Saturday, June 12, 2004

Hot Wheels designer has license to be a kid
By Zach Dunkin
zach.dunkin@indystar.com
June 11, 2004
"If California is America's Neverland, then Larry Wood is its Peter Pan.
The neatest thing about what I do is that I can be a kid forever," said Wood, grand marshal for this weekend's K&N Filters/Goodguys Hot Rod Nationals car show at Indianapolis Raceway Park in Clermont. "I can play with toys and get away with it."

...Although most collectibles range from $20 to $500, Wood says a hot-pink, Rear Loading Volkswagen Beachbomb bus was recently purchased by a commercial real estate agent in Washington, D.C., for $62,000. Revered as the top car among collectors, it sold for 59 cents in 1969."

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Fans score all Lightning pucks within 2 hours
By MARK ALBRIGHT, Times Staff Writer
Published June 12, 2004

"Forget trying to order one of those $155 crystal hockey pucks commemorating the Tampa Bay Lightning's capture of the Stanley Cup.
Dillard's sold out of them in two hours.
'We could have sold probably 5,000 of them,' said Dawn Zachman..."

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Reagan Memorabilia Floods EBay
Yahoo! News
Sat Jun 12, 7:38 AM ET
By RACHEL KONRAD, AP Technology Writer

"SAN JOSE, Calif. - The Great Communicator's popularity is evident on eBay, with more than 11,000 pieces of Ronald Reagan (news - web sites) memorabilia for sale at the online auction site - although it's likely some are not genuine. "

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Hepburn Estate Auction Raises $5.8 Million
Yahoo! News
Sat Jun 12, 7:22 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A two-day auction of property belonging to actress Katharine Hepburn (news) brought in an unexpected $5.8 million, with many items selling for far above the estimated price, Sotheby's said on Friday.
The most sought after piece and the most expensive item was a bronze bust of Spencer Tracy... "

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Donruss does the right thing

By BOB DIAMOND
bdiamond@herald.com
Herald.com | 05/12/2004 |

"In the past three years Donruss has cut up over 20,000 jerseys to embed into their trading cards. A couple of weeks ago company officials found a jersey that had been in their storage room since its acquisition after the 2000 NFL season -- Pat Tillman's 2000 Arizona Cardinals jersey.
Donruss officials were stunned to find the jersey in the exact same spot it had been for over three years.

But, as a tribute to what Tillman stood for, Donruss will donate the jersey to his family.

It may seem ironic for a company that purchased a Babe Ruth jersey for $264,210, then cut it up and inserted in packs last October. The Ruth cards have sold for over $1,000 on the secondary market."

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Thursday, June 10, 2004

Golf Collectibles: Hitting The Sweet Spot

Missy Sullivan, The Forbes Collector, 06.04.04, 2:47 PM ET
Forbes.com
"Up until about 15 years ago, this was a sleepy market. Says Ellis, 'When I started in the 1980s, I was picking cherries. There was no competition.' Then, between 1989 and 1991, Japanese collectors jumped in, driving prices skyward.

Since that bubble burst, according to Karen Bednarski, director of the Golf Collectors Society, the market has trended with the economy, quality merchandise has grown far scarcer, and Ebay (nasdaq: EBAY - news - people ) has created a glut of common material. The result? Pre-1960s items have gone up in price, while later stuff has dropped. We asked the hobby's top collectors and dealers to identify some of the game's most valuable and popular collectibles."

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Wednesday, June 09, 2004

Gold In The Attic

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Feb 1, 2004
Byline: Lauren Barack
"Magazine junkies, pay attention
That habit of cramming closets and attics full of old magazines could pay off. Disregard the pleadings of your spouse (or other co-dependents) to toss those dusty piles. Instead, look through them for buried treasure.
If you have a first edition of Playboy, featuring the world-famous nude of Marilyn Monroe, it's a prized collectible (one recently fetched $3,301 on eBay.) But you can get hundreds, sometimes thousands, for hard-to-find editions of obscure fashion, photography and design magazines. The premiere issue of Visionaire, a fashion mag from 1991, can command $2,000."

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Reagan collectibles suddenly hot items
June 9, 2004
BY LUCIO GUERRERO
suntimes.com

"Two months ago, Paul Linke tried to auction off a 12-inch replica doll of Ronald Reagan. He had few takers.
The same doll is back on Internet auction site eBay, and the response has been much different."

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Monday, June 07, 2004

Slugger's stock rising
There is optimism among fans that Griffey is all the way back
By Justin Fenton
The Cincinnati Enquirer

"Dan Dicke thumbed through the racks of jerseys at the Reds team store in the downtown Westin Hotel, bypassing Barry Larkin, Austin Kearns and Adam Dunn offerings and pulled out a bright red Ken Griffey Jr. jersey."

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It all began with Burroughs
By SEAN HOSLEY
The Bryan-College Station Eagle
Special to The Eagle

"One of artist James Allen St. John's paintings was used for the Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan comic book series. St. John is responsible for illustrating more than half of Burroughs' books.

...You can become an expert at anything, if you put your mind to it, in 10 years.
Those words were the beginning of an odyssey that has lasted more than six decades.
That simple statement began a treasure hunt that continues to this day, having passed from one generation to the next, and which has led to the amassment of one of the finest art collections in the Brazos Valley."

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Candy containers once meant to entertain now collector's items
www.herald-dispatch.com
Sunday, June 6, 2004
"They sold for pennies when they first arrived on the market; now they can sell for thousands.
Candy containers in a wide variety of shapes and made of glass were meant to entertain children long after the candy was gone. As it turned out, not only children enjoyed them but so did adults. "

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Titanic Artifacts Set for Auction Block This Week
Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News
June 7, 2004
"The ill-fated luxury liner R.M.S. Titanic never made it to New York. But on Thursday the largest ever selection of the ship's artifacts and memorabilia will go on the auction block the city's South Street Seaport Museum, just steps from the New York Titanic memorial. "

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Top Ten Comic Prices on eBay
From Barbara Crews,
Your Guide to Collectibles
Collectibles Blog
"May 31, 2004
Top Ten Comic Prices on eBay
Would you believe over one auction lot consisted of over a MILLION individual comics? Don't think I want to pay the shipping costs for that auction! Find out more -- what are buyers searching for, what categories are most popular and the rest of the top ten list. . . ."

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