The season is starting — for many adults, it generates just as much excitement as Christmas and birthdays combined for their children. Different places call them different things, but regardless of where you live, the start of the rummage sale, garage sale, or yard sale season is a time of rejoicing.

We live in the northern plains states, so things may be a little different around here, but the general process is the same. Our season starts a bit later than a lot of other areas (some parts of the southern states don’t slow down much during the winter months), so it’s much more satisfying to check the classifieds and see more than two advertisements. Last weekend was the real start to our rummage sale season in Fargo; flooding was mostly over, and the snow had been gone for at least a week most places, so garage doors were flung open, card tables ceased being spider lairs in the basement, and WalMart’s shelves emptied of pre-printed pricing labels. Here’s the kinds of sales we’ve met recently:

• The Permanent/SemiPermanent Sale: If you go rummaging more than twice in a town, you’ll start to recognize these sales. The deja-vu hits you: you’re certain you’ve picked up the same item before, offered a little less for it, got the same story from the proprietor, and set it back down. You’re driving down the street and the excitement hits you when you see the sign, but the handwriting seems a bit too familiar, the address to similar. These rummage sales are run by people too attached to their items to just donate them to charity, too cash-conscious to rent space in an antique mall or flea market. Often, they’re advertised as an estate sale, even though it’s been running for years now. Collectors will find that the wares at these sales are heavily picked-over, but you stand the chance of getting a look at new things every so often, as the tables empty enough to make room for another box from the basement, but stopping at them more than once every month or two is useless. Sometimes, these are run by actual antique dealers interested in liquidating items that didn’t go well in an antique mall or eBay, so quite often you’ll run across quality items. It’s often wise to chit-chat with the proprietor about your collection: they might have something in the house or behind the table that you’re looking for.

• The Genuine Estate Sale: Run by a professional, a real estate sale (unlike the Permanent Sale, or people who think the contents of their basement constitute an ‘estate’) can be a boon for collectors. Sadly, an estate sale usually happens when the owners are forced, or at least have a heavy incentive, to sell everything and move out, so you’ll often see the collections the owner wouldn’t have parted with at an estate sale. Also, if you’re a collector of ephemeral items (keychains, silverware, refrigerator magnets) you’re likely to find large numbers boxed together as lots. Prices are a bit higher than usual, but not unreasonable because the people behind the estate sale know what the market can bear within a dime’s-width. Get there early, because everybody else knows these things, too: be prepared to fight through crowds and grab what you want right away, because it might not be there if you take a few minutes to think about it.

• The Nouveau Riche Developments: These homes are the ones that you saw advertised in the paper last year as “Lots starting at $200,000!” The houses are huge, the cars in the driveway are similarly big, the lawns still look good because the sod has just taken root, and they usually have garages big enough to hold multifamily sales inside (which is good if it’s raining). Collectors will find these as hit-and-miss: most of the items for sale are too new to be collectible, although some households will have new brand-authorized collectibles (Coca-Cola, beer signs, automobile brands) that they no longer have room for when they moved in last fall. These rummage sales are usually priced higher than what you’d expect if you came from an older part of town, because the proprietor remembers how much they spent on the item in the first place: sure, the kid’s jelly shoes cost $25 at the mall, but nobody’s going to pay $10 for them used. By the second day of the sale, however, they’re usually ready to negotiate much lower priced when faced with the prospect of putting everything back in the basement.

• College Kids / New Parents: These are people on the move who must leave things behind as their lives change. Collectors of kitsch and toys will always find something at these sales (although the New Parent genre tend to have piles of baby clothes to get around). As their lives move on, a college student may decide they’d rather have cash than their collection of LPs, and a young wife may decide her crystal figurines don’t mean as much now that she’s got a husband and a baby in her life. They’re found in the ‘apartment section’ of town, or on the edges of the ’small house’ areas; often, they either have a tiny garage, or none at all, anf you might just drive by when you see only the one small table of items. It only takes a few seconds to walk through, and you might find something you didn’t expect.

• Basement Cleaners: Our own sales fall into this category. We keep acquiring stuff, older things get boxed up (or were never unboxed when we moved in), and the basement is reaching it’s bursting point. These will have a lot of clothes, but you’ll probably see two big tables towards the back (you’ll identify these tables by the breadmaker and the shelf stereo system) of household items haphazardly crammed in to fit as much as possible. These are usually found in the developments that were new around 20 years ago, giving the current residents plenty of time to fill their closets and attics, so collectors interested in the 70s and 80s are likely to have something catch their eye. Collectors of both antiques and toys can do well at these: that basement likely held both grandma’s fineries inherited in the 80s and the abandoned toys of the kids who went off to college in the 90s. These sales are usually priced to get rid of everything, so while you’re likely to find some good deals, once the basement is empty there won’t be any more sales, and past the point of value-vs-effort everything will be donated.

• Grandma’s Favorite Weekend: These proprietors have been living in the same house for 40 years and probably go to rummage sales themselves, hence all the items they’ve got for sale might look like they came from the last sale you stopped at. After a few years in the same town, you’ll know these because they’ll happen every year, around the same time of year, and you’ll get a nose for the good ones. You won’t find tables of kid’s clothes and boxes of videotapes recorded off HBO at these sales. Often, these have a large number of collectibles, but the quality can be spotty. Don’t be tricked into self-debate when finding something you’ve already got one of: for a quarter, go sell it on eBay and make another collector happy. The prices are usually very good, but accurate for the quality of the items, and you’re likely to see things you haven’t seen before or had forgotten about from your childhood.

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So, it’s pretty much generally agreed upon that action figures are awesome, and if you don’t agree, I’ll meet you behind the cafeteria after school and we’ll settle it once and for all. They represent interesting characters, they’re posable, and you can play with them. So, what do you do when you want to bring these same characters into a world where you don’t have to look at unsightly cut-joints and generic factory paint jobs? When you want a finely crafted sculpture of your favorite character? Why, you make your own!

There are a variety of companies who make outstanding full-body statues of heroic characters, but these usually sell for hundreds of dollars. You might not want to put off buying dinner for a few nights just so you can have a sculptural representation of The Thing poised neatly between your Hummel figurines, though I venture there’s nothing that deserves clobbering much more than Hummel figurines. The other option is to purchase a kit to make your own superhero, with your own colors and craftsmanship. If you assemble it well, it will completely defy anything that you can purchase pre-made.

While the world of hobby models is dominated by vehicles and inappropriate anime girls, there’s a small and exciting section of super hero model kits that have been mass-produced primarily by Toy Biz and Horizon. Cast from inexpensive vinyl, they present a much more economical and fun way to display various comic characters. Both companies no longer produce these models, but the Toy Biz models are still fairly easy to find at very cheap prices, and there’s an interesting (and very possibly illegal) overseas market that produces duplicates the Horizon models.

The Toy Biz models focus on Marvel Characters that are in a scale which matches most action figures, about 7 or 8 inches tall. They’re generally regarded as cheap and flimsy, but I’m of the school of thought that if you’re going to get a model kit, you’re going to have to do a LOT of work to make it look good. These models have some great, dynamic poses and come with small dioramas to place them in, and if you assemble them right, you’ll never be able to even tell that they’re made of cheap plastic. There are various ways to make the models feel less hollow, but from a visual standpoint, they’re solid.

Horizon models, on the other hand, are seen as much higher quality materials. They’re made of solid parts, and in a larger 1/6th scale also, meaning that a character who is six or seven feet tall in the comics will be about a foot tall in model form. The poses aren’t quite as fluid and exciting as the Toy Biz stuff, but the range of characters is wider, and the larger models are more formidable in appearance and generally easier to assemble. Original Horizon model kits can reach some high prices, but a quick eBay search for ‘vinyl model kits’ will result in hundreds of auctions in Asian countries for startlingly similar models. These are called ‘re-casts’, which an individual or small copyright-be-damned company has taken an original model kit and reproduced it by making their OWN molds from the pieces in the kit. They’re usually not perfect and will have many more flaws than the official kit, and may suffer from warping and bubbling, but there’s no damage that can’t be repaired with some skillful hands, a hair dryer and some putty. They will not come with instructions, and will probably just be bagged in plastic with a blurry photo of what the final model SHOULD look like, so there’s always a risk of getting an inferior product.

The vinyl model kits will take many hours of assembly and a good variety of equipment, ranging from cyanoacrylate glue to razors, paintbrushes and paints, clamps and an absurd amount of patience, but to transform something from cheap, bright plastic into a smooth work of art is a powerful feeling. There are many online tutorials to guide you through, as well as tricks that you’ll figure out along the way, and in the end, you’ll have a unique piece to add to your collection. You can also occasionally purchase completed model kits, which again reach into the hundred-dollar range if they’re assembled well.

I find them to be exceptionally thrilling, so I recently imported ten Horizon re-casts from Asia for about one hundred bucks plus shipping, all of which appear to be of solid quality. Sure, I don’t exactly have the time or space to set up a foot-tall, hand-painted Iron Man right now, but when I do, he’ll totally kick your butt.

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Several weeks back someone on our forum posted about Pez dispensers, which started me thinking about them. While I’m not an avid Pez collector, I do have a few lying around. There’s a Santa from a long ago Christmas, and the Incredibles characters my kids clamored for in the grocery store one day. My favorite is Gonzo, you know, from the Muppets? He sat on my desk at work for five years, a little bit of color and whimsy in my dull, gray cubicle.

I doubt the powers that be at the Pez company had any idea of the craze they were starting when they launched Pez candy dispensers almost 60 years ago. From the time the candy was brought to the market in Austria in 1927 until 1948, it was kept in small tins. In 1948, however, the company created dispensers, consisting of a body that held the candy and pushed a piece forward when the top was opened. The company added heads to the dispensers in order to make them more appealing to children. Pez candy and dispensers were introduced in the United States in the early 1950s.

Today’s Pez dispensers include feet at the bottom in order to give the dispenser more stability when it is standing up. Dispensers without feet tend to be older and worth more, but collectors should beware of dispensers that have had the feet shaved off to make the piece appear older.

If you’re a Pez dispenser collector or maybe just have a few Pez dispensers and want to find out more about collecting them, there are tons of great sites on the web that you can visit. Check out the Pez Collector’s News website, where you’ll find a list of dispensers and their values, photos of Pez dispensers and can subscribe to a newsletter. Also, take a look at the resource center at Pop-a-pez, where you’ll find plenty of useful information for collectors. In addition to other valuable information, the Collecting Pez site has a page showing the different components of a Pez dispenser and how they’ve changed over the years.

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On Friday, April 14, 2006, the City of Mission Viejo Cultural Arts Series presented an Antique Fashion Show and Lecture.

Roughly 75 people attended the free event where antique clothing collector, historian, and restorer Cheri Valle shared her private collection of gowns, hats, gloves, and children’s clothing. For two hours, Valle narrated as over 30 vintage fashion outfits dating from the 1800s to 1915 were displayed. Of those, 15 outfits were modeled by real people, with the remainder, especially the older or more fragile ones, being displayed on dress forms. As you can imagine, and the photos show, the apparel amazed onlookers.

Beverly Petrella, who was at the event, said “The dresses were absolutely incredible — the colors, prints, styles and details!”

Spanning the strict social decorum’s of the Victorian Age to the liberated Gibson Girl era, the fashion show did more than make the audience ‘Ooh and Ah’ at the beautiful fashions. Spectators also gasped upon witnessing Valle layer a dress dummy with all the required foundation garments. As she did so, she outlined each item, each step. Not only did it take 20-30 minutes, but all those layers added an extra inch to the waistline! No wonder they wore corsets!

Those in the crowd were naturally impressed. “All those hooks — I’m so glad we have zippers nowadays! I’m also glad we don’t have to wear a half-dozen undergarments and corsets!” said Petrella.

It was literally a fashion show and tell.

Dru Cottrell, the event coordinator, said “Those in attendance said it was a great, informative lecture. No matter what question the audience asked, Cheri was able to provide an answer.”

Valle’s passion for fashion began as a teenager. Reading the books of Georgette Heyer she fell in love with England’s Regency Era. Thirty-five years later, Valle is a fashion historian with one of the country’s largest collections of pre-1900s clothing.

How does a person go from reading novels to a collection of nearly 1,000 pieces of hats, lace, lingerie and clothing? Like all of us, one step at a time…

Having fallen in love with the details of Regency fashions, her first step was the discovery of fashion prints from the era. One print led to another, and another… Then on one trip to the antique store she spotted and purchased a pair of antique baby shoes. Not long after, she impulsively purchased an antique dress. Now she’d made the leap from prints to dresses, and so it was easy to say ‘yes’ to the next and the next and the next…

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it.

Some of Valle’s lovely garments can be seen at “The Rancho Era” exhibit the Heritage House. The house is open the 2nd and the 4th Saturday of the month or you may schedule a private tour.

For more information on this or other programs in the Cultural Arts Series, visit the the City of Mission Viejo’s Recreation and Community Services Department, or contact Dru Cottrell, Community Services Coordinator, at (949) 470-8452.

Images © Joe Holtzman

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My most recent collecting obsession comes direct from Japan, and by ‘direct from Japan’, I don’t mean ‘created in Japan and sold here in the US’. I mean paying ridiculous EMS shipping fees to get dusty boxes imported from Asia and hoping for the best.

I’m a big fan of miniature toys. If I can find a superhero or diorama or otherwise culturally significant thing in miniature, it’s probably flanking my computer at some point. An army of robots from all manner of places gathers below my monitor, while other significant portions of space are occupied by the deadly Cartoon Warrior Women armada. The battle shall be glorious, and probably have too many upskirt-underwear shots.

So when I came across a little thing called Demon’s Chronicle on Toyzz.com, I thought that they’d be fun. Little sculptural figures from world mythology, gracefully placed atop pillars, no more than 3.5 inches tall. I bought a half dozen boxes of the figures from them. Since they’re blind-packaged, you never know exactly what you’re going to get. It could be any one of the things pictured on the box (if there’s anything pictured on the box at all), or it could be something rare and mysterious that hasn’t been spoken of before.

What I ordered was the 6th incarnation of the Demon’s Chronicle series by Yanoman. I have no idea where demons play into this line of figures, but this set was a series of twelve eerie sculptures interpreting the typical signs of the zodiac. Each figure comes in two paint schemes - full color and a monochrome beige. In addition to that, there happens to be a bizarre Cthulhu-like guy surrounded by an albino serpent and mist, which you’ll pull from a box if you’re lucky, like me. My luck in toys, though, completely balances out the complete disaster that is the rest of my life. I’m wondering where I can go to trade some of this toy-luck in. You know, never find that rare Hydro-Man action figure, but not have my soul crushed. I think that’s a pretty fair trade.

Demon’s Chronicle figures come in bags of tiny, tiny pieces that need to be assembled, completely without instructions and only a small image to guide you. You fit round pegs into round holes, and L-shaped holes fill up with L-shaped pegs until you have a beautiful little figure. It’s not without difficulty, but that’s half of the fun. Parts fall off as you’re forcing others on, something flies into your eye, a whole herd of cows in Wisconsin suddenly vanishes. It’s all worth it.

Toyzz.com, which is based in the US, quickly sold out of the figures, and I was forced to search the wide world over for more pieces. They were inspiring, and they were beautiful, and some of ‘em were naked ladies! The acceptance of nudity into ‘toys’ is another fascinating part of Asian culture, but that’s a discussion for another day.

I found these figures available in only one place - Hobby Link Japan. And they were only available by the case. Could I possibly be crazy enough to import whole cases of toys? I managed to justify the expense by purchasing some toys for my niece’s birthday in the same order, because if you’re going to be a creature of avarice, you need to take countermeasures of generosity so that your soul doesn’t immediately blacken, shrivel up and find its way into blocking one of your more vital arteries.

Other series of Demon’s Chronicle figures include a set of Egyptian mythology, angels and an early version of Santa Claus, a unicorn with a penchant for trumpets, dragons and fairies. Santa, curiously, is the mystery figure in a series that also contains a figure that can only be Satan riding a serpent. You can see a full gallery of the figures on the Yanoman website, even though there’s no English translation. The paint quality and sculpting detail are excellent for things of this size, but all of that pales in comparison to the imagination that’s gone into these figures. I’ve set up a display of the ones I’ve managed to acquire right in front of where I paint, because they instantly became creative talismans to occasionally glance at and remember what’s possible.

And that’s your daily slice of something that you probably didn’t know about before.

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