“Use This Number” - Daryle Lambert's Antique and Collectible Blog – [ 847-784-8544.]

Call Me

Working together I am convinced that all the plans I had from the beginning of the Club will be fulfilled. Now and then I get impatient when there are no success stories coming my way from our members but those periods don't last long as yesterday demonstrates. I received a call from Lou Ann and she asked if I would look up an artist for her. This was what I had been waiting for.

Her first words were, “Will you look up Mae Bertoni?” to which I said "Okay". But you see there was a problem because I thought she said Mae Nertoni and as I checked Ask Art there was no one by that name listed. I repeated the name back to her, she corrected me and lo and behold there it was, Mae Bertoni. Before I could even get the information she said “I believe that I will buy the picture even if it is a print." I was scanning the listing and beginning to think that what she was looking at was a print, because from my research I found that this artist was well known for prints so I suspected that she had one.

However, to be sure, after my experience where what I thought was a print turned out to be a real watercolor that a friend of mine bought for $40 and a few months later sold for $22,000, I told Lou Ann that we should check further.

When she got home she took the piece out of the frame as I had instructed and sent me several pictures of it. Immediately, I knew she had the real thing. Your question is, how did you know? First, if a piece is behind glass it is almost impossible to tell if it is real or a print but once it is no longer behind glass you job becomes much easier. The paper usually shouldn't have a high gloss like most prints if it is truly a painting and the paper should most of the time have texture. Second, the signature will be easily identified as original to the piece. Third, the margins will show overlap of paint and not be straight like a ruler. “So what made the painting Lou Ann had tell you it was real?"

There was part of the tape used to mark the dimensions of the painting still attached to the paper, the signature was clearly the original and not a copy, the paper itself had texture and wasn't smooth like a print and the paint was overlapping the paper. With this information, it didn't take an expert to state that this was truly a watercolor and not a print.

Her price was $15 and its value, $2500 plus, was not bad for a visit to a second hand shop. This is why you need patience. Lou Ann told me she had never discovered anything in this shop of value before but she always checks. Now she can no longer say that and I am sure she had a huge smile on her face when she got the results of our research. The last watercolor by Mae Bertoni sold for over $2000 and it wasn't as nice or as large as the one Lou Ann found.

Yes you should use the number 847-784-8544 because that is my number and if it is called I will always answer it. If you need information on anything, this is the number to call and maybe your results will be the same as Lou Ann's. I hope so.

My 220 page book about how to make money buying and selling antiques & collectibles is FREE with your membership in the 31 Club. Join Us Today!
Check out the new Paintings and new items in our Gallery and Marketplace here.

For more information, visit my web site at http://www.31corp.com.

“Two for One” - Daryle Lambert's Antique and Collectible Blog – Kodak.

Kodak - Thanks to vintagephoto.tv

I feel generous today so I am going to give you two for one. I know that my readers are beginning to see that I may go off the reservation every now and then and this is going to be one of those days. If a person won't go out on a limb now and then what is the purpose of following their advice. So, here goes on my first recommendation.

I believe the stock market will continue its upward climb for the rest of this year. Even if it has some set backs if you have some risk money lying around and can't find any treasures at the moment to buy, it may be wise to commit a little of that money to the stock market. I can even share with you where I believe it could be invested wisely. Kodak is a name that almost everyone recognizes and I believe that the market has way over discounted its stock. Revenues of 8 billion and per share revenues of $29 plus should indicate that maybe the stock is under priced at $4.50 or less. The other indicator that catches my eye is that over 94% of their shares are owned by institutions. I can tell you that I have purchased a fair amount of this stock in accounts I manage at the current price.

Now for your hedge, if you do purchase Kodak stock, buy their early cameras and anything else that bears the Kodak logo. Here are just a few of their products that can make you money. A 1891 wooden body Kodak should bring you $1000 or more while the No. 3 box camera should fetch at least $700. The scale for Kodak's vintage cameras will come in almost any range you wish with the name we all remember, the Brownie, in green running about $200.

Kodak collectibles aren't limited to just cameras and may include but not be limited to empty boxes, advertising, posters, signs and instruction manuals. You will find a ready market for Kodak memorabilia and if you need help selling anything produced by Kodak let me know.

Why not let your interest in certain items also pay you dividends by owning their stock if it is available and looks like a great value.

My 220 page book about how to make money buying and selling antiques & collectibles is FREE with your membership in the 31 Club. Join Us Today!
Check out the new Paintings and new items in our Gallery and Marketplace here.

For more information, visit my web site at http://www.31corp.com.

“My Favorite Comic Character” - Daryle Lambert's Antique and Collectible Blog – Dick Tracy.

My Guy Dick Tracy - Thanks to voicechasers.com

I would like to hear who your favorite comic characters were? I had to think for quite some time to decide which one of the marvelous characters from the 40's and 50's was my pick. But after some serious consideration, it was hands down for Dick Tracy.

That two way radio that he used was rather nifty don't you think and I had a crush on Sparkle Plenty. In fact, I believe that I still have a Dick Tracy ring and a two way radio hidden away somewhere. I also remember the tin windup toys made to look like his squad car and all the funny books about his escapades. He was a hard hitting police detective who was fast on the trigger and all criminals feared him.

The creator of Dick Tracy was Chester Gould and the comic strip started on October 4, 1931 in the Detroit Mirror. It soon became a staple of the Chicago Tribune and ran until 1977. Gould not only wrote the comic strip but also drew it. The strip was representative of the Chicago scene in the 1930's with all its mob activity and it seemed as if his life was always in peril. . If you were ever a Tracy fan then you know the parade of bad guys he faced everyday. My favorite villain was Flattop Jones and I can still picture him in my mind today with that flat head. With the success of the comic strip came the radio program, movies and comic books which all were extremely successful.

"Where is the money?", I know you are asking. Well an original comic strip at auction can bring thousands and even on eBay they sell for $800 or more. Posters from the 40's can sell for $400 to $1000 if they are in good shape and toys go all over the board from $50 to $5000.

Because of the longevity of this character there are many items to chose from like games, premiums, store displays, books such as the Little books that will bring $400 each or more and so many more things. Almost anything you find that is in decent shape will reward you handsomely. These items most frequently will be found at garage or house sales but second hand shops also can prove to be a gold mine for them.

Dick Tracy, who would ever have thought that he could be the answer to some of your problems, and you don't even have to call him.I think this is my second blog on Dick Tracy but that only shows how much he meant to me.

My 220 page book about how to make money buying and selling antiques & collectibles is FREE with your membership in the 31 Club. Join Us Today!
Check out the new Paintings and new items in our Gallery and Marketplace here.

For more information, visit my web site at http://www.31corp.com.

“Father Would Relax” - Daryle Lambert's Antique and Collectible Blog – With his pipe and slippers.

Great pipes - Thanks to securesearch.org

Since I have never smoked.... Let me qualify that by saying "nothing but rabbit tobacco as a child", it is difficult for me to write on the subject of smoking. Do you know what rabbit tobacco is? Well, when I was a young boy, my friends and I would peel the leaves off a weed stem that we found growing everywhere, let it dry and then wrap it in brown paper and puff on this crude cigarette. It would always hurt our throats when we did this but that didn't stop us because we were being big boys.

Smoking, however, contributed to my father's death when he developed emphysema. He died a long and horrible death at the age of 58 from the results of smoking all his adult life. I tell every young person I talk to that smoking is a killer and something to be avoided. There is, however, money to be made with smoking items from the past. In fact I remember when the advertisers would show dad sitting in his most comfortable chair with his slippers on and smoking his favorite pipe. This was supposed to show a man in an almost heavenly state.

Well some of these better pipes have become very expensive. I have written about smoking memorabilia which includes pipes, but not about the pipes themselves and the brands that you should be watching for. Often I have told you how Warner and I scored a big hit by purchasing a fairly large number of pipes at one time. Yes, there were several of these pipes that were fairly common but a few of them brought great money. By buying them all, the price of each one was a bargain and the overall profit even surprised us.

Here is a list of "High Quality Pipes" that you should write down and then put to memory. Dunhill, Charatan, Barling, Comoy, Castello, Caminetto, Peterson, and Sasieni are the eight brands that I continue to look for in my search for treasure. If you are fortunate enough to find a Dunhill ODA or ODB pipe with the date, you are talking serious money, in the thousands. I will promise that if you find these in great condition, you will be rewarded handsomely. Often these brands can command over $500 and from there they can go into the thousands if they are the right ones, such as the two I mentioned earlier.

I believe that smoking is on the decline and thank goodness for that, but pipes can still serve you well and I don't mean by smoking them. Great pipes will always hold a true place in the collector's heart so why not take advantage of this opportunity. But I hope that you like me will continue to encourage others not to use tobacco because of the effect it will have on their health.

My 220 page book about how to make money buying and selling antiques & collectibles is FREE with your membership in the 31 Club. Join Us Today!
Check out the new Paintings and new items in our Gallery and Marketplace here.

For more information, visit my web site at http://www.31corp.com.

“Best Basketball Ever” - Daryle Lambert's Antique and Collectible Blog – Harlem Globetrotters.

Harlem Globetrotters - Thanks to flicker.com

I have to admit I don't think of my Dad as often as I should since he was the world to me. He was my idol and even at my age there are still events that we shared that seem as if they just happened yesterday. Some of these memories were of seeing the Harlem Globetrotters together at the Sports Center in our small town of Owensboro, Kentucky.

The Globetrotters were started by Abe Saperstein in 1926 in Chicago, Illinois and I think they still are playing today. What other basketball team has played 20,000 games in 118 countries? They started out at first to be a real competing team but then slowly added comedy to their game. That is when they attracted millions of followers. I still can see the players chasing one another with a water bucket and then throwing its contents into the crowd, only to find out it was cut up paper.

When their games started, they always showed that they could really play the game, but after awhile they would go into their comedy act and the crowd would howl with laughter. The two teams that I remember as their opponents were the “House of David” where all the players on the team wore very long beards and the Washington Generals.

I can tell you that the Trotters games were always the highlight of the year for me and I really didn't want to attend them with anyone but Dad. I always got the idea that Dad enjoyed these games as much as I did and if his laughing was any indication I am sure of it.

There were several players on those teams that I still remember today like George "Meadowlark" Lemon, Reece "Goose" Tatum, Fred "Curly" Neal and Marques Haynes. These players have to be in the Basketball Hall of Frame because of what they brought to the game. But there is one player that played for the Trotters that I remember well because I knew him from the college where I graduated, Kentucky Wesleyan in Owensboro. He was an All American there and I followed every college game he was in while attending Wesleyan. He became a real star with the Trotters and played many years with them.

Just like at one time the Dallas Cowboys were known as the American team, the Trotters were also known as the team that represented the best of this country.

I have enjoyed writing this blog so much I hate to get to the end and tell you how money can be made with their memorabilia. Yes uniforms, programs, advertising, pennants, photographs and anything that has the signatures of the stars will be eagerly sought after by collectors. I can assure you that anything that pertains to the "Harlem Globetrotters" will reward you handsomely.

My 220 page book about how to make money buying and selling antiques & collectibles is FREE with your membership in the 31 Club. Join Us Today!
Check out the new Paintings and new items in our Gallery and Marketplace here.

For more information, visit my web site at http://www.31corp.com.

“Mark Twain” - Daryle Lambert's Antique and Collectible Blog - But Only in His Books.

Mark Twain - Thanks to www.taringa.net

There is perhaps no better known name in American writing than Mark Twain's. He was a giant to all the little boys in my neighborhood and I even painted my family's fence once on account of him. The only problem was my parents didn't want the fence painted and I still can feel the strap on my little fanny.

Who among you can't remember The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer? These characters were developed from Samuel Langhorne Clemens' days spent in Hannibal, Missouri on the Mississippi River as a boy. There has never been a greater humorist in America than this man. Even as I am writing this, it is difficult not to laugh just thinking about the stories I read so long ago. Mr. Clemens lived a full life and traveled this country from coast to coast. He was born in 1835 and died in 1910.

After huge successes as a writer, he went broke trying to develop a typewriter and his losses in today's money would have been over $7,000,000. This caused a very dark period in his life and he suffered great depression. Not being a quitter, however, he regained his fortune but never was the same man again after the losses of his fortune and members of his family.

This brings me to why this information can bring you rewards by having knowledge about Mark Twain and his tremendous popularity. I wrote several days ago about finding a chest on a farm where I was doing work for my father in the oil fields. What I didn't mention was that there were two Mark Twain books in it. This was when I was still in high school but even then they sold for over $100 apiece. What would they be worth today?

His books are what are in demand today, especially if he signed them, but there are other items that can fetch a pretty penny such as autographs and signed photos. A page with autographs of him and his daughters was sold for several thousand dollars. An important letter by him may fetch $10,000. The first ed. 1882 Prince and the Pauper sold on eBay for $2400 and I know there are many of his books still stashed away in some old chest or basement waiting to be found by you.

I would suggest that if you are fortune enough to find his books please, before you sell them, take time to a cozy place and read them from cover to cover. You will be greatly rewarded and your time will be well spent. After that, the money won't hurt either.

My 220 page book about how to make money buying and selling antiques & collectibles is FREE with your membership in the 31 Club. Join Us Today!
Check out the new Paintings and new items in our Gallery and Marketplace here.

For more information, visit my web site at http://www.31corp.com.

“Uncle Wiggily” - Daryle Lambert's Antique and Collectible Blog – I remember him, do you?

" Uncle Wiggily " - Thanks to Flicker.com

I am still waiting for ideas about the items that our members of the “Daryle Lambert's Antique and Collectible Club” would be interested in me doing a blog about. After two years of writing the blog each day, I sometimes find it a little difficult to have an original idea to share with you. However, when I sit down at the computer it just seems to come to me. Often it is from my past and today for some reason I thought about old “ Uncle Wiggily “

Uncle Wiggily was a character created in 1910 by Howard Roger Garis. He continued to write books about him until there were a total of 79. I remember my parents pulling out books about “Uncle Wiggily” from an old chest that they had in the basement and telling me that these were their books when they were my age. I wasn't much of a reader then but this old rabbit always held my attention.

Uncle Wiggily was an elderly rabbit with rheumatism and he walked with a striped cane. There were many other characters in the books, some good and many bad. In one story, Wiggily was confronted by an alligator and feared for his life so he poked his umbrella down the alligator's mouth and opened it. This prevented him from getting eaten and he instantly became my hero.

There is money to be made from "Uncle Wiggily" items and they can be found at garage and house sales very inexpensively. The list of items to be found will contain books, toys, empty boxes, buttons, comics, puzzles, mugs, dishes, games, and many other items too numerous to list. The true collector may pay almost anything for the right item bearing Wiggily's picture. I have a list of collectors who are waiting to buy your items if they are found. You may want to visit eBay and just familiarize yourself with some of these items. Not all the items will be worth a million dollars but if you pay $.50 or $1.00 and can turn around and sell an item for $300, it may well be worth your time and effort.

This is just another step in the knowledge you will need to be successful in this business. Learn one item at a time until one day there will be thousands of items running around in your head and as you search these these will jump out at you when every one of them is encountered on the hunt. How I miss “Uncle Wiggily” and his wisdom.

My 220 page book about how to make money buying and selling antiques & collectibles is FREE with your membership in the 31 Club. Join Us Today!
Check out the new Paintings and new items in our Gallery and Marketplace here.

For more information, visit my web site at http://www.31corp.com.