I’ve mentioned before that for a while I wore several hats at an insurance company, but my collection isn’t really focused on that job. While I worked for Noridian/Lincoln Mutual/Pioneer Mutual, I sat high atop the 6th floor of the Pioneer Mutual Building in Fargo. Across the front of the third floor cornice (formerly the top floor; the upper 3 floors were added in the fifties) is a huge sign reading “Pioneer Mutual Life and Casualty Insurance Company” — but what I didn’t know until later is that underneath that sign, carved into the stone cornice, are the words “Ancient Order Of United Workmen“. Our companies hadn’t just taken over the building; Pioneer Mutual was the successor to the AOUW. Like the Freemasons, Elks, and IOOF, the AOUW was a social brotherhood steeped in ceremony, friendship, and social reform. The AOUW, however, has the distinction of being the first fraternal insurance company, founded shortly after the civil war.

I didn’t understand the scope of Pioneer Mutual’s history until I pulled a bunch of old AOUW records from the dumpster behind the building. Probably like a lot of people, I had associated fraternal groups with private bars and funny hats. However, I have since come to realize that most communities’ histories owe something to the lodges on their area.

Social reform in fraternal groups is still around — Shrine Hospitals are a prime example of such, despite funny hats. The insurance fraternals were a bit more practical with their purpose than the men’s clubs of many fraternal groups. While full-time employment nearly always comes with insurance of one kind or another today, a century and a half ago it wasn’t so. The fraternals took the best aspects of social brotherhoods, their culture and ceremony, and added financial support for families in need. Part of membership dues included an ‘assessment’, a contribution to an insurance pot. When a member died, the widow was paid from the pot and all the members contributed a new assessment. Eventually, this simplistic insurance changed once they started to discover the ‘kinks’ of the pyramid-scheme-like insurance, and started to act more like a traditional insurance company. Almost unanimously, the insurance became more important than the ritual, and, like the AOUW-to-Pioneer-Mutual change, the fraternities gave way to corporations.

At this point, Wifey looked over my shoulder, saw what I was writing, and said, “Oh no…oh, no, you’ll never stop writing. You could do it in parts, you know.” With that, I’ll stand on the chair and bang on pots and pans to wake y’all up — I know, I can be long-winded when it comes to fraternal insurance history, but that’s what makes me so much fun at social gatherings.

I needed to give a broad overview in order to set the groundwork for what’s collectible about these groups. The scope of these groups is huge: their members ranged from mayors and governors to mechanics and carpenters, they provided social benefits for communities, and they revolved around ritual and moral learning. What this means is: ephemera. Oh, these groups had uniforms and artifacts and jewelry galore (the latter being a huge collectible on its own), their architecture is prominently featured throughout the National Register of Historic Places, and genealogists rely on the records of fraternals for information. However, the paper produced by these groups is huge. Fraternal groups published books and pamphlets of instructions and guidelines for their members; insurance tables and sales-pieces for distribution; newspapers and newsletters to keep their members informed on group actions; policies and applications; the list is immense. I’ve started because of my connection to that earliest of fraternal insurance companies, but with a little research most people will probably find that great-grandpa had a badge or ribbon from his participation in a fraternal order in some capacity. Fraternal groups were a part of many families lives, as a way for people to connect with others and make friends, as a way to protect their family against tragedy, and as a part of the lodge’s place in the community at large, as a meeting place, a source of private funds for community-building, down to the lodge as the annual organizer of the Armistice Day parade.

When I feel the urge, I go and put the various permutations of the A.O.U.W’s name into eBay or Google Products, to see what’s out there. I usually find two main items: the ribbons worn by higher-ranking officials, and the smaller enameled pins worn by most members. The ribbons are of historical importance — they include the lodge’s name, number, and location, so while I don’t usually buy these (they usually get quite expensive) I’ll take notes on where they’re from. What I’m looking for is the paper: insurance policies, brochures, programs, and advertising. Ephemera collectors largely know that what they’re looking for is probably under a hundred feet of dirt at the landfill, but we keep shopping in hopes of finding something saved from the garbage can. I’ve found an insurance policy from the early 1930s, complete with a etching of the newly built Grand Lodge of the Dakotas — yup, that building whose lobby I walked through daily for seven years. Collecting this ephemera is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle; the fun for me is looking for the pieces and assembling them into a picture. This research and learning are what I like so much about ephemera, and collecting artifacts from fraternal insurance give me plenty to look for.

Every collector is faced with the same question — “What’s it worth?” Whether it’s to sell a part of the collection, or to know what’s a reasonable price to pay for a new addition to the collection, collectors need to have some idea of what each part of a collection is worth. For some, it’s a matter of pride: the more zeroes, the more they’re satisfied with their collection. For others, it’s just a matter of figuring out how much insurance to buy. No collector, however, has the luxury of a ‘money is no object’ attitude. The value of a collection is important, no matter what.

Figuring out a collectible’s worth isn’t always that easy. I remember, in my youth, looking up a comic’s price in the Overstreet book — GI Joe #1 — and spending the bike ride to the comic shop figuring out what I can spend that $50 on. I knew my comic was mint (I had bought two for that very reason), and it was printed on the rarer paper. The comic shop operator didn’t dispute that fact, however, but his offer of $20 fell a little flat to me. I learned that day that appraisals, price guides, and market value are quite a bit different.

First of all, the market value is the price a reasonable customer would pay for the item. Demand and rarity are a significant part of this price, because the combination of the two establish the retail price. A rare item without demand won’t be any more expensive than a high-demand item that’s easy to find. The simplest way to determine this is to compare identical or similar item’s sale on the open market. eBay is an excellent resource for this, but it can be spotty depending on whether the right buyers happen to be online when the auctions are running. Traditional auctions can be a good source of prices, provided the right items appear. Comparing prices in your local antique shops can provide a good idea of reasonable prices, but an overpriced item might be more likely to sit unsold on the a dealer’s shelf than the reasonable priced ones. Price guides tend to approximate the retail price, but tend to range a little higher. Some people consider price guides unreliable, because they’ve seen items sell for far different prices than those cited in the guide, but each guide is based on research and compilation of a variety of sources, doing a lot of the ‘footwork’ for collectors.

The insurance price usually tends to run high, but not always; an insurance appraisal is an estimate of the cost of replacement, based on the item’s condition at the time of the appraisal. As such, an insurance appraisal is a realistic guess at, if the item were stolen, lost, or destroyed, how much it would cost to replace it, without the benefit of comparison shopping or getting a ‘good deal.’ It is essential to find a reputable and credentialed appraiser when looking for an insurance value. Although they are an estimate, insurance appraisals usually come with official documentation to certify or verify the appraised value, in the event of loss. However, collectors generally cannot expect to receive the insured price of an item at a sale.

The lowest price to expect is the equivalent of a ‘wholesale’ price, like what I was offered at a comic book shop. Antique dealers can act as an appraiser, but if they are being offered an item to purchase themselves, they will base their offer on how much profit they can reasonably expect based on a retail price. Often, this will be quite low — a third or half of retail price — but high enough to make the seller feel they’re not being ‘taken’. Quite often, this is similar to a rummage sale price, or a starting bid on eBay or at an auction. It is also what a collector can expect to receive if they ever find themselves urgent to sell any part of their collection.

The internet, of course, gives an amazing resource for collectors to find and compare prices of every item imaginable. While some online guides might not be very clear on how they arrive at their valuation, the speed of browsing can give a collector a number of prices to give a ballpark idea of value. eBay and Froogle are both sites devoted to collecting various items and their prices, and both have dedicated searching capabilities. Technically-skilled collectors can even use modern wireless technologies and cellphone web browsing to compare online prices with items found in antique shops, without having to stop home!

For official or more detailed pricing, an appraiser is needed, and that person will generally have to see the item or collection for themselves. Local auction houses often know exactly who locally is able to appraise a particular type of collectible, if not the auctioneer themselves. Furniture restorers and owners of antique shops are also likely to know the right person to appraise items. While I hate to sound like the internet has all the answers — it often does — and extremely specialized appraisers, such as posters or ephemera, might be found wither from their webpage or a message board devoted to their particular specialty.

Finding the right price for a collectible might not be easy, but collectors stand to learn more from pricing an item than just some dollar value. In the process of figuring out the value, a collector will learn why the item has the value, giving them an advantage when shopping in the future. Many appraisers started as collectors, eventually becoming an expert and offering their services to others. What could be more fun to a collector than learning more about the items they love? Discounting pricing with a “I’m not selling” or “gosh, that’s a lot of work” is to pass up valuable time spent with your collection. Take some time, look at everything through an appraiser’s eyes, and expand your expertise about your collection.