absolutely certify the age of a given postcard. As it not only dates the postcard, the stamps with postage cancellation marks have their own collection value as well.

5. If the subject is heritage material such as, famous shops no longer exist, or shops that have been passed down from generation to generation.

6. If the postcard contained the depiction of lifestyles and events which are vanishing or no longer exist.

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Collecting Comic books

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Egghead. Bookworm. Do these names ring a bell? They are the less popular enemies of our favorite Cape Crusader Batman. Expect Hollywood to be digging deep into their cornocupia of characters and working on silver screen adaptations of comic book superheroes and anti-heroes.

Big movie producers may not be avid comic book collectors but they can smell astronomical revenues at the box office. Think of X-men,Superman, Iron Man, Spiderman movie installments.

Imagine the hundreds of millions of dollars, these comic book superheroes based movies, raked in on opening day alone. Naturally, the domino effect of this phenomenon would be, the comic book industry is a big business in itself.

Afterall, this whole new revolution will surely increase the value of our collection of vintage comic books.

Comic books collecting range from accumulating these wonderful packets of art of the Golden Age (1930's to 1950's) to the Silver Age (late 50's to 60's), Bronze Age (early 1970's to early 1980's), Copper Age ( early 1980's to early 1990's) and Mid 1990's to present called Modern Age. Now you know, which particular age your comic book collection mainly comes from.

If your are an investment comic book collector and plans to resell your collection at a later date, usually, its the # 1 issues of a certain character who first appeared in a comic book that command a substantial amount and are highly sought after.

But of course it also depends on the condition of the comic book, the volatility of the market and most important of all is, if someone is willing to pay for your asking price. As cliche as it may sound though, the truest measure of your comic book's value is what it means to you and the pleasure you get from owning these babies.

The basics of storytelling comprise of a beginning, middle and an end. In comic books, when a particular storyline starts and ends, it's called a story arc. So whether you started as an Archie, Richie Rich then graduated to Superman fan, the best place to start collecting is a new story arc.

So i suggest you go buy back issues of your favorite comic books at least a year prior to the present. So you will be able to determine the direction when there's a change in the storyline.

Comic books , like any other ephemera are paper. Acids, finger oils, ultra violet light, dust and extreme change in room temperature all destroy paper. Wash hands before handling these tiny little masterpieces.

Put it in comic- sized plastic bag with backing boards to protect the spine. Place them in storage boxes and make sure the room temperature is constant to make your collection in best possible condition.

If you want to step up in being a more serious comic book collector (with ROI in mind) you may want to :

1. Buy comic books in multiple copies.

2. Shell out cash to have them graded professionally.

3. Do research in which areas and time to sell comic books by buying reliable comic book price guide like Overstreet Price Guide or Wizard Magazine.

4. Go to where comic book conventions are.


Collecting comic books are fun. Reading them stimulate the mind and imagination to conjure up worlds of adventure. Beyond your love for the stories, comics also improve your diction (the dialogues and lines are smart). Most of all the rewarding friendships that have resulted from collecting comic books.


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COLLECTING TAROT CARDS

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Exactly when, where and how tarot cards came to be, is one of history's unsolved mysteries.

Forecasting probably started with people who lived long enough to learn that everything in life changes in cycles.

There's a time to plant and harvest. There are births and burials, seasons come and go, the wind's direction swings from north to east.

By observing the natural cycle of life, the older generations knew that all setbacks, failures or otherwise success are all temporary. "Everything changes with time." They always advised their children.

From there, it is natural to realize that life cycles could be charted, stars could be watched, calendars consulted, cards read.

The whole entire tarot deck make up one of the tools of encouragement and empowerment that have emerge throughout the centuries.

After you acquired or received your first tarot deck ( presumably Rider-Waite deck) you are now ready to learn and purchase more kinds of tarot decks. The wide variety of choices of tarot decks to choose from seem endless.

You can choose tarot decks such as Celtic, Wiccan, fairy, Arthurian legends, Thoth, Russian tarot, Zen, Gilded, Hanson-Roberts, shaman wisdom, goddess, Aquarian, dragon, Marseilles, animal themed, Angelic tarot decks, mythological even something offbeat and contemporary like baseball tarot, Silicon Valley tarot decks, Lord of the Rings inspired tarot decks.

Before purchasing tarot decks to add to your collection, check out the entire individual 78 cards if you can, and check if you have a “feel” for them. Reflect and let your energy permeate through the entire tarot deck.

Choose and buy the one that speaks to you. That you feel connected with. That’s in tune with your energy. Choose tarot cards that will also stir curiosity from your clients, so they can be readily responsive to the prediction of the card spread.

As a professional tarot reader myself, sometimes I would like to use two different tarot decks in a single reading session. This would add variety to your readings so I definitely need a collection of interesting tarot decks. That for me should be visually appealing and stimulating to the imagination.

I always keep my tarot decks wrapped in silk cloth and placed in a wooden box. That way I can keep the positive energy in and negative vibes out. Realize that each kind of tarot decks has its own feel to it.

Visit tarotgarden.com, your source of unusual and hard to find collectible tarot decks.


Go to google.com click images, and type in the name of the tarot deck you wish to see.

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Collecting Masks

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In ancient Greek times, masks were used in theatres. Because masks represent different characters. Different emotions. Masks also represent archetypes.

Masks were used mainly in religious festivals and rites of passage in different cultures. Like shaman masks were used to appease the gods and ancestors for fertility, healing, hunting for food, initiation and crossing over to the spiritual world.

As in the case of Venetian masks and Masquerade ball masks, the purposes of wearing it is to conceal one's true identity in order to have the freedom to flirt and dance with anybody, to negotiate clandestine deals.

Those masks enabled the poor to hobnob with the rich. Ironically, masks are a way into the very nature of our own being.

Mask collectors hunt and accumulate these sculptures because it would lend a three dimensional aspect in their collections. Collectors tend to focus on only one single theme such as Balinese mask s, Noh masks from Japan, opera and rituals masks from China, original movie monster masks, Venetian masks, Masquerade Ball masks, half masks, full masks, head masks, stick masks and Mexican masks that were used to cover corpses as these were put in a canoe and sent out to sea.

Masks can either be hung on the wall or let stand on a base. Undoubtedly, they are outstanding conversational pieces.

Like any other collectibles, masks that are of good quality, in excellent condition and most of all rare, would command a high price value on them. Better still, if the piece is published in books or catalogues, would be worth more.

If it came from prestigious dealers and auctioneers like Sotheby's or Christie's would certainly escalate the price all the more.

You don't have to collect every masks of every tribe in Africa (if African art is your thing). Just concentrate and focus only on one like Gelede masks from the Yoruba of Nigeria or comparable masks from Zaire. It's all up to you.

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Collecting Retro Modern Furniture

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A fashion designer once said that clothing styles orbit in two cycles, seven years and a classic twenty five year cycle. With furniture ,architecture and industrial design the periods are longer.

So while models are trotting the runway with seventies fashion, fifties and sixties interiors has recently made a comeback.

Great fifties and sixties stuff generically known as modern furniture or retro modern furniture.

Retro modern furniture designs were well made, inexpensive, distinctly bright colored with pale woods. It filled young couples' brand new houses during the Eisenhower years.

Fifty or more years later, retro modern furniture expressed the power of American verve and postwar enthusiasm and optimism. Modern furniture designs by Charles and Ray Eames, Nelson George, Noguchi Isamu, Wright Russel etc. made their mark after World War ll.

It's possible now to recapture the best of the fifties and sixties. One of the appeals of the retro modern furniture is that a lot of the wonderful pieces are still being made. Some companies licensed reissues of chairs, sofas, coffeetables etc. to the precise specs of the originals.

Although some materials are already endangered and more expensive (i.e rosewood and goosedown).

Modern furniture stores like Heywood-Wakefield ( i think it's currently under a new name) produced much of the furniture fueling the revival of fifties style. You can also buy modern furniture at auction sites such as ebay or yahoo. Old Hollywood studios still have huge stashes of fifties/sixties pieces mostly used as movie props.

Experts recommend mixing retro modern furniture pieces with new products. You don't have to blow your money on entire vintage pieces. A few really good genuine retro modern furniture can give authenticity to everything.

Buyers and collectors of retro modern furniture who want one of a kind stuff will prefer the hunt that build their collections more slowly, otherwise if you are in a hurry to find the look of the period buy modern furniture in current versions of the classics or reissues.

I remember when i was around five or six years old playing around my grandmother's house surrounded with what is now known as retro modern furniture. I still hear faint bossa nova beat in the background. It feels surreal. I couldn't believe i'll even say this: If only i had all those furniture today.

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Collecting Baseball Cards

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Baseball cards aficionados don't even buy baseball cards that come with bubble gum anymore. And those were innocent times, when buying baseball cards reflected a love for the sport.

Today, buying, selling and trading baseball cards are a big business and i mean huge.

To make your collection more profitable someday, you can focus solely on a single basic theme. Like you might just want to collect rookie cards or serially numbered cards, memorabilia cards, the basic sets, graded baseball cards, star cards or vintage baseball cards etc.

There are a lot of factors that affect the cards' book value such as the player's popularity, the condition of the card (gone are the days of putting them in the spoke of your bike wheels, shoeboxes or binding the baseball cards with rubber band).

Buy baseball cards from manufacturers which are licensed by the leagues. This would assure authenticity. There are indicators such as stickers and holograms to avoid counterfeiting.

Baseball Card Price Guides

Part of the fun and thrill of collecting baseball cards is to flip pages of price guides and check how much your baseball cards worth. The popular ones are the monthly and plus guides from Beckett, Tuffstuff Magazine or go to their respective official websites. Check out as well cardprices.com, vintagecardprices.com and sportslizard.com Don't forget ebay and yahoo auction sites.

Some people have made a living out of buying hundreds of thousands of cards in complete sets and then "breaking out" the players that might be famous someday.

You just have to have the knack, the sixth sense or whatever you might want to call it, to identify or intelligently guess which players at the start of their careers will be future hall of famers. And try to accumulate hundreds of those cards now and hold them until they appreciate.

A decent ROI nothwithstanding, the other reason people collect baseball cards is that they bring them back to a time when they had no worries and when they thought there was no reason why they couldn't be in the big leagues. When they hold those cards in their hands, they reunite them with a part of themselves. How they felt about the players.

I know they are only little cardboard pictures, but they're mighty tangible reminders of every boys' dreams of heroism.

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