“Come Fly With Me.” Daryle Lambert – Things with Wings Mean Money.

Wright Brothers - Thanks to Flicker

Most people today can hardly recall the early days of aviation. The Wright Brothers are only a name to most but they started an era that is continuing even today. Almost any item that recalls the history of the airplane is eagerly sought after by today’s collectors. I would highly recommend that all the followers of the 31Club spend time researching aviation memorabilia. It would be very difficult to include all the items that the collector is hunting for in one blog but I will try to give you a summary.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to take a quick tour of your home town in a Spitfire or another older warplane? Yes, for most of us this would only be a dream, but there are collectors that have a stable of older planes. I remember when a collector found a plane buried in ice, I think in Iceland. He recovered it and restored a piece of history to its original condition. But I would assume that this was out of the reach of most people, even if their interest in aviation was all consuming.

So the question is where do we go? Perhaps one of the most rewarding areas in this field of collecting is the posters. I just checked eBay, my old stand by for information, and there I found a 1950's United Airlines Sunny California poster for $1900 and another American Airlines one for $1200 promoting New York City. I have no doubts that there are travel poster representing the airlines that sell for tens of thousands. Often you may find these still rolled in their original tubes for $1.00 at house and garage sales.

Needless to say toy airplanes are a treasure trove if you can find the older ones. I remember one of the first toys that I ever owned was a cast iron plane that my uncle brought back with him from the war. It might not be worth much to anyone else but it would be priceless to me if I could find it today. Toy planes come in all shapes, forms and fashions. Cast iron, plastic, wood, tin and, believe it or not, even glass. Some like the Buddy L Hanger with three planes might fetch $1500 or more while a pre war Japanese fighter might reward its owner with $2500. The more modern G I Joe USS Flagg with its planes sold for over $2100 on eBay and I think at that price it was still a bargain.

I attended a sale at Direct Auction and purchased two fairly large gas engine model planes for my son Joshua . Knowing very little about flying model planes, I didn't even know what all I had bought because they came with batteries, starters, controls and many other things that I'm not even sure to this day what they are. After getting all this home my wife threw a fit and asked us what we were going to do with these planes with about a four foot wing span? To tell you the truth I had no idea. So taking one and hanging it from the ceiling in our family room I kept the other in the back of my pickup for over six months. The attachments are stored in a closet and even now my wife Vickie tells me that they have to go. But here is the good news. After hauling this one around for half a year and finally figuring out that Joshua and I would never fly it, I took the one back to Direct and guess what? I doubled my money on the complete purchase and still have the one hanging plus all the other items. Every once in a while even a mistake turns out okay.

But what else should you keep an eye out for that is in the aviation field? Candy containers, paddle cars, models, jewelry and there are so many more I could stay up all night just thinking of them. However, it is enough just to let you know that there is a healthy group of collectors waiting for you to help them increase the size of their aviation collection and they are willing to pay top dollar if you have the merchandise they are looking for. Happy flying.

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