November 8, 2003
Greetings Accumulators!
And welcome to winter in The Big Apple. The temperature has taken a dive in
the last 24 hours, and we actually have the heat on in one room of our
apartment. This only happens once or twice a year, as our apartment is
usually way too hot. Well, I've laid in a supply of cashmere hats, gloves
and scarves (seriously, Isaac Mizrahi did some for Target, and they're
amazingly low priced!), so I'm ready!
FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF WHY SOME PEOPLE DON'T WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE
RETAIL BUSINESS
Police in Baltimore, Maryland report an interesting phenomenon related to
garage and yard sales: crime. We've all been warned not to let strangers
into the house to use the bathroom, but how about mother who use their
children to distract homeowners while they steal the merchandise? Ot people
who steal their neighbors yard care items, like mowers and snowblowers, and
then sell them at garage sales? Then there are the usual nuisance
complaints: people who hold garage sales every single weekend, which
amounts to having an ongoing unlicensed tax-free business. Or early birds
who wake the seller up at 4AM. Or Sellers who sell to early birds so that
all the good stuff is gone by the time customers who obey the sale rules
get there. Is nothing innocent and unsullied any more? Doesn't sound like a
great testimonial for human nature, does it? For even more horror stories,
and a great listing of upcoming yard sales in your area, visit
www.yardsalequeen.com. While away the frigid winter planning your
springtime assault.
YOU WON'T FIND ANYTHING BELONGING TO ELIZABETH TAYLOR DEPARTMENT
Debbie Reynolds is auctioning off her multi-million dollar collection of
Hollywood film memorabilia, including Marilyn Monroe's costume from
"Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", a pair of chairs from "Gone With The Wind", and
James Cagney's costume from "Yankee Doodle Dandy". The 300 lots will be
sold to raise money for a museum she's planning, to house the rest of her
collection. Miss Reynolds first started collecting the items in the 1970s,
when she spent more than $400,000 at an auction of film costumes. Miss
Reynolds told the Associated Press, "I wanted to save some of the things
that I had admired, the bits of history that I knew would go off and be
forever lost." You too can bid on the bit of fabric that touched Marilyn's
body, at Ebay, or at LINK.
AND NOW FOR THE SMUTTY STORY OF THE WEEK
As we all know, or at least as we've all been told previously by me,
sometimes you find the most interesting collectibles at the dump. A group
of women in South Africa, going through a dump looking for "stuff" found
what they thought was a bomb. The object was inside a plastic bag, and they
heard it ticking. The dump's manager, one Adolf Hansen, brave soul that he
was, approached the bag, opened it, and found it contained a vibrator.
Hansen said he recognized the object because he'd seen them "more than
once" before. The women had no idea what it was, but they knew they didn't
want it. And they weren't smiling at the time, either.
Accumulators, time for me to put on a sweater. He Who Is The Light Of My
Life is in the shower, and I'm next (without the sweater, of course. I'm
not looking forward to the many hours it will take my long hair to dry.
Brrrr! No, please don't write and tell me to blow it dry. I don't know how
to use a hairblower properly, and my arms are not long enough. Have a great
week, Accumulators. Happy hunting!
Best,
Judith
© 2003 Judith Katz-Schwartz. All rights reserved.
Antiques and Collectibles Newsletter #231
U.S. Library of Congress
ISSN 1520-4464
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