Collecting Butterfly



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The most popular kind of insect collecting, is butterfly collecting. If you like butterflies but not too sure you want to go in depth into collecting, pinning and preserving it, it's advised that you start off taking pictures of butterflies And appreciate the beauty of these wonderful creatures.


If your interest in butterflies takes you a little further than just taking pictures of it, then collecting butterflies we go. Here are some tips:

1. Get a permit for collecting butterflies. It is illegal to collect in national parks without a permit. And please don't damage the flowers, shrubs, trees etc.

2. Have your butterfly collecting equipments ready such as nets, killing jars, plastic containers, notebooks and pen for data, spreading boards, pinning blocks, special pins (not the commons pins) number three is ideal, storage boxes like the glass covered wood boxes and chemicals like ethyl acetate, Lysol or chlorox to prevent mold.

3. Have a handy guide for different species of butterflies. Check out websites in how to properly pin, mount, preserve and display your butterfly collection. Ask help and guidance of the entomology department in a university nearest you.

4 .Butterflies eyes are capable of 180 degree vision, so wear brown or green not brightly coloured clothes and sneak up from behind when trying to catch it with the net.

5. Squeeze lightly the butterfly’s thorax for a few seconds before putting it in a killing jar. This process, stuns the butterfly so it won't keep flapping its wings once inside the jar to not cause damage to its wings.

Like any collectibles, condition of the butterfly is of utmost importance. Butterflies with broken antennae, legs or wings will not be highly graded. Several highly prized butterfly collections are sold in auctions or private dealers.

Most sought after collectible butterflies are the ones that make for fantastic displays mostly hybrids of particular species like the Heliconious or Euphaedra butterflies. Two or three different butterfly species interbreed in a blend zone (where two or more valleys meet). And they are pinned and displayed in a special way to show off their best parts like the underside etc.

Butterfly collections in museums are mostly hundred years old and look all the same for the uninitiated. That's why labeling of your prized catch is of paramount importance. Labels include accurate data of the order name of the insect, the time and place captured, plants on which they were found, name of the collector.

Plants and animal species once together in the same biological ecosystems are now probably endangered, altered or are already gone. That's why precise documentation of your butterfly collection is very important.

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Collecting Carnival Chalkware




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If your style is shabby and chic, then i bet you decorate your place with pieces of carnival chalkware.
These are figurines, wall plaques, statues, piggy banks etc. made of inexpensive plaster of paris. Carnival chalkware became popular during the 1920's to 1950's as carnival or state fair give away prizes.
This was replaced by stuffed animals beginning 1960's because it can be mass produced and not breakable.

Desirable and collectible carnival chalkware are made from Miller studios. Because carnival chalkware are breakable, only a few survive throughout the years in mint condition, mostly these figurines have chips and breaks. Some carnival chalkware were hand painted and some were airbrushed.

You can easily acquire these pieces at flea markets, garage sales or Ebay.

Decorating tip:
Have a theme or motif in every area in your house. Example: Farm theme for your kitchen, so you display different flowers, animals like pigs, roosters, cows, vegetables chalk figurines scattered around your kitchen.
Marina theme in your bathroom, so you gather mermaids, different fishes and shells chalkware in there.

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Memorabilia.

Collecting Teapot




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If a teapot is well made and produced in small quantity, that would make it rare. And consequently make it more in demand, therefore desirable and collectible.
Take for instance a teapot called Bunnygirl made by Foxfield, the production was instantly halted because Playboy claimed copyright, thus making it a rare piece indeed.

In the world of collectors, teapots are amongst the most favored. Teapot connotes aristocracy ( back in the 17th century tea drinking was indulge only by the upper class society).
Just making the teapots is challenging enough for the potter.
The technical difficulty of making the spout, body, lid , handle in perfect proportion while at the same time making it artfully pleasing to the eye presents complex feat for the maker. Teapots is where art meets craftmanship.

There are many areas in which to start collecting teapots:

1. Collect to a theme that’s the second cardinal rule of collecting. Think porcelain, glass, ceramic, bone china, Brown Betty, silver, Tetsubin and Yixing..

2. You may want to collect antique, folk art, commercially produced teapots.

3. Collect teapots from a certain artists e.g. Clarice Cliff, Suzie Copper etc.

4. Teapots in whimsical designs or shapes like pineapples, houses, dragons, birds, cars, airplanes etc.

5. Collect different sizes of teapots. Like "teapot for one", a teapot that can brew enough tea for only one individual.

"The thrill is in the hunt" so many collectors say. You would find that as you engage in your hobby of collecting teapots, you may come across a teapot which surprises, fascinates and which you didn't know existed. The ultimate teapot may be sought but never found. Leslie Ferrin said that.

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Collecting Music box




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Imagine the music box right in the middle of the living room in everyone's home. Yes sir, the music box was the home entertainment center of the 18th century.

Music boxes played the popular songs of the time, songs from the opera and church hymns.

Skilled artisans in Europe first made the music boxes and because of their intricate craftsmanship music boxes are great collectibles then and now.

When it comes to collecting music boxes, there are several types of music boxes in which to consider buying;

1. In laid music boxes.

2. Musical jewelry boxes.

3 Ballerina music boxes.

4. Musical snuff boxes.

5. Carousel music boxes.

6. Music boxes made of wood, gold, silver, brass, horn, tortoiseshell.

7. Music boxes of different sizes miniature, handheld, tabletop or even larger.

8. Music boxes with varied movement and notes like 28 to144 note music boxes as opposed to only 12 to 18 note music box.

Conservation is much more important than restoration when it comes to music box. Pay attention to first signs of rust, high or low humidity, light, insects like moth and beetles.
Music boxes are not to be stored in small confined spaces. It will create heat therefore will cause damage to the music boxes. Wood may be faded, and impacts varnish and polish if exposed directly to natural or even artificial light.

So there you have it. Set a budget and take into account your unique taste in collecting music boxes. Educate yourself about the hobby by research and hobnobbing with likeminded people.
Connect with restorers who will do the maintenance of your music box collection.

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Collecting Frisbee




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Frisbee is the only toy that was tossed off The Great Wall of China from outer space.

Today, frisbee discs are sold more than basketballs, baseballs and footballs combined. Over 300 million frisbee discs manufactured by one hundred companies have been produced since 1948.

There are many different kinds of frisbee to buy if you want to start a collection. Frisbees that are signed by famous personalities (presidential candidates or famous Hollywood stars), with advertisement of food and beverages, themeparks, with logos of sports teams, to promote concerts( frisbee with a decorated tongue at a Rolling Stones concert) or frisbee that was use to commemorate an historical event .
You can buy frisbees from other countries like Japan, Russia etc. Frisbees with light emitting diodes, that whistle, glow in the dark, inflate, with articulated tails, come with parachutes, that is launch from a catapult, gas propelled or frisbees that are folded up to pocket size.

You can store your collection by putting them in zip lock plastic bags individually. Not stack up against or on top of each other. You may want to avoid scuffmarks or buckling the sides on your prized collection.
As your collection grows, you may want to list everything from manufacturer, weigh to the nearest gram, model number, description and link the information list on a computer database.

There has been many offshoot sports that evolved from the simply tossing of Frisbie Baking Company tin pie pans by Ivy League students from the early days. Sports like ultimate frisbee, disc golf, disc dog and ultimate pick up. Various frisbee tournaments have been organized throughout United States and all over the world.

But the question remains… who threw the first flying discs the ancient Greeks or the Yale University students?


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Collecting Beatles Memorabilia



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Picture yourself in a boat on a river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies.
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly the girl with kaleidoscope eyes.

I bet you catch yourself singing that magical lyrics of the Beatles. Specifically, the Lennon-McCartney songwriting tandem is just pure genius.
In 1964 The Beatles simultaneously had the number 1, 2 ,3, 4 and 6 hit songs in the Top 100 list. It's just amazing phenomenon isn't it? No band in the U.K. or anywhere else in the world had done that.

Today, and in fact, even after the group disbanded and stopped touring, The Beatles sold over one billion units both solo records and albums. The widespread acceptance and popularity of their music is just astounding. Their musical influence extended into the social and cultural revolutions. The Beatles expressed the zeitgeist of the sixties.

You may want to start collecting their records 45s or albums, picture sleeves, autographs, toys and whole other Beatles memorabilia. One 45 record of the very same song may have different labels such as Decca, Swan, Vj, Tollie, Capitol, RCA, Parlophone etc. There was such a huge demand at that time they had to release records very fast and in large quantities, and they did it by producing in different record companies.

Interesting items that avid Beatles collectors wish would be up for auction:

1. The 78 record of the songs That'll be the day/ Inspite of all the danger, written by Paul and George in 1958 by The Quarrymen. Now valued at $170,000 +.

2. John Lennon's Rickenbacker.

3. Sgt. Pepper suits.

These items belong and still own by The Beatles respective families.

Beatles collectors are not much driven solely for investment, because obviously the prices of these pieces can be very volatile. High priced one week, and down on the floor the next.
What drives these collectors are the passion and thrill of ownership because a very ordinary thing can turn into something magical just by the powerfully strong association with The Beatles.

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Collecting Animation Cels




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Animation cels, short for cellulose acetate or cellulose nitrate. It's a clear plastic sheet that original drawings were made.
Collecting animation cels started when the full length animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs became so popular. Disney studio at the time began to recognize the value of the animators' works.

Today animation art is prized by collectors. Especially with the advent of computer generated graphics cels are no longer used for animation. That's why they are rare and collectible. Little Mermaid in 1989 was the last movie, that cels were used.

Hardcore collectors only collect what they call production art, original animation cels that were used in a movie or a popular series. For animation cels collectors, their collections reminded them of a fantastic moment in films or evoke particular memories from their childhood. Their passion runs deep, they must own a piece of a memorable movie.

The areas in animation cels collecting are varied.

1. Collecting animation cels from one single studio. e.g. Disney, Hanna-Barbera etc.

2. The characters pose whether they using the phone, standing up etc.

3. If the animation cels come with the original background or with matching sketch.

4. If you are only interested in collecting production art( original cels), reproduction art, limited editions or sericels.

Extremely rare and sought after animation cels like the top quality Earle background for Sleeping Beauty would fetch five figure top dollar.

I loved my daily afternoon cartoons when i was a kid....Moby Dick, Mightor, Road Runner, Wacky Races.

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Collecting Playing Cards



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Aside from being used as a gaming device in parlor games, playing cards were also use as a practical platform for representing life's rudimentary facts, a memory aid, teaching and research tool for condensing knowledge.

Playing cards can served as records of social history, depicting how political figures, cultural touchstones and historical events were regarded in their time. As in the admiring caricatures of the Kennedy clan in the Kennedy Kards distributed in 1963.

Playing cards also served as advertising for a particular product or services, fortunetelling tool, erotica and souvenirs. Lately it has been used by prison inmates in the hopes of getting tips to solve cold case crimes.

Many countries and cultures around the world have a major or minor hand in the evolution of the playing cards today:

1. As early as 10th century in China a domino like paper form emerged

2. Italians handpainted playing cards with utmost details and superb artistic skills.

3. Germans learned how to engraved the cards for mass production and reduction of the costs.

4. The French incorporated the Queen in the previously all male court cards. Also they changed the suits from coins ,cups, staves and swords to red color diamonds and hearts and black spades and clubs. Obviously the French suit system is what we use today globally.

5. The Americans incorporated the Joker originally called The Best Bower in 1870.


These are some of the themes or areas you might be interested in collecting playing cards.


1. Collect from one single manufacturer of playing cards e.g. Bee, Bicycle etc.

2. Advertising decks especially if the business it advertised was off the market a long time ago.

3. Magician cards, these are specially designed cards to help the performer stage an optical illusion.

4. Playing cards that are cross-collectibles e.g Disney, Coca Cola, Star wars, American-Indian Memorabilia as in a deck called " Indians of the Southwest" sold at auction for $500.

5. Playing Cards of different sizes and shapes.

6. Playing cards with artistically and intricately designed backs.

7. Transformation decks, which have suit symbols in elaborate designs, like concealing a heart in a face or club in the shape of a bonnet.

8. Collecting only Jokers from varieties of decks.

Collect what pleases you. That's the cardinal rule of collecting.


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Collecting Snowglobes



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The most popular kind of snow globes ( also know as snow domes or snow shakers) that people collect are the Disney Snow globes.
They have a wide selection of snow globes devoted to Disney characters like Snowhite, Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the beast, the Lion king, Pirates of the Caribbean etc.

Before most snowglobes are of average size. Nowadays snow globes have this huge display on the outside and the little globe is put in the middle and come with musical boxes and figurines. See the picture above.

The precursor of the snowglobes were glass paperweights.

Snowglobes were first made and sold in France to tourists in the 1880's containing a model of Eiffel Tower commemorating a significant event in French History. Soon after, these tiny water filled globes were so popular in Europe made its way to America in the 1920's. Snowglobes were also served as advertising giveaways in the 1940's.The first plastic snowglobes were manufactured in the fifties.

Snowglobes were particularly sold in roadside attraction, famous landmarks, museums, old homes of famous people.

Vintage snowglobes that are considered rare and collectible usually depicted scenes representing remote, abandoned or no longer existed.

Snowglobes aren't just Christmas related. There are many sports team that have a snowglobe collectible for their loyal fans. There are snowglobes for NFL and Nascar fans or even containing replicas of famous sports stadiums.

It was believed that upper class Victorian families who had a thing for the kitsch bought and collected snowglobes made of glass.

When it comes to snowglobe collecting, one should keep in mind the temperature and space you have in your house. As your collection grows space would surely be running out.
When it gets too hot or too cold glass snowglobes may break if the liquid inside freezes or boils. Always remember, the liquid inside snowglobes will evaporate as time goes by.

The fascination of snowglobes and why people love to collect these things is because when we look into the snowglobe is like looking into another world that is continously winter. Shake it and its impossible to resist the silent peaceful magic unlike a real snowfall its get slushy and needs to be shoveled. You can't resist watching that drifting snow, totally drawn into the scene and feel the rest of the world recede us.

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Collecting Jigsaw Puzzles



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One of the world's largest jigsaw puzzles is composed of 18,000 pieces.If you are what they called a die hard puzzler, do you think you are up to the challenge?

The many appeals of jigsaw puzzles are that it is inexpensive form of entertainment. Forget shopping, going out to restaurants, movies,clubs or bars just to beat boredom when you don't have the dough.
Jigsaw puzzles is the solution. It can be both solitary or group activity. Once you have completed the puzzle you can mess it up again, and pass it on to another family member or friend for him or her to enjoy.See? its really cheap.

You feel a sense of accomplishment once you complete the puzzle. Its a great way to unwind and de-stress. Or be lost in thought, experience a flow and just be oblivious to your surroundings. Mind you, not many activities get you into that particular state of mind. Albeit, you can but it can be very expensive, illegal, immoral or fattening. Let me digress.

What jigsaw puzzles can do for you nowadays is a far cry from what it was originally intended hundrerd years ago. To learn geography, from large wooden cut out pieces of glued on world maps is nice, but later innovations made it smaller pieces on die cast cardboard and made it more adult friendly.

You can collect vintage wooden puzzles, card board jigsaw puzzles, interlocking or not ( easily broken up when you move the puzzle) or you may want to collect jigsaw puzzles from a certain maker, or the degree of difficulty ( irregular pieces wherein you can't start from the edge) it's all up to you. You go where your interests lie.

Study some price guides on the subject. With knowledge at your arsenal, you can confidently scour yard sales, flea markets, games, toys and ephemera shows or you can sit and click on ebay. This two pronged approach to collect jigsaw puzzles is always the best way to do it.

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Collecting Clarice Cliff Pottery




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Clarice Cliff the Stoke on Trent born art deco designer, revolutionised British pottery. It was the 1920's the decade of the Depression, when Cliff created of what was to become the unmistakably famous of all her designs called Bizarre.

The odd shaped defective wares that went with the newly acquired Newport Pottery factory,presented an interesting challenge for Cliff. She covered the imperfections of the vast stock of wares with vividly rich coloured hand paintings and boldly innovated it with geometric triangles with on glaze enamels that made the pieces even more brightly coloured.


She said "color seems to radiate happiness and the spirit of modern life". And that was what she created with her pottery. A sense of joy and limitless possibilities. According to her the British wives deserved a bit more gaiety in their lives.

If you have an eye for the collectable you wouldn't want to miss a Clarice Cliff made sugar sifters, biscuit barrels, sauce boats, conical shaped coffee pots, jampots, vases, bowls,statuettes, toby and lotus jugs, plates and tea sets.If the piece has a back stamp that says Clarice Cliff Newport Pottery England or Royal Staffordshire Ceramic/Dinnerware by Clarice Cliff then you have a collectible.

Cliff made roughly 700 designs in her lifetime. Her range of patterns like Applique, Inspiration, Fantasque, Crocus and of course Bizarre are among her most commercially successful.

A lot of design pundits in those days considered Cliff an aberration. For them, Cliff's artistic merits were arguable. Even Queen Mary dismissed Cliff's unconventional work "awful". Oh well, Cliff's creations may not look very refined to royalty but heck, Clarice was a free spirit.

She instructed her team of hand paintresses ( Bizarre girls) to make the paint thick and make the upward brushstrokes very obvious(which was at the time going against the rules). The Bizarre shop produced seemingly hand done wares for they never did the same thing twice.

More than eighty years since the heydays of Clarice Cliff, her ceramic pieces nowadays may fetch from $100 to $20,000. Cliff definitely captured the zeitgeist of her times. What's so amazing about this gifted woman is that.... to this day her work remains very collectible.

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Collecting Marilyn Monroe Memorabilia



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Who would have thought that after over four decades since Marilyn Monroe's death, she's as huge as ever and i might add, richer. Marilyn Monroe, the Blonde bombshell, the icon, still is Miss American Pie. Her immortality is sealed.

There are lots of ways you can collect Marilyn Monroe.

Tie it up with things that interest you ( books, magazines, posters, plates, Marilyn Monroe personal items that she actually wore and touched.) You do this, so you won't be bored collecting in the long haul and shelling out big cash for Marilyn Monroe's collectibles fetch a hefty price.

Authenticity is a big deal when you want to start collecting Marilyn Monroe collectibles. There are a lot of fake items on the market.

You will know the pieces are genuine because some items are part of the past Monroe auctions and if you see the items actually pictured with Marilyn. Like, the gowns she wore to movie premieres. You have to do a lot of legwork and research though. But what the heck, if it's your passion, go hog wild (on the research, i mean).

There is a huge demand for Marilyn Monroe.

Her platinum blond hair.....voluptuous body....that breathless voice..... The legend of Marilyn Monroe lives on.

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Collecting Classic Boardgames



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Monopoly, snakes and ladders, scrabble, chinese checkers, trivial pursuit etc. we all have our share of playing these wildly popular boardgames. But if you want to play more classic board games, it's time to hunt and rummage thru garage sales, thrift stores, antiques shops and online auctions.

First off we have to have a master plan. What do we want to buy or collect? Boardgames that are based on television shows? a comic strip? movies? radio shows? ( like Dick Tracy, Gilligan's Island, James Bond board games just to mention a few )

Do you want to collect boardgames from a particular period?( 40's, 50's, 60's,70's, 80's, Victorian, pre WWll) from a single company? Or Board games that we only actually like to play? The themes and choices are endless.

Mint condition board games mean the corners of the box are still sturdy and all the pieces are still complete. It will really drive up the boardgame's value, if ever you want to sell your board game collection down the road.

Boardgame value also depends on current events. Like when Snoopy creator George Schultz passed away, it boosted the popularity of the Snoopy board game.
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Collecting Antique Fishing Lures



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Why do people have a fascination over antique fishing lures that they want to collect them? Well, there's nothing greater than the adrenaline rush one feels when casting a lure into the water except of course catching a fish with it.

For some collectors there is an emotional connection to their past when growing up with whom they associated with fishing.

You will know that you have advanced into this hobby of collecting antique fishing lures when you feel fulfilled and satisfied that you bought and went home with one very good and expensive lure than with many but cheap lures. This usually happens as all collecting fields mature.

The box a lure came in, is also collectible.

Make sure there are no repaints on the fishing lures for it will devalue the item. Touched up is a big no- no. It should be advisable to buy the best condition fishing lures you can, should you decide to sell or trade them down the road.

To avoid costly mistakes and appreciate your passion for collecting antique fishing lures, it's wise to read good reference books and magazine reviews about the hobby.


Attend tackle/lure shows and get to interact with fellow collectors. What you can glean from this interaction is first hand information about what quality antique fishing lures collection composed of.


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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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COLLECTING PINBALL MACHINES




Pinball is loud, tacky and fun. Pinball is as authentic a slice of true Americana. When videogames became popular the pinball machine was relegated to the background.
Some fututrist would have predicted that pinball machines saw it's last days. Just like what people said television would kill the movies. But the stratopheric returns at the box office nowadays make the movies here to stay.

Pinball Games

Vintage pinball game like the coin operated pinball was born in 1931. Classic pinball games such as Whiffle Board, Baffleball, Dutch Pool, Jostle and El Bumpo were popular in the thirties.

Pinball mavens today may think The Simpsons, Dr. Dude and Funhouse are fine pinball games but they say they lack the feel of such classics as Slick Chick or Magic City
.
Pinball Reborn

Pinball Machines were banned during the late thirties up to the early forties especially in large cities. At the time,pinball were considered the way, candy store owners ripped off the kids out of their lunch money.

The movie Tommy was Hollywood's vehicle for the comeback of pinball machines. For a time pinball was enjoying a renaissance. Such classic games as Wizard, Eight Ball, Space Mission and Evel Knievel were also popular.

Pinball was pushed out of the limelight in the eighties when videogames like Space Invaders and Pac Man were such huge hits( I can very well remember that time). Pinball has a tendency to fall into the background when something new comes along.

Most Collectible Pinball Machine

The '72 Bally Pinball in good condition can rack up to almost five figures but a classic pinball machine is inexpensive to acquire for as little few hundred dollars.

Highly prized pinball paraphernalia like vintage pinball parts, catalogues and schematic drawings of pinball circuitry are also desirably collectible.

Why Pinball Games?

Today a pinball game seems like so much trouble when you have satellite dishes, dvd players and high speed internet. But what is it, that has sustained pinball's popularity over the years? Some people say it's an escape. Its exciting. Each ball plays differently from the last ball. It's not like videogames where you know what's going to happen.

As you may all know, pinball is wacky and spirited. A lot of fun to be around but a little embarassing to be seen with, for it has no sophistication yet it has no pretensions. It has no French terminology or obscene etiquette. Pinball is all about tactile and visceral pleasures.

Pinball designers purposely give players an average of forty eight seconds of play per ball. So people with short attention span , go play pinball !

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COLLECTING FOUNTAIN PENS





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I became aware of the beauty of the fountain pen at such an early age when i saw my mother owned and used one. It was black in color with green stripes. I knew how the fountain pen was refilled with ink. My mother's fountain pen was probably not collectible vintage fountain pen but for me, it was. Because it enhanced my mother's beautiful handwriting.

In this day and age of email, laser printers, text messages etc. you would probably think why would anyone use a fountain pen, ink, much less stationery and stamps? The old reliable fountain pen might run dry and leak or worst yet it doesn't have spell check.
Moreover when France's Bic led the ballpoint pen revolution the fountain pen's existence was doomed. True, ball point pen costs almost nothing compared to fountain pens. But ballpoint pens are low in style.

Although a dedicated elite collectors kept using fountain pens. They kept browsing flea markets and antique stores. Consequently, the love affair with collectible vintage fountain pen was "consummated" so to speak. Ultimately creating a hot market for collectors and investors.

The silver and black resin de Medici originally priced at $1,600 was introdued by Montblanc in 1972. It is the first of the 4810 limited edition pens. Thus systematic collecting of these rare and collectible fountain pens started.

You know as well as i do that, serious collectors are capable of irrational exuberance and extravagance, making the demand for these fountain pens higher than the supply. A steady rise in value of these fountain pens are likely.

A Parker fountain pen called the "Big Red Doufold" was made in the '20s originally priced at $5.00. Eighty years later, the Parker fountain pen in good condition would bring $500 or more.

There are also limited edtiion fountain pens that replicate the actual pen used by legendary figures at significant moment in history such as Douglas MacArthur model issued by Parker. It replicated the fountain pen the General used to sign the Japanese surrender documents at the end of World War ll. This originally sold by Parker in 1995 for $850.

Montblanc also introduced a series of pens named after popular writers like Ernest Hemingway, Agatha Christie and Charles Dickens. Each has a distinctive design and are enviably solid investments.

Fountain Pen Collecting Tips

If you contemplate on collecting vintage fountain pens, advise by the experts would be: Don't start going after pens that are hardest to fiind. Instead buy new issues of limited editions at reasonable prices. Wait and watch as your investments will surely proved profitable in due time.

Displaying Your Collection

You can display your collection of fountain pens in a wooden box or leather case. You can also keep them shrink wrapped for years to pass on to your heir or you can use them for the pleasure they bring. It' all up to you.

Mint condition fountain pens will be worth a little more in the end. But a pen you write with, if well cared for, may have a little more romance about it. Maybe it's been used to write a love letter, an intimate diary or signing a mortgage.

A good fountain pen is an essential part of anyone's wardrobe. When you whip out an impressive fountain pen like a Montblanc Diplomat out of your jacket pocket, people pay attention. It is an illustration of what the idea of quintessence is all about.

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Collecting Vintage Men's Neckties



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Countess Mara once said "Tell a man you like his necktie and you will see his personality unfold like a flower." There are many men among us whose tie racks boast more than fifty men's neckties. No, not your run of the mill men's ties with boring stripes, eye glazing paisleys or dull florals. I'm talking about collecting vintage men's neckties that are handpainted, air brushed or dry brushed.
Some of these men's ties are silk ties that were designed, stitched and sold during the creative burst of the baby boom.

These classic men's neckties reflected the robust enthusiasm, tremendous optimism of American exuberance and verve right around the time after the World War 2 ended.
Everyone at that time had a splashy number for a tie. They insisted on
fantastic even eccentric men's ties. These ties were considered works of art not visual wallpaper.

Why? Because, how many men's neckties do you think were designed by world renowned artists like Salvador Dali? Yes legendary surrealist Dali did designs for several tie companies in the late forties. In the middle to late forties, Americans dictated the fashion not overseas.
There were of Art Deco designs, geometric patterns, equestrian,hunting and aquatic scenes.

Some particularly hunted for men's ties with designs of nude women, mermaids,pin-up girls,palm trees, maple leaves, handsome monograms,birds,dogs,horses,marlin, trout,belly dancers,boats,cowboys etc.
If you want to start collecting vintage men's neckties you can start looking in your own(grandparents) attic, storage rooms or antique chests, flea markets,vintage clothing stores,tie shops or in every city you plan to visit.

Or at the click of a mouse in Ebay.
It's not surprising serious collectors discuss neckties the way oenophiles debate vintages. Albeit, one's passion and obsession for collecting rare,classic and collectible men's neckties are not forced on others.


Some men do insist that magical things happen when you wear these vintage men's ties like received stares in elevators, gasps in hallways, bright smiles on sidewalks and approving nods from older and nostalgic people.
Collectors are in pursuit of these vintage men's neckties cause strangely, they evoke anothe time, another place.

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Top 10 most desirable and collectible Art Nouveau style interior design objects to decorate your house.

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