I’ve made no secret that I’m a longtime library employee. Aside from the embarrassingly small paycheck and the creeps who take over the computer banks to look for barely-dressed MySpace girls to send pictures of their nether-regions to, one other element that keeps me in the library’s employ is the fact that it’s a great place to score collectibles. One wouldn’t naturally associate the stern, protective atmosphere of a library’s own collection with building one’s own collection, but the opportunities are plentiful.

Our library system recently bought into a service called Price It!, which is a searchable database of higher-priced collectibles and antiques - generally the kind of price-checking that isn’t easily accomplished by searching completed auctions on eBay. Price It! incorporates data from non-internet auction houses in addition to GoAntiques.com, as well as eBay searches. While the database sometimes seems either way too nebulous or way too specific, playing around with the search box can yield some interesting results. If you have anything unusual in the attic, or that you grabbed on a whim at a tag sale, try giving it a search and see what you can come up with - but only if your local library has incorporated this service into what they offer the public! Check out their website or give them a call and they should guide you in the right direction. Of course, this is only in addition to the shelves and shelves of Kovel’s guides and other pricing directories. Start around the 740s in the Dewey decimal system.

Not only does the library offer information about collectibles, it’s very likely that it will be brimming with collectibles for sale during their periodical book sales, or in a section devoted to sales year-round. See, libraries get tons and tons of donations. We get these donations out of generosity and affection for what a library represents, we get donations because people want tax write-offs on junk they don’t want anymore, and we get donations because it’s cheaper to leave stuff on the library’s doorstep than to rent a dumpster when your great Aunt Bertha dies. Most of the time, the people donating these books don’t really sort them, preferring to be rid of them with minimal effort. A lot of places that accept donations of good require paperwork - we have a simple no-questions-asked policy.

During my tenure at the library, I’ve encountered all manner of donations, and the fact is that most libraries are underfunded and will not be staffed well enough to be able to properly inspect every donation that comes through the door. Yes, first editions of ‘Old Man and the Sea’ have slipped though our grasp and into book sales. Rare LPs have even escaped me, and even books signed by deceased artists. Sure, at least 65% of what we’re given is moldy, torn, waterlogged, aged beyond reason or oily (which also describes the library’s patronage, curiously), but there are gems. Within library donations, I’ve rescued a book signed by Ayn Rand, a first edition of Stuart Little, and countless other sacred objects. It’s entirely likely that you’ll encounter something precious, or just genuinely fascinating, at your local library. And donations are usually at a constant influx - the stock is ever-changing and charmingly unpredictable.

Please, though - don’t dig through our boxes of donated books before we have a chance to add them to our collection. The assortment of books that we can offer the public on a lending basis takes priority over your personal collection, and unfortunately, I have to shoo the vultures away from our piles of donated books on a weekly basis.

Libraries need all of the support and patronage that they can get. While you’re there, check out a few books, interlibrary loan a few CDs of DVDs (which are ever-so-copiable, I hear), and increase their circulation statistics. It really helps when the annual budget comes around. Oh, and treat the person behind the desk nice - we love books, we love helping you out, but we’re not paid enough to deal with your garbage.

Thank you.

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Gotta Collect? Then You Gotta Connect - Join our Collectors’ Community!

Among our most valuable collections, one that has proven priceless at times, are the antique collectibles books we have in our home library.

The collection, with over 130 volumes, consists of four types, price guides such as the Kovel’s Antiques & Collectibles Price List ( Ralph and Terry Kovel) or Warman’s Antiques and Collectibles Price Guides, (Krause Publishing Co.)

Product specific books aimed at the more serious collector that provides a narrow focus with greater depth of knowledge on the items and manufacturers, giving clues to help identify and date a piece.

Third are the encyclopedia types, U.S. Marks by Lois Lehner (Great Book), Antique Collector’s Dictionary by Donald Cowie and Keith Henshaw, Kovel’s New Dictionary of Marks.

Last are the pretty picture books featuring items we only hope to find, two on Tiffany, one on Lalique.

Many of the volumes are produced by two companies, Collector Books, PO Box 3009 Paducah, KY 42002-3009 (CB)

and Krause Publishing Co., 700 East State St. Iola, WI, 54990 (KP)

The price guides are useful for comparisons of value between items (Heisey Acorn & Leaves Plate, Flamingo 8” $25.00 – Heisey Bonnet Basket 16” $345.00 in Kovels 1995 Price List of over 50,000 items and 500 photographs) but give little detail and only very limited pictures to confirm what item you have.

On the other end of the spectrum are the specific guides giving much more detail of the products. Often providing dates of manufacture, lineage of the company, company logos or marks, condition gradings, even variations of like products and reproduction warnings. Examples include KP’s Antique Hardware, CB’s Depression Glass, CB’s Pressed Glass. (Glass books in black and white photographs are more useful for pattern identification) CB’s The Cambridge Glass Co. and a Waterford Crystal sales catalog are in B&W.

My best example of a great product book would be McKeown’s Price Guide to Antique and Classic Cameras by James & Joan McKeown. If you ever have an opportunity to peruse their book (check your public library or used book store), you will see the value in the knowledge provided.

My copy is from the late 80’s and contains 6,000 references in 672 pages.

Today’s edition (12^th) with 1,248 pages 40,000 camera models and variants, has 10,000 plus photos. (Good to have photos in a camera book.) I’m due for a new copy.

Descriptions, pictures and variations in models are well documented, but the book includes information on how to judge a camera’s condition and how that affects the price structure. One section also gives advice to new collectors.

Condition issues always seem lacking in most price guides, and collectors know you buy what’s rare in any condition at the right price, selling off if a better one comes along.

McKeown’s book states this advice for camera collectors:

1.“If you pass up the chance to buy a camera you really want, you will never have that chance again.”

2.“If you buy a camera because you know you will never have the chance again, a better example of the same camera will be offered to you a week later for a much lower price.”

3. “The intrinsic value of an antique or classic camera is directly proportional to the owner’s certainty that someone else wants it.” - Dan Adams.

These observations should apply to any item, just substitute your obsession for camera.

A great piece of advice at the front of my copy of the book reads: “McKeown’s Law; The price of an antique camera is entirely dependent upon the moods of the buyer and seller at the time of the transaction.”

All the most useful books show great pictures, e.g. the “Hummel” book from 1976 (by Eric Ehrmann, Portfolio Press) shows large photos that makes it easy to identify your purchase. Comparisons of real and reproductions are in a special section in back. Newer fakes can be spotted when you have studied the quality of the casting and painting in this book.

Our book collection began with the general price guides and as we accumulated items for our collections or resale, the library grew.

I had the camera collection started, so McKeown’s was a natural for me to purchase. Many of the books were new and ordered at our local big box book store. Some were acquired at auctions and some at a local used book store. One book was ordered on line when our local book store suggested their web site after the book was highly recommended by another collector.

Our latest addition is Warman’s Roseville Pottery by Mark F. Moran 2006 (KP). What took Wifey so long to buy this one?

Current prices of items in most category’s are obtainable by watching web auctions, so pricing in older books are viewed with a good laugh, and again we see the truth in McKeown’s Law.

The price of an antique or collectible is entirely dependent upon the moods of the buyer and seller at the time of the transaction.

Think of that rule next time you dicker pricing with a seller.