Lunchbox collectors anything but square
BY ANNIE GROER
Omaha.com
THE WASHINGTON POST
"Millennia have passed since early man hid and hauled grain and game in primitive carriers, most likely fashioned from grasses, leaves, animal hides or tree bark.
By the 20th century, that basic need to transport food was being met by . . . Hopalong Cassidy, the Jetsons and Barbie lunchboxes."
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Sale of the Generation: Saiichi Sugiyama on the 1999 Eric Clapton Christie's Crossroads Auction
Strat Collector News Desk
April 22, 2004
"Editor's note: The June 24, 1999, Christie's auction of Eric Clapton's guitars was a highly significant event to collectors and began a new chapter in the history of guitar collecting. So significant that the auction catalog has become a collectible item in its own right. In his article, 'Sale of the Generation', singer, songwriter and guitarist Saiichi Sugiyama provides a very informative look at many of the instruments sold at the 1999 auction."
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New Fraktur Record
Maine Antique Digest
by Lita Solis-Cohen
"'There are pieces that come along once in a generation, and this is the piece,' said Westborough, Massachusetts, dealer David Wheatcroft after he paid $366,750 (includes buyer's premium) at Freeman's in Philadelphia on Saturday, April 24, for a verse from a Hymn to the Nightingale, an ink and watercolor Pennsylvania German fraktur signed and dated 'Gr. Geistweit, 5 June 1801.'"
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The 10 Most Expensive Living Artists
Tracking the highest prices paid for contemporary artworks
By Kelly Devine Thomas
"Who are the most expensive living artists?
To find out, ARTnews interviewed dealers in the United States and abroad, consulted auction specialists, and surveyed auction results. Artists were considered based on the sum paid for a single work of art - regardless of how many works have sold at that level, the production costs involved in creating the work, or how prices for new works measure up."
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Fleeting moments of fame....
Wedding Dress Guy Breaks eBay Record with 6 Million Hits
By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
April 29, 2004
"A guitar player in a band called The Buzzcuts made eBay history this week when he auctioned his ex-wife's wedding dress. Larry Star, who said he had no idea his auction would get so much attention, started the bidding at $1. 'I'm selling it hoping to get enough money for maybe a couple of Mariners tickets and some beer,' he wrote in the auction, along with an offbeat tale that revealed bitter feelings toward his ex-wife."
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Bill collecting: Decoys are all the rage in St. Charles
Chicago Sun-Times
April 28, 2004
"No sense ducking it. Sporting collectibles have reached the silly zone. The $4.3 million auction held Thursday and Friday at the National Antique Decoy and Sporting Collectibles Show at Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles proved that. Guyette and Schmidt Inc. said the gross was the highest for a decoy auction outside of Sotheby's."
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Buyers hope to get hands on cookie jars
semissourian.com
By Chris Pagano ~ Southeast Missourian
"Wanda Lorenz was fighting the urge to buy Saturday. The Jackson woman said she was window shopping at a pottery and cookie jar auction at the National Guard Armory but soon realized there were a lot of cookie jars on the auction block she did not have in her collection of about 40.
'This is too exciting. I hate to leave. I'm going to the bank,' she said."
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From the art world:
Auction Market Down In 2003
Forbes.com
Georgina Adam for The Art Newspaper
"Once again the bean-counters have finished processing the prices made for art at auction over the last year. The results of their calculations are served up in the form of reports, which highlight the trends that may have emerged. None of these reports is perfect, and even though the figures come from the same raw data, their results are quite different, but they are the closest thing to an objective, statistical analysis of the art market."
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TRI-CITY ENTREPRENEURS Old meets new in PoMo biz
By Diane Strandberg
The Tri-City News
"Clothes and regular dishes are out - give them to charity, she suggests. Furniture can be sold but it's expensive to ship and cuts into the profit. Specialty equipment for office or businesses, even if it's old, sells if it's in working order, as do musical instruments and even old video equipment and games. Vintage dishware and other collectibles also sell well, depending on what else is being sold online at the time and who is buying."
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Navigating an eBay economy
Collectibles market changes, but not completely
By KATHLEEN GALLAGHER
kgallagher@journalsentinel.com
JS Online
Posted: April 27, 2004
"The online auction eBay moves stuff - vast quantities of stuff - every day.
But it doesn't seem to dramatically move the market for the stuff: That is, it doesn't seem to change the underlying pricing rationale for most categories of collectibles and antiques."
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Heady days gone for can collectors
Beer: Serious collectors remain, but their ranks are dwindling and the hobby is changing.
baltimoresun.com
By Mike Bowler
"ST. LOUIS - Beer can collecting has gone stale.
Oh, there are still many serious collectors, people such as Jeff Lebo of York Haven, Pa., whose 50,000 cans (the world's second-largest collection) fill a two-story house."

although....

"...Like many collectors, Butterbaugh, 61, trades on eBay, where a Clipper pale ale from Santa Rosa, Calif., circa 1940, sold last year for a record $19,000 (only 12 are known to exist in good condition), and where five-figure sales are common."

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Rarities hit records during online auction
By Kathryn Grondin Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted 4/24/2004
Daily Herald
"An unopened box of baseball cards has topped the winning bids in the latest online auction by a suburban firm.
MastroNet Inc. reported Friday that the box of 24 Topps 1952 wax packs, which could hold the 1952 Mickey Mantle card that's been valued at about $40,000, sold for a whopping $208,740 at 1 a.m. Friday after 32 bids."
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