An Encounter with John Wayne, JFK and the Wicked Witch of the West… An encounter with JFK, John Wayne and the Wicked Witch of the West… On any given day you can go on eBay and find countless sellers of autographs. Mostly low value autographs .
News-Antique.com - Feb 19,2013 - On any given day you can go on eBay and find countless sellers of autographs. Mostly low value autographs . Only a small fraction will be of any significance. However, than a small fraction of those high value autographs are fakes (it is estimated about 80-85% of all eBay autographs are fake. .
But regardless of the precautions when buying valuable autographs, what most sellers seem to forget about is the value of “the story”. I have probably looked at over 250,000 autographs in my 30 plus years of collecting. And 99.9% of the autographs that ha appeared in the market have their most important asset; their “story”. It like not knowing where or how you were born. And what has been most surprising to me is that few dealers recognize the significance of “the story”. Personally I place a high priority on trying to obtain any history on all vintage autogroahs I acquire. Sure iy is often not possible because most autographs have changed hands over the years. But when I get the opportunity to acquire an exciting signature from the “source” I always ask the to write a letter of provenance about when, where , how the autograph was acquired.
So in the past few weeks we have been fortunate to obtain some great provenance from those who have met JFK, John Wayne and Margaret Hamilton (AKA “Wicked Witch of the West”). Under our New Products menu category you will see some amazing stories of how these people had a close encounter with fame.
** You can see our most recent acquisitions of museum quality memorabilia on our web site link above “Conway’s Vintage Treasures. Then just go to the NEW PRODUCTS or Featured Products links.
Many collectors of high end, museum grade collectibles often don’t know where to go or who to trust for their most desirable collecting needs. As a collector for 30 years, I understand the frustration of not only locating genuinely rare choice items, but also finding a truly reputable source and/or dealer to buy from. And, most serious collector have been “burned” at least once or twice. I know I have. But, I also understand that being “burned” was part of the learning process, that I can hopefully share with the rest of the collector community so they don’t have to experience mistakes I made.
Conway’s Vintage Treasures web site was created about 15 years ago. The site now offers collectors an advanced navigation system search feature, appealing product grid layout, hot topic videos, and an easier checkout system. Visitors can sign up for the Free monthly Newsletter which covers topics like hot selling collectibles, auction results, and monthly promotions of new acquisitions. It’s not only a place for serious collectors to buy but also a great education site for anyone who collects autographs, vintage movie posters, autographed sports memorabilia, antique fine art oil paintings, historical memorabilia and collectibles.
Probably the most important concern to a dealer of rare memorabilia is insuring and
