Daryle Lambert: Staying home with Antiques and Collectibles can be fun.

Thanks to Morningsidemin.org


I just saw the latest unemployment figures and the newscasters gave more doom and gloom. The unemployment rate is now 6.7%? Well, historically, full employment was 6% and anything lower than that was inflationary and bad for the economy. I must be missing something! Or is it just that the news likes to scare people because this increases their viewership as people hang on their every word? I believe that it is time to buy stock and I hope that you’ll remember a year down the road as you look back and see that I said it here first.

What should we do in the meantime - while we wait for the market to right itself? One good idea might be to spend more time at home, but what can we do there that will hold our attention? A good idea is to engage with our families in good entertainment and this may be God's way of waking the American people up to the fact that we might not be in control of things after all.

I remember times in my youth, setting around the old Zenith tube radio with my parents and siblings, listening to the "Shadow Knows" and other shows that very few remember today. How long has it been since you have listened to a radio that was controlled by a vacuum tube, perhaps never? I can assure you that the sound was better than what you get with radios that you listen to today. Just for fun, you should go to a garage sale, pick one of these beauties up for under $25, and receive the treat of venturing back into the past. Also, board games and puzzles are a great way to pass time at home with family. The expense to you is little to nothing. You may find that you enjoy spending time with your parents, kids and/or siblings.

I am getting around to the economics of this story. There is money to be made with the items I just suggested you purchase to use for your own personal enjoyment. Lots of families are in similar situations to yours and and hopefully they will spend more time at home with each other. This is where you come in. While you are out looking for that special Newcomb vase, it may not be a bad idea to also purchase that Motorola Model 51X, Yellow Body, Green Grille Catalin, 1941, 7 inch radio sitting in someone’s basement that everyone else has passed by. This may be purchased for a song, but to the collector, it’s valued at about $5,000. There are many models made by such great companies as Emerson, Garod, General Electric, Philco, RCA, and Zenith that will bring over $1,000 today and few people realize their potential.

How about board games? Where do they fit on the value scale? Let’s take a look. Parcheesi. red, white, and green paint, breadboard ends, Maine, 16" by 24", is valued at $2,500 and its cousin red, orange and dark green, framed, 17 1/2" by 17 1/2" inches at $7,500. These are just two example and many more can be found in Kovel's price guide for Antiques and Collectibles. Believe it or not puzzles too can make your day - I have seen them sell for thousands of dollars.

When you are fortunate enough to find one of these items, it would be terrific to enjoy what they have to offer you before they are re-sold. I guarantee you that great pleasure can be shared by all while sitting around that antique radio or at the kitchen table playing board games or assembling puzzles.

It is a fact that your family will grow up and change over time so enjoy them while you have the chance.

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Researching One Collectible Item a Week Can Mean Money in Your Pocket

Have you run out of items to research? If you take at least one item a week and research it, this can mean money in your pocket. There are some items that are very collectible and most dealers pass them by because they don’t have any idea of their value.

Today I’m talking collectible electrical items.

Here in the mountains where I’m vacationing, summer has started out very hot. While we’re staying in air conditioned accomodations, in days past people had to depend upon electric fans to stay cool. Did you know that these old fans can bring hundreds of dollars today? And you may very well find them in a garage or yard sale.

There are special fans that combine several metals to get a wonderful decorative look, and these fans were far ahead of their day. Prices of these wonderful fans can be checked and researched in Kovel’s Price Guide as well as on the internet. The copper blades on some of them gave an Arts and Crafts look and added to the decor of many above average homes of the day.

After the invention of electricity, the country had a thirst for items that could make life easier. Telephones became popular, and today, the decorative ones can bring $500 and up. The first telephones had wooden cases and a fairly large magnet in their core. In good shape and with all their working parts, these can bring at least $500. The wooden telephones began to disappear when a wonderful era of fabulous designs in phones began. Many of these will also demand a fair penny in today’s market.

One item that I bet you hadn’t thought of is electric cigarette lighters. Yes, electric cigarette lighters. In fact, if you see one today you might not recognize what it is. With the demise of smoking, anything associated with tobacco will become very collectible.

Early examples of electric hair curlers might be worth watching for, as well as early electric razors.

The value of early television sets and radios can bring prices in the thousands, and it would be well worth your while to research them. I predict that soon there will be a very active collector group for old computers, if there isn’t one already.

I will leave it to your imagination to think of the many other items that fall into this category of collectible electrical items

Because they weren’t made to be collectible, but functional, they weren’t stored away to be protected as many collectible items are. Many of these items were destroyed, leaving only a few, so upon selling them to collectors, they should meet our rule on buying and selling. These items should continue to appreciate in value for the remaining ones that survive.


Office Matters: I didn’t know my computer at home had to be shut down in order for me to get my e-mails at another location. (I learn something new about these machines every day!) I apologize ahead of time if I didn’t answer you promptly. My neighbor will turn that off for me, and then we should be back running. I hope I can get at the e-mails that were sent to me the past couple of days. If you have questions that perhaps Cindy might answer for you, you can e-mail her at cindy@31corp.com. Be sure to put 31 Club in the subject.

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Daryle Lambert: Collectible Radios

Top: Crosley "Mate" from 1931. Photo from Western Historic Radio Museum. Bottom: 1940 RCA Q-122A

While many of you are too young to remember the good old days of radio, I'm not. And today, radio collectors are a breed of their own.

The first radios I remember were large box type sets made of wood. They occupied a prominent place in the living room, where the entire family would gather around and together, listen to the news and dramatic shows on the only radio in the home. Try telling your kids, at one time, the family relaxed by the radio, perhaps doing some handiwork or polishing their shoes after dinner, and see how they react. No television. Can you imagine that? How did we ever survive?

I often yearn for those special days of listening to The Green Hornet, The Shadow Knows, and Fibber McGee and Molly. And who can forget Bing Crosby, Jack Benny, Rudy Vallee, George Burns and Gracie Allen. Back then, these people were household names. In fact, though it was the Depression years, many of them became very wealthy from their radio work. Their shows provided a much needed escape from hard times. These new dramatic and interesting shows kept the family clinging to every word that came out of those speakers, returning for each new episode. Unless you can acquire some old recordings of these shows, they will be lost from you forever. Some days, how I long to just sit around the radio with family and friends and listen to those long gone days.

Later, the size of these radios became smaller, and different materials were used in their construction. Bakelite and Catalin were used by the new designers to show that beauty could be added these sets. Some of the most expensive models, the ones collectors search for, are even encased in mirrors.

In the early days, radio played a key role in politics. Franklin Delano Roosevelt probably wouldn't have been elected over the incumbent, Herbert Hoover, if it hadn't been for radio.

Bringing Americans the war news was perhaps one of the greatest services of the radio. In those days, the networks wanted this country to prevail in war. Can you think that possible with what we hear on our newscasts today? In those days, it was Family, God, and Country. Today, the divorce rate is over fifty percent, we can't mention God, and the country is polarized. We have definitely taken a wrong turn.

Evolution of the Radio is a guide put out by L&W Book Sales, and is a good starting point in your study of the radio, showing pictures and listing prices. Radio Advertising is also collected by many, and this book shows some of that as well.

Some of the radios collectors look for are Atwater Kent, Philco, General Electric, RCA, Zenith, Emerson, DeForest, just to name a few.

When I am out on the hunt for items I like to look for, I often run across some of these great old radios of the past. While I might not personally collect radios, I know there are many collectors out there looking for what I've just stumbled upon. This just might be the special piece they'd been looking for to add to or complete their collection. If I could get it at a good price, why not buy it? These pieces can become real treasures for you and often picked up for a song. The collector looking for it will be glad you found it.

To view and learn more about collectible radios, try taking a look around Western Historic Radio Museum, AntiqueRadios.com and RadioAttic.com. These sites have a world of information and fabulous examples of these treasures.

You just might discover many of the radios you grew up with are, now, highly valuable and collectible.

Aside from finding radios in people's basements, attics, and garage sales, often you can find radios at hamfests. Radio clubs, such as the Mid-Atlantic Radio Club, is a good place to meet collectors and learn more about what they collect.

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If you haven't yet had a chance to see what we've got listed in the 31 Gallery & Marketplace, click on over and take a look. You might even find a real bargain. We've got many high quality items priced reasonably. If you have a high quality piece you'd like us to find a buyer for, why not consign your item to us. No high fees when you sell with us. Contact us here.

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