Collecting-Autographs.info

What's My President Kennedy Memorabilia Really Worth?

More than forty five years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy memorabilia and souvenirs from the life and times of JFK are still the most cherished - and most often collected items of any U.S. President.

It also means that every day we receive requests for free appraisals for just about every imaginable item relating to the former President and his family.

The items we receive range from the valuable – like an inaugural program autographed by John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy the “spooky” such as a ticket to the Welcome Dinner planned, but never held, in Kennedy’s honor the night of his assassination and the downright ridiculous like the person who claimed to have received a lock of hair belonging to President Kennedy.

Collectable Screen Plays: More than one Signature

In the world of ephemera looks can be deceiving. To an untrained eye a scruffy pile of paper may actually be the building blocks of a Hollywood blockbuster like Quentin Tarantino’s star studded Pulp Fiction - a document worth $950.

Movie scripts or screenplays can become very valuable and highly sought after in the collector markets, while many others can be bought relatively cheaply. Like book collecting, there are key factors in knowing if you have a treasure on your hands.

To learn more about film scripts we talked to Dan Gregory, a bookselling expert from Between the Covers in Merchantville, New Jersey. Between the Covers is one of the leading sellers of screenplays and film ephemera in North America.

What Makes Old Stock Certificates Valuable?

Everyone dreams of finding something in an attic, flea market or garage sale that turns out to be valuable. That something could be a stock certificate that is still valid for ownership in a company. If you were to find one, it certainly should be researched (just in case). But unfortunately, that rarely happens. However, it still might be worth something as a collector’s item. This article discusses the collector value of antique stock certificates.

Ultimately, of course, what makes a collectible stock certificate valuable is someone’s willingness to buy it at a particular price. The more people who want it, the more it is worth. That’s the demand side of Supply and Demand.
But what about the supply side - the certificates themselves? The following are some of the characteristics of the supply side of certificates that help create more value.

A Titanic Legacy for J.P. Morgan

Everyone is familiar with the story of the Titanic and how it sank to the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean on April 14th 1912. This means that any stock certificate involving the historic Titanic is going to be one that a collector is really going to want to get their hands on. And yes, there are old stock certificates for the International Mercantile Marine Company, which was the owner of the White Star Line that manufactured the Titanic. However, the International Mercantile Marine Company was a trust that was set up by J.P. Morgan of America. To this day there are still original stock certificates from International Mercantile Marine Company that are in the hands of collectors and various other individuals around the world.

The International Mercantile Marine Company certificates dated 1915 are of particular interest for the fact that they contain one of the most famous signatures of the time. One of those signatures is that of Phillip A.S. Franklin who was the vice-president for the American side of the International Mercantile Marine Company at the time the Titanic met its demise during its maiden voyage. Franklin was also the one who convinced Bruce Ismay to stay within the United States with the other survivors of the Titanic who were boarded upon the vessel that rescued them, the Carpathia. It was after that, that Ismay cooperated with the U.S. Senate when the sinking was investigated.

Animation Art Collecting #1 - What Determines Price?

The most common question asked by a person just starting to collect animation art is, "What determines the prices of animation art?" There are six main pricing factors: (1) age and rarity, (2) character and image, (3) studio and film, (4) background, (5) signatures and (6) condition.

The more rare a piece of art the higher the demand, and the higher the retail price. Simple supply and demand. Animation art in all forms was once just considered a byproduct of the final film. As such, they held no value and were thrown away or the cels were wiped clean from the acetate and the acetate was reused.

Almost every studio at some point either sold the original art as novelty gifts for pennies or they gave them away as promotional items. In the early 1980's, studios rediscovered the concept of selling their ORIGINAL artwork, and there was an instant demand. They began to authenticate each new piece with a seal. Buyers were then assured of the authenticity of each piece and the studios were able to archive the art and control distribution.