Postcard Album, ca. 1907
GUEST:
These cards come from... primarily my grandmother, from Minnesota and from New York state.
APPRAISER:
I would think that the item that we get the most of, on ROADSHOW, is postcards. I usually flip through and I give my standard spiel that most postcards are worth anywhere from a quarter to 50 cents to a dollar. You know, I'll stop if there's anything exceptional or worth more than a few dollars. And I began to flip through here, I pointed to this card that was worth maybe three dollars and I kept going and I said that trolley-related things have a slight premium so you're looking at a little more. And I flipped and I came to these cards and I stopped, if you noticed. Remember? I stopped. And I looked at just this one, and my eye caught it, and then I looked over here and I saw the other one and I said, "I'm going to turn the page and see if there's any more of them." And there were three more. So there's five all together. They're Cracker Jack cards, and there were 16 cards in this series. Now, most Cracker Jack prizes came in the box. There were little toys. The Cracker Jack cards, you had to take the panel off the side of the box and send it in, and they would send you the 16 cards.
GUEST:
Oh, okay.
APPRAISER:
Very few people did that. The cards are quite scarce. The Statue of Liberty card is worth about $50. The Cracker Jack cards are famous for bears. They're from 1907, and this card is worth between $75 and $100.
GUEST:
Oh, nice.
APPRAISER:
Then you had the bears playing baseball, which brings you to $100 to $150. You had these guys, which are a good $80 to $100, and then you had... the ultimate card.
GUEST:
Oh, it is?
APPRAISER:
Well, the Teddy Bear, as we know it, came from the famous political cartoon of Teddy Roosevelt sparing the life of two bear cubs and that's how we got the Teddy Bear, and this card was related to that and this card sells for about $200. I kept on going-- here we are with rather mundane and not very expensive cards, until I came to this card, which is "Teddy's Bears." These are embossed cards, these are usually... Like this one over here, they're very inexpensive greetings. But these two cards and the one down here with "Teddy B..."
GUEST:
Oh, yes.
APPRAISER:
That's Teddy Bear... again, you're looking at $100 each. So I said, "I got to see what's in the rest of this book." ( both laughing ) And we came to a Santa Claus in a red outfit. And I started to say, "You know, if you have a Santa in a non-red outfit, it's worth a lot of money." And here... is Santa Claus in mauve.
GUEST:
Oh, yes. I never noticed that.
APPRAISER:
Yeah. Before the 1930s, Santa Claus came in all kind of colors. There's green, purple, blue. Mauve is very scarce. This card would sell for about $80 to $100, whereas the other Santa Claus in a red outfit... three, four dollars. So always look for the funny-looking Santas. I go through all these albums all day long and I will not see anything worth more than five dollars, and in this one, small item, you're looking at about $1,400 to $1,500.
GUEST:
Oh, very nice.
APPRAISER:
It's really sort of like striking a small gold mine with some great examples of the kind cards to look for, and I really appreciate you bringing them in and brightening my day.
GUEST:
Oh, thank you very much. It brightens mine.
Appraisal Details
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.
