A COLLECTOR'S DREAM: 80,000 ITEMS UP FOR SALE

An AM radio that looks like a 25-cent bottle of Coca-Cola and is worth $700, rubbings taken from a Thai temple before the practice was outlawed, and a pristine copy of the sheet music to Irving Berlin's 1938 song "Cathedral in the Pines" are some of an estimated 80,000 items in a lollapalooza of an estate sale starting this morning in downtown Cape Girardeau.

Jill Smirl, owner of JWS Estate Services, has organized the three-day sell-off from 12 estates consolidated from locations throughout Southeast Missouri. No junk was allowed, she promises.

"I want to get the reputation of having unique things," Smirl says.

The sale begins at 9 this morning at the old Sav-A-Lot store building at 19 N. Spanish St. and continues until 6 p.m. Hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.

All the prices today are as tagged. Saturday, the prices decrease by 10 percent and Sunday by 20 percent.

Many are items collectors may salivate over: 20 pieces of Guardian service, rugs from Iran and Turkey, Thomas Edison lightbulbs dating from 1904, 75 antique salt and pepper shakers, Red Ruby glassware, and antique toy cars and antique toy gas pumps still in their boxes. There are diamonds, Currier & Ives lithographs, antique bird cages, pewter and cobalt glass candy dishes, Francoma pottery, carnival glass, children's furniture, a French armoire, dolls made of celluloid because plastic hadn't been invented yet, vintage clothing, a Gone With the Wind lamp, railroad lanterns, and a full set of Star Wars toys that fit inside a Darth Vader head.

The piece de resistance is an antique hand-carved oak table that seats 18. The price is $7,500.

A close runner-up is an intricately carved oriental desk and chair. There are 1940s French Regency furniture, more than 60 antique kerosene lamps, pulpits from churches, antique Christmas ornaments and a priest's sick-call set.

Smirl began accompanying her parents to estate sales when she was 2 years old. She learned that old things most often appreciate in value.

Her kitchen table came from an estate auction.

"I paid $15, and now it's probably worth $1,500," she says. She started her business only recently, intending to liquidate entire estates. After receiving phone calls from a number of people who wanted to know if she did partial liquidations, she realized an unmet need was out there.

"Everything fell into place," she said.

Smirl has been organizing the sale for two months. Family members helped with the big move-in at the vacant grocery store building over the past two weeks.

Smirl used to work 50 hours a week at another job. Her plan now is to hold a big sale twice a year so she can spend more time with her children during the rest of the year.

335-6611, extension 182