RINKER ON COLLECTIBLES — Column #1537

Copyright © Harry Rinker, LLC 2016 

Questions and Answers

QUESTION:  I recently purchased an Elvis thermometer made by Nostalgia Lane, Inc., of New York for $13.00 at a yard sale.  The seller was asking $20.00.  I offered $10.00.  We settled for $13.00.  As a seasoned yard sale expert, I realize I should have offered $5.00.  The thermometer has a blue ground, white letters reading “SOME LIKE IT / COOL!” and an image of Elvis wearing a white stage costume.  The thermometer is 38 1/2 inches high, in great condition with almost no scratches, dents, or dings, and works.  An identical example is being offered for sale on eBay for $269.00.  I plan to list mine on eBay for $89.00, significantly undercutting the other seller.  What are your thoughts? – BM, Lititz, PA, Email Question

ANSWER:  There are no fixed prices in the antiques and collectibles trade is one of the basic rules in the industry.  A secondary rule associated with this is that there is no limit to the profit to which a seller is entitled.  The antiques and collectibles business is a laissez-faire, supply and demand business.

Ignorance is disastrous is another basic industry rule, albeit little understood by many buyers and sellers.  Like most personality memorabilia, Elvis collectibles divide into four basic groups: (1) items licensed while Elvis was alive, (2) items licensed after Elvis’s death, (3) unlicensed (knock-off) items, and (4) Elvis fan club issues.  The second group is known as fantasy items.  Fantasy items do not have the same collectible value or interest as period licensed items.  Difficulty arises when a seller assigns an item to the wrong group.  The Elvis thermometer is a fantasy item.

I found the eBay listing.  The seller states the thermometer is from the 1970s but offers no proof the date is correct.  It is not.  WorthPoint.com has more than 153 listings for Elvis thermometers.  Apparently, several “fantasy” versions were created.  In 2014 and 2015, examples of your Elvis thermometer sold on eBay for $19.52, $20.50, $22.72, $25.00, $37.00, $40.00, $65.99, and $160.98.  I strongly suspect the four buyers that paid the higher prices felt the thermometer was a period Elvis piece licensed prior to his death in 1977.

At the same time Nostalgia Lane manufactured the Elvis thermometer, it also released a Marilyn Monroe thermometer.  The Monroe thermometer has no lettering and features the iconic up-swept dress image from the sidewalk vent scene from “The Seven Year Itch.”  The Elvis and Marilyn Monroe fantasy thermometers frequently appear for sale as a pair on eBay.

As a yard sale expert, you should learn to listen to your mind rather than being governing by the yard seller’s asking price.  Do not pay more for an object than it is worth to you or, in this instance, more than a price that allows you to turn it quickly and make a fair profit.  You should have paid $5.00 to $7.00.

There are two individuals watching the $269.00 eBay listing.  You win if one of them finds your listing and jumps at the chance to “buy it cheap,” little realizing that $89.00 is far from cheap.  You are safe only so long as a third eBay seller does not list an example at $20.00 to $25.00 to undercut your price.

Finally, today’s desire for instant gratification works in your favor.  Most nostalgia eBay shoppers are not comparison buyers.  If they find an object and think the price reasonable, they buy.  They also are unlikely to return to eBay later to see how they did.

[Postscript:  After completing this column, BM informed me that he sold the Elvis thermometer he listed on eBay for $122.00.  The two bidders watching the $269.00 price must have decided to go to war over BM’s example, proof once again it only takes two fools at an auction to create a price for which there is no rhyme or reason except stupidity.]

QUESTION:  I have vintage camera equipment that belonged to my father.  I am considering donating to it Goodwill.  Before making the final decision, I would like to know its potential secondary market value.   The camera equipment consists of a Pentax “ME Super” (purchased 1980), a Vivitar 24mm, Macro 1.6x lens and, a Vivitar 2600D flash unit, and a Fuji “Discovery” 190 35mm power zoom lens (purchased in November 1993). – CT, Moultonboro, NH, Email Question

ANSWER:  Pentax of Japan made the Pentax ME Super 35mm, single-lens reflex camera between 1979 and 1984.  The Pentax ME Super camera added a manual mode to the Pentax ME.

The age of digital photography has made 35mm cameras obsolete.  The number of amateur and professional photographers using 35mm film continues to diminish.  An eBay search reveals that the Pentax ME Super body without a lens sells through at under $30.00.  An example with a standard lens realizes between $40.00 and $50.00.  Sellers tend to list a camera with lens for a higher “Buy It Now” price but every listing contains an “Or Best Offer” provision.

There is better news in respect to your two lenses.  Adaptors exist that allow many lenses from 35mm cameras to be used on digital cameras.  Your Fuji “Discovery” 190 power Zoom is one of them.  Its value is between $50.00 and $60.00.  The Vivitar lens is in the same price range.

These are retail prices.  If a buyer offers you half these prices you are a winner.  I have two recommendations.  Check with a local camera shop in your area.  Some camera shops, like Dan’s Camera City in Allentown, Pennsylvania, do take older cameras and lenses on consignment, but only if the possibility for a resale exists.  The camera shop will charge a commission as high as 50 percent, fair in this instance.

My second recommendation is to contact a local camera club.  Ask if they have any younger members who would like to have the lenses.  Free is the correct approach.  Satisfaction comes from knowing your father’s equipment is in loving hands.

Goodwill will accept almost anything.  You can drop off the equipment there and take a modest charitable tax donation.  Once gone, it no longer is your problem.  Reading your email, I feel this is a “last resort” choice rather than what you really want.

QUESTION:  I have a silver necklace, stamped “Maurice of Hollywood,” that my father gave my mother as a wedding gift.  There was a matching set of earrings, but they have been lost.  The necklace consists of 15 heart-shaped links, each with a petaled flower in the middle.  There are no markings other than an oval medallion with “Maurice of Hollywood” in the middle of one end link. What is its value? – SG, Cadillac, MI, Email Question

ANSWER:  Since the necklace is not marked “925” or “Sterling,” it is not silver.  More likely, it is silver plated, or made from chrome or a metal formula, such as German silver, that resembles silver.  Given this, the necklace has no metallic melt value.

The necklace is late 1940s or 1950s costume jewelry.  Unfortunately, you did not include the exact date of your parents’ marriage in your email.  An internet and costume jewelry reference search failed to find any information on this firm.

An estay.com listing for a late 1940s jewelry set consisting of a necklace and bracelet contained the following descriptors: abstract, brutalist, Hollywood Regency, and Modernist.  The asking price was $99.00.  The set sold.  There are several Maurice of Hollywood pieces being offered for sale on Ruby Lane.  Although little is known about Maurice of Hollywood, pieces list at high two-figure and low three-figure prices.

This is an instance where pair/set value is a price factor.   The loss of the earrings is critical.  Experienced costume jewelry buyers will suspect there should be matching earrings.  The two pieces were sold as a set and not separately.

The necklace still has some value, especially given the mid-2010s fashion craze that favors heavy, chunky necklaces.  The secondary antiques and collectibles retail value for your necklace is between $40.00 and $45.00.

QUESTION:  I saw a black and white Wallace Nutting print entitled “Grandmother’s Garden” for sale at an antique shop for $100.00.  I have the same print in color.  Is mine worth more? – I, Reading, PA

ANSWER:  Wallace Nutting (1861 to 1941), a minister, was a noted photographer and antiquarian.  In 1904, he founded Wallace Nutting Art Prints Studio, located in New York City.  Within a year, he moved his business to Nuttinghame, a farm in Southbury, Connecticut.  In 1912, Nutting published a catalog list of close to 900 images that could be purchased in various sizes and states (black and white or color).  In the same year, he moved his business to Framingham, Massachusetts.  At the peak of photographic sales, Nutting employed more than 175 colorists.  The colorists added the title of the print and signed Nutting’s name in the lower mat border.

The 1980s to late 1990s Nutting print collecting craze is over.  The secondary market for common and hard to find print titles has collapsed.  In 2004, Ripley Auctions, located in Indianapolis, Indiana, sold a colored, 9 1/4-inch by 7 1/2-inch example of “Grandmother’s Garden” for $160.00.  Michael Ivankovich (Auction #67) only realized $110.00 for the example he sold in 2006.  In today’s market, a seller would have to be extremely lucky to get $50.00.

Harry L. Rinker welcomes questions from readers about collectibles, those mass-produced items from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.  Selected letters will be answered in this column.  Harry cannot provide personal answers.  Photos and other material submitted cannot be returned.  Send your questions to: Rinker on Collectibles, 5955 Mill Point Court SE, Kentwood, MI 49512.  You also can e-mail your questions to harrylrinker@aol.com. Only e-mails containing a full name and mailing address will be considered.

You can listen and participate in WHATCHA GOT?, Harry’s antiques and collectibles radio call-in show, on Sunday mornings between 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM Eastern Time.  If you cannot find it on a station in your area, WHATCHA GOT? streams live on the Internet at www.gcnlive.com.

SELL, KEEP OR TOSS?: HOW TO DOWNSIZE A HOME, SETTLE AN ESTATE, AND APPRAISE PERSONAL PROPERTY (House of Collectibles, an imprint of Random House Information Group, $17.99), Harry’s latest book, is available at your favorite bookstore and via www.harryrinker.com.