Collecting Antiques: An Introduction

Series Summary

Baseball cards and Hotwheels share a fantasy element for young children. Kids can imagine that they will be star baseball players as they gaze at their favorite player's cards. Or they can dream that they will one day own a hot rod like the one that they love to roll across the driveway. Baseball cards and Hotwheels also share another aspect: they are two of the most collectible items in America, not just for kids, but for adults who obsess about getting a certain player's rookie card or a certain car from a specific year (still in the original packaging of course, if at all possible). Are these adults collecting all of the cards and cars they did not have in their youth, or are they just grabbing up all they can for bragging rights among their friends and family?

In this series of collecting videos from our professional antique store owner, you will learn what to look for when starting a card or car collection of your own. Jan Braunstein tells you how to grade the condition of cards and tells you a few to keep an eye our for. She also talks about oddities to look for and discusses collecting game balls. You will also learn about collecting Hot Wheels and other die-cast metal cars such as Matchbox cars. And if you ever see a 1968 Corvette Hotwheels car, buy it!

Video Transcript

"Expert Villagers. It's Jan your happy fun antiquer again. Telling you that I used to be a college administrator and I even have a PH.D. But I found it incredibly boring. So I decided to be an expert of a different type since I spent my whole life as a child going to thrift stores. Salvation Army and Goodwill with my mother who had an antique store called Scroungers in L.A. which was kind of a fun place. But anyway I learned everything I know from my Mother who told me that she didn't care about seeing celebrities in her store. She just wanted to see their name signed on a check. Which I thought was cute. But anyway I decided to become a certified appraiser which I am. And so I kind of have fun certifying antiques, doing estate sales and having a wonderful antique mall in Pomona which is called Antique Avenue. And the phone number is 909-622-3076. And if you come to Pomona you will find wonderful antique stores on 2nd street and it's the antique district. So come check us out. Today we're going to talk about baseball cards and die cast cars."