Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-02-01
When Most
AntiQueSW Were
Just Junk

II
wagon at the door of paper mill with load of old
~ rags This man, named Mivetski, could weigh stuff
on scale, count money and knew about 100 words of
English He pointed to his load and said Got want
sell
linen and cotton and offered him six cents pound Mil
vetsis eyes CLEANED he nodded He had LOCO pounds
and that meant $50. The whole business had cost him
only $50
His countryman who had him
wagon right. In America could get rich
quick. Milvetsh would proceed a fortune
the and old iron that the Americans sold to him
for almost nothing.
These rags=old bed sheets quilts patches the
scrap box old coverles and fancy works of great
decrept and mldewed The sheets of homespun
linen were thin. and yellow The quilts mostly
just pads covered with "oboled calico" That
given to chntzes and doies by great grandmothers
OF there fancy pictures of Franklin Washing
ton Lafayette William Penn and others on these covers,
but they were od stuff to that generation and besides
they dirty purple, orange green Away
with them They junk
too, those old iron hinges. Franklin stoves,
plates lamps candestick. Follow them with those old
betsy lamps and the old tin dishes that looked
so dirty The young married couples of the Gay Nneties
wanted modern stuff not hand downs from the Mexi
War.
Today those sx-cents "a pound quilts worth from
dollar $40 a square foot Some handwrought iron
hinges worth much as $50 set Old box laches OF
brass valuable that the cost of reproduction
architect shudder Stove plates and Franklin
worth several dollars pound
The junk of so years contained much that is priced
today But don't cry it, the fun has just begun
Only the antique business play both ends against
the middle and The ends represented by today
the date the antique made. The middle is all
that happened in between. Each year reap the
rewards of what the junk did in the middle years
these junkies who scarcity today when
they bought their stuff for almost nothing and sold it for
but little And they were just well "plucked'
those who sold to them We are the winners-h
we've got any q the
Twenty-Five years ago those gobs of fancy glass with
white curcues that Grandma always
kept the pator table selling for 80 cents less
Grandpa used to weight down his Bible Today it's
poor specimen that isn't worth $50 book that has been
Those valentines that Grandmother had girl may
II YOU have preserved .rem IN taer nal Hopes
small fortune because such symbols OF high reg; I'd
mailed with local postage stamps on them Authcn-
of such stamps the original gives them
value beyond belief SO the price may be $25 $50 500
or $500 Today junk surely does pay off
Recently a gentleman West Virginia exploring
abandoned tobacco factory found box full Of old plug
tobacco tags the kind Of tin labels with pictures on
them. There several pounds of this old stuff and
il is worth about dollar an ounce lie might as
well have found pure silver for those tags some day VIII
hc
\ poor old soul entering bookshop asked Mister
richer by $500 for her books worth one
dollar per page She had offered three volume the
Of Natural History and Book OF American Field
Sports" published m Philadelphia in ls30-3l32 maya
zine An the beautiful and valuable sporting prints
were inside ANY old sporting books good if they
arc that Old Another rich prize to find the
l. Military Magazine. published by Hudiy and luval
Philadelphia \ complete of this publication would
probably bring twice as much as $500 at auction
little furniture cataog with pictures published in
light The other day and price mark Of $50
was Immediately pat Many must s'jl Doc
hiding because they printed by the thousands
and AID Of th,u. were thrown away junk
a catalog % "a wholesale of toys printed 1890
dollars IN, other day but the TOYS illustrated
In would be worth ten times the prices pajd for
them 50 years ago
study your old cake mouds china, glass brass and
iron Look your old books cataols quilts covciets.
samplers apd paperweghts DOM try 20 find buyer for
4tuff that looks old but sn't dealers spot fake
quickly but they hungry for real stuff Read all about
things YOU have - your nearest public library the
books antique oycr 90 MAYOR subjects covered
And many magazines on the SUBJECT