My mom and I drove up to Seattle, Washington on Friday for the Antique Roadshow. We spent the night at a cousins house and headed to the Antique Roadshow on Saturday a.m.
The Antique Roadshow is super well organized. You enter a lottery system to win tickets and my mom and I both entered. I did not win a pair of tickets, but my mom did, so she brought me. They stagger entry times beginning at 8 a.m. Our tickets were for a 10 a.m. entry, but we got there early and were able to line up early with the other 10 a.m. people.
By the time 10 a.m. rolled around the line twisted back and forth many times and was much, much longer.
It was really interesting to see what people were hauling along with them as we waited in line. The people we stood in line with were great to visit with. Everyone was in a festive mood.
This Brymay bus that was rolling along in front of us was awesome.
The line ended at a series of tables.
There they looked at your items. Each person was allowed two items. You had to bring at least one item. They gave you a ticket to go to another line in the category for your item. There were 24 different categories. Some lines for certain categories were really long. Some had no wait at all. We stood in line for about an hour each time we went to a different line. Lines for Sports Memorabilia, Toys and Games and Musical Instruments were really short. You could have whizzed in and out if those were the categories you had.
I could not take pictures once we got our category tickets. It was interesting to see them taping different items and watch the show in production. I saw lots of familiar appraisers from the show. Mark Walberg cut through the line my mom and I were standing in and said hello. That was pretty nifty.
We left the show just after 3 p.m. and stood in line for four items. This is what we brought with us.
A old bisque doll. This was my aunt's when she was a child. The doll appraiser had to go shoot a segment when we approached the table, so the toy fellow stepped in. He told us it was mass made in Japan and sold in the 1920s in Woolworth's. It was sold with a paper watermelon (liked that fun fact). It was worth $15. I thought it was worth a bit more.
Item number two was three boxes of spun head figures. I also brought my little fortune dolls. They categorized this as a collection in collectibles.
The spun head dolls he thought were quite charming and said I got a great buy on ebay. He loved that I had the original boxes. He priced them at $10 each. The fortune teller dolls he said were manufactured and were probably from the 1940s or perhaps 1930s. He said there were worth about $12 each. I think the dolls are worth a bit more each.
Item number three was an old prescription ledger from a pharmacy that belongs to my husband. He got it from a fellow pharmacist that passed away.
The ledger is huge and heavy. It has a large quantity of old prescriptions glued in it. They date to about 1910. Pharmacies used to store all their prescriptions in this manner.
The woman at the book category had not seen anything like it before. She referred me to the collectible category. I did not have to stand in line again, but went straight to the table. The woman there had not seen one like it either, but thought it would have a value of $600-$800. I thought it was worth closer to $150.
Item number four was an oriental urn that I have had for at least 15 years. My aunt lived overseas and received it as a gift. She was going to give it to Goodwill and I decided to keep it as I thought it may have value. It has glass panels that are painted and is marked on the bottom. I had it appraised a few years ago at $200 by a local appraiser. The line for the Asian Arts was the longest. We stood in line for about an hour and half. The man that appraised it did not even pick it up. He said I should have given it to Goodwill and it was a reproduction. (I know the Museum Company did do reproductions of this item a few years ago). I felt a bit slighted by his lack of attention when we got to the table. Very slighted.
All in all it was a really fun experience. I think the appraisers have a ton of items to look at and don't always have knowledge for EVERYTHING. I think they give a range of what an item may be worth. This was the consensus of other people that stood in line with us as well. One guy in front of us had some awesome old movie brochure/posters that they just could not give him much info on. It was a fun experience and I am really glad that we went. I am not going to end up on the show, but will be interesting to watch it and see who was featured. (One woman in front of us in the doll line was shot with her rug earlier that day.)
Once I got home I kept thinking of other items I should have brought! Next time.
This little fellow had the right idea at the end of a long day.
