Many of you have already experienced the task of deciding what to do with the contents of the family home or at least the home in which your parents lived for many decades. Some of you have yet to find yourself sitting in the home office staring into the abyss of a closet overflowing with miscellany of operating two business out of the home, three printers, a scanner, Costco-sized bundles of ledger books, and stacks of items so deep that you can’t see the back wall.

My father is 91 and still living in the house they purchased when we moved to Kansas in 1985. It has four levels, four bedrooms each with extra-large closets, eight additional closets, and a darkroom in the basement which has been used for storage. I have learned that closets are capable of hiding all types of goodies that should have been donated decades ago. He is wanting to move out of the big house and will be moving in with me or my oldest daughter hopefully this summer.

Mom was an antique collector and dealer. Due to daddy’s job, we had the privilege of living or visiting locations around the world, and it was not unusual for mom to have a wood crate or large boxes of purchases shipped back to the U.S. It was a huge thrill when the transport truck would deliver a large wood crate. They had to place it in the front yard, where we would dismantle the crate and toss excelsior all over the yard until the beautiful items inside were revealed. Think about the movie “A Christmas Story” when the leg lamp was delivered; that was us.

Needless to say, though the house is neat and tidy, it is filled to capacity with stuff. One helpful and important thing that mama did over the years was place little notes with items she felt that we needed to know the provenance or history. For instance, she has a child’s roll top desk and chair, and one day while dusting I came across one such note. It told the story about seeing the pieces in a shop window and stopped to look at them. My granny noticed mom’s interest and months later on her birthday she presented the desk and chair to my mama. The chair is a child’s Windsor back chair. This poses a big quandary for myself and my daughters as none of us really have the space to bring the desk and chair home, but it apparently had significant meaning for my mama. Do we keep it or sell it?

Since my daddy could use the money, we have decided to sell these two pieces. The desk should sell for $250 and the chair around $100.

My family doesn’t have many heirloom pieces, but the few we do have will come to my house or the home of my oldest. We both have glassed-in cabinets in which to place them. They have a 1950s or 1960s Brunswick three-piece slate top pool table with cushion bumpers. It will include all accessories. The two family members who want it haven’t thought things through. One is living in my basement and the other in an apartment in Chicago. This has a resale value of around $3,000, but my price is half of that and I drew the short straw on who is going to inform these two that a full -sized pool table just isn’t going to work with their living space.
More on whether to keep or sell those heirlooms in next month’s issue!

Greetings, all. I hope this finds you healthy and warm.
By nature I am a very curious person. If there is a box sitting by the side of the road, I’m going to stop and open it to discover what’s inside. Believe me, I have regretted this decision on more than one occasion but continue to do it.

The ability to start a conversation with anyone has served me well over the years. This has led me to meeting some really great people with interesting stories to tell. One such incident recently occurred while in Austin. I started chatting with a young woman sitting near me. We talked about the icy cold weather in Texas, the amazing antique table lamps in the bar, and quickly the conversation turned to what people collect.

She collects UNO cards — yep, the 100-plus-cards-to-a-pack, colorful card game. I have heard of people collecting playing cards and have seen some beautiful antique cards. There are role playing cards such as Magic the Gathering cards that came out in the 1990s, some of which can be worth in the upper five figures, especially if they are from the first edition. Somewhere in my house is a shoebox full of these cards that our youngest daughter just had to have. I put them away for safe keeping and have yet to find the silly box.

The UNO card game was invented in 1971 by Merle Robbins. It was later taken over by Mattel. It is estimated that there are more than 640 variations on the cards and a number of spinoffs.

Her UNO card collection really intrigued me as I was unaware that there were even different styles of UNO cards. She just happened to have photographs on her phone, and I was blown away by the her collection. My favorite UNO cards in her collection are the “Non-partisan” pack; there are no blue or red cards in this politically correct pack. What’s not to love about this? You can pick up this particular set for less than $10. She indicated that this is a favorite among most of her friends and one she actually allows out for a quick game.

Most of the other sets she has are special editions, many of which are sold in decorative metal containers, such as the pictured Pixar 25th Anniversary put out in 2023 set, which sells for less than $20.

As I type this month’s column, the weather is very fitting for early November, chilly and raining. What better activity to undertake on a day such as this than to binge watch “Antiques Roadshow” especially when one is an antique dealer and appraiser?

My mind began to wander through my long career as an antique appraiser. I have assisted in several archaeological digs, appraised some amazing items, and even took a side trip into a forensic assessment, dating and identifying a young man whose skeleton was found in a dried-up river bed. If you have seen the movie “Dirty Dancing” there is a scene where the main characters are dancing on a log laid across a river. In reality, several years ago the river dried up and a skeleton was found. A detective from that area of Virginia reached out to me. I used the shoes to come up with the approximate year of his passing and a ring found on his finger led me to a nearby men’s university. There was initials inside the band so then I turned to yearbooks from the university and identified him using all of the information I gathered. Through my research I learned that there used to be speak-easies scattered about in the woods. The detective speculated that the young student had spent the evening drinking and while stumbling back to the university he fell into the river. I never heard from the detective again to see if he had located any family members.

My favorite archaeological dig was performed in central Caribbean Panama. I was contacted by a gentleman from the University of Texas to assist in dating, and in some cases identifying items that were found in specific areas along the Panama Canal. Some of the cultural components found dated back to the second millennium BC. They also found the first documented samples from the Caribbean slopes of Monagrillo Ware, the oldest known pottery in Lower Central America.* They also investigated the area along the canal where the workers who dug the canal lived. This was really when my experience was needed.

Hopefully, I have not lost your attention by reflecting back on these opportunities. I found the CD from the Panama Canal dig today while cleaning off a shelf in the office and felt the need to share with you.

Ten years ago, Bruce Rodgers, the former owner of Discover Vintage America, brought me onboard to write a monthly column, which I sincerely hope that y’all enjoy. Several years ago he paid for me to become a certified appraiser. When you take classes in something such as appraising you quickly learn how little you really know. I am always looking for ways to increase my knowledge, besides the education, conducting appraisals on a frequent basis is always a learning opportunity.

People get items appraised for a number of reasons. Some are simply curious about the value of things they own, appraisals for insurance purposes are popular, as are appraisals for the family once someone passes on. This hopefully prevents higher value items from being sold for a couple of dollars. Later this week I will conduct a full house appraisal for that very reason.

I certainly don’t want to talk anyone out of hiring me to conduct an appraisal but there are a few appraisal questions that are asked on a regular basis. Ashton Drake, Bradford Exchange, and Danbury Mint are all known for advertisement/order postcards inserted in magazines and they declare that their items are “Limited Edition.” Limited edition can denote several things. There are limited edition items that are actually limited to a predetermined number of pieces if you see a notation similar to 200/1000 this is telling you that you have number 200 on a run of 1000. This is the best that you can hope for. The above companies mention in tiny print that the dolls, plates, and other items they make are limited to a particular number of firing days, for instance 365 days. The great unknown is how many of a particular doll or plate the company can produce in a single day times 365 days. I can bet that they have the capability to craft several thousand items a week. Due to mass production the doll that you are paying $90 for is now worth $10 to $20. The plates and other small items created by these companies are for the most part valued at $5 or less. There are a few exceptions but they are rare.