1933 Trolley Car Advertisement Cards
Watch
GUEST:
About 20 years ago, I moved to Baltimore up in Waverly, and I bought a little row home there, and these were in the ceiling of the basement, used as insulation.
APPRAISER:
And how many did you find?
GUEST:
I have probably 200-- lots of different varieties.
APPRAISER:
You brought about 30 or 40 today, and we picked out these....
GUEST:
Picked out my favorites, yeah.
APPRAISER:
It's sort of a strange subcategory of advertising collectibles. A lot of people are familiar with them from subways. They were the ads that went up across, next to the ceiling.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
But the first thing we've got to do is date them. And the first clue we have is the printer's code, which says "10-33," which means that this was produced in October of 1933. So all of this material seems to have come from the same year, and there was obviously somebody who worked in the trolley system who took them home. Yeah, that's what I'm assuming.
GUEST:
The home was built in the early 1930s, so I'm figuring the first owner must have worked for the trolley car company to be able to get them as they were disposing of them and used them as insulation.
APPRAISER:
Now, so let's start at the top. I find this to be a fascinating piece; I love that design. A piece like this, as far as putting a value on it, would run $300 to $400 for that piece. This one's a little more mundane, but it has a nice NRA stamp. So you're looking at $200 to $300 for this. This one sort of relates to the whole era of orange crate art. It's a beautiful Sunkist piece, about $400 to $500.
GUEST:
Oh, my gosh!
APPRAISER:
This one here has a couple of things going for it. It's a nice piece of trolley advertising, and it's a piece of advertising for one of the more popular and collectible World's Fair: the '33 Chicago. You had a bunch of them-- I just picked this one out.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
This is a $500 piece. Maybe pushing to $600. The condition is nice. This one, it's a very nice colorful piece, about $300. And here's another one that helps to date it. This is from Roosevelt's 1933 campaign. And again, there's another pressure on the market: aside from being a piece of advertising, it's also a nice political piece. You had a bunch of these.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
And that's about a $400 to $500 piece.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm!
APPRAISER:
So if you start adding up all that other material, you'll see that it's quite a collection.
GUEST:
Ouch. (laughs)
APPRAISER:
The values that I mentioned are what they would fetch at an advertising auction.
GUEST:
I guess I need to get them out from underneath the bed and do something with them. And I almost left them behind when I sold the house.
APPRAISER:
Well, this was a very fortunate accident.
GUEST:
Wow, I'll say. I really thought they were, like, $25 a piece.
Appraisal Details
Current Appraised Value: $2,500 - $3,000 (Increased)
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.
Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.
Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.
Opinion of value: As with all appraisals, the verbal approximations of value given at ROADSHOW events are our experts' opinions formed from their knowledge of antiques and collectibles, market trends, and other factors. Although our valuations are based on research and experience, opinions can, and sometimes do, vary among experts.
Appraiser affiliations: Finally, the affiliation of the appraiser may have changed since the appraisal was recorded. To see current contact information for an appraiser in the ROADSHOW Archive, click on the link below the appraiser's picture. Our Appraiser Index also contains a complete list of active ROADSHOW appraisers and their contact details and biographies.
