A Compulsive (Obsessive) & Very Thorough Train Collector

Here, all these years I thought my husband was compulsive and obsessive..

More About Non-Sport Trading Cards pt 3

Webkinz Trading Card Game TCG Booster Box (36 Packs)Every time my husband decides to "pay a bill" I learn a new category of collectible.  Well this time I am sort of a learning a new one - I've written here before about non-sport cards, specifically the HORRORS OF WAR cards he sold some of several months ago. Well he's liquidating again so I'm showing you some additional versions of those cards as well as some others.

Horrors of War was a set created in 1938 and hand drawn - some of it is truely gruesome and no way would we let our kids collect anything like that today.... ? well maybe - I mean we did have the Garbage Pail kids and kids today have "TWILIGHT MOVIE TRADING CARDS" complete with Vampires.

See???












Now sort of  in between those and the supersweet Webkinz or there are some older sets like

MARS ATTACKS!

Those Mars Attacks are from the Original series in 1962.  and these JETS ROCKETS SPACEMEN cards which I think have great "pulp fiction" type

illustrations and color.

Ok...stand by for Part 4... meanwhile I'm happy to feature YOUR collection if you want to.  Just email me.

How to Start Collecting First Editions or Not

First of all, let me tell you my opinion of First Edition Collections.  NOT WORTH THE TIME! And especially if you're collecting 20th or 21st Century Modern Fiction. 

Why you ask (you did ask, right?) Well because the other 20 million of us who bought the same books as First Editions, put the Dustjackets in to mylar covers and squirreled them away, do not need any more competition.  Seriously though, everyone is collecting "signed" first editions from people like Janet Ivanovich and Stephen King and....and....

The charm of Signed editions used to be that NO one else had one.  So what is the point if everyone else has one??  There's reduced monetary value some times to the point of worthlessness. The signature from some authors would be worth more if you cut it out of the book and framed it with something else of interest. Like a postcard.  That's my 2 cents... not worth much but..so be it.

Now if you still want to start collecting these then get yourself some reference material.

The first book I bought and I still use a later edition of it was A Pocket Guide to the Indentifications of First Editions by Bill McBride. And it really is a pocket guide. It's not very expensive either so you can easily but one for your purse or one for the glove compartment of each car.

Here's how you use it - open the book you're contemplating buying, and look at the copyright page. Who is the publisher? Now flip to the publisher's name in the McBride Guide - it will tell you how the publisher normally identifies their first editions.  Here are a couple of examples of the designations:

Col - Colphon - page of information about the book usually found at the back of the book (blog author's note - more often in older books in my experience)

CP - Copyright Page
FAE - words FIRST AMERICAN EDITION must appear on the back of the title page with no additional printing indicated.

Now every publisher listed has a designation like one or more of these to indicate how they designated their first editions so Ziff-Davis UK says FPu(y) - FPu  translates to "words First Published must appear on the back of the title page with no additional printing  and the y means a year following any other identification method so for a Ziff Davis UK published book to be a "True First" the minimum would have to be, on the copyright page it will say FIRST PUBLISHED Sept 1986 (or just 1986). 

More tomorrow (yeah I'm gonna milk this for a few days, I'm in the #blog30 challenge and I'm days behind..so I'm gonna use this one for while. LOL )

Down below is a widget with a sideshow that has the McBride book in it. If you click onthe picture it will take you to that book on Amazon and you can buy it.  Be nice and buy one for your friend, husband, wife, son, daughter or book buying buddy.  In Full Disclosure, the theory is I get referral money from amazon if you do. In reality? it's never happened yet.  

Summer Reading on Amazon

Real or Repro? This is my #blog30 post for today

Ok, now that I've alarmed you, I mean reproductions or imitations of REAL antiques and collectibles.  Depression Glass is rife with them but so are other categories of thing like Head Vases, Oil Laps, and books.
 

So here are a couple of Depression Glass things as an  example because if I can be fooled...so can anyone. (not that I'm so smart but I have the real Compulsive Collector here to help me sort them out).  I sell Depression Glass on eBay so I should know a little about it, especially since I've been collecting it personally for like 35 years. BUT it just proves even veterans can be fooled.

In Depression Glass, I collect Blue Royal Lace.  Guess what's reproduced there?? The tumblers.  In Pink Cherry blossom the shakers..(I mean come on, there were only 3 known to have been made, and you think you found a set in the fleamarket for 3 dollars?   Think about that??   BUT the "repro people" also reproduced the shot glasses

Madrid, which I spoke about in an earlier post was "reissued" by the company that bought Federal's molds as well as by Federal itself, in 1976 and marked.  So look for the 76 in the design (around the border).

This is a cookie jar bottom I bought after about 10 years out of the collecting aspect because I thought it was a "newly discovered" color.  Yea ..not !!

Ok, so why should I have known it was wrong?? Because, Mayfair (which made this pattern) did not make a cobalt blue like this.  and the pattern on this one is spread...see the 2nd picture? see how the flower is spread out? well that's typical of when a mold is made of a real pattern item and then used to remold into new pieces never made or to use reproduced molds to make colors never produced.  AND besides that cobalt blue, which is what made me drool over this is way way too intense. This cobalt blue is more typical of that era .

(sorry it's small but it's all I have at the moment) but see how much more transparent and translucent it is?

The piece below is a Green Sharon piece - Sharon was made by Federal glass but THIS is not real. There are two things that should have tipped me off...see if you can figure it out and I'll tell you tomorrow ... (post your guess in your comments.

Ok - don't forget to submit your guesses as to "how" to identify this one as real or repro...

Below is a peice seen at a local event and IT's FAKE and this person (after more years in the business than me) should have known it was NOT genuine. ... (the blue one in the middle I mean. )

Collectible China Rolling Pins by Harker

A couple of weeks ago, I listed a china rolling pin on ebay, that had been hanging in my cabinet for years. I thought it was Harker but wasn't sure. Well in good time, someone came along on ebay and identified it for me. And in the conversation, I found out he collects Harker Rolling pins, so I asked for pictures. Aren't these just great??

He told me he has 65 of them. I'm so jealous. I always liked these and have never seen some of the ones he's pictured here. I think the one I sold was #68 in the top picture.  Hopefully, he'll come back and show us more later.

The only thing I could find on Amazon was this Pfaltzgraff version but I'm still looking so check back later.
PFALTZGRAFF APRIL ROLLING PIN W/ WALL HOLDER

More Cats - Cat Post Cards from Louis Wain

If you go back to my first posts on this blog- I posted pictures of some of my collection of cat "things'. Well THESE are more from my husband's part. These being Cat postcards drawn by Louis Wain.


Poor Mr. Wain was slightly schizophrenic (no really he was) and over the course of his life, his original "charming" slightly weird cats became downright strange. Check out the eyes on them. Look at what they are all doing - everyone one of them is engaged in anti-social behavior (not that cats aren't capable of that but...he took it to a new level)


These are the last 3 Wain postcards I have (since they didn't go when listed for auction, I'm keeping them) - one is not signed by Wain but sure looks like his and the other two are signed right on the front. These are used with soft corners and postmarks etc. but they are still very collectible. I'll come back later today and post a link to more.

Handcream and new blogs and new websites

For the record, I still love the Camille Beckman handcream that I got from Kat at katskloset. For the first time in about 20 years, my fingers are healed and not chapped, chipped or cracked. And, I still have most of the tub left. It seems to last a lot longer than most of the others which I have to use repeatedly all day long. This one, 2-3 times a day seems to keep my hands from drying out. So, got to KatsKloset.com and buy yourself some. HERE are some links to her items on eBay -Camille Beckman on Ebay



I have two new blogs- John Lawson, ColderIce, told a group of us recently to only have one blog but frankly, I think the people who read this blog, might not be interested in the same topics as those who would read my Onlineselling blog - but please post your comments and tell me - should I combine all these into one?



Meanwhile here are the two new blogs right here on Blogger - depressionglasswarehouse.blogspot.com and antiquedaze.blogspot.com



AND the new website is almost ready for prime time. Not quite, some glitchy things with the email/newsletter handling and something I haven't figured out with the payments. BUT...soon, you'll get an invitation to a grand opening..