BARGAINS! BARGAINS!: HEIRLOOMS COULD BE TREASURE FINDS FOR OTHERS

Dorothy Buchheit of Cape Girardeau looked through items of clothing at a garage sale last Friday.

More than 500 people brought items for Cape Girardeau's rendition of the Antique and Collectible Road Show, held at Franklin Elementary School gymnasium recently.

"People really want to know what certain items are worth," said Kathleen Guzman of Phillips-Selkirks Auctioneers & Appraisers, third-largest auction house in the world, behind Christie's and Southeby's. "You wouldn't believe some of the items."

The former St. Louis-based Selkirks Galleries was purchased last spring by Phillips Galleries, a company based in London, with offices in New York, St. Louis, Sydney and Zurich.

Guzman said an office was maintained in St. Louis "because there is such a wealth of antique and collectible merchandise in the area."

Phillips-Selkirks provided the services for the Cape Girardeau Road Show, providing six appraisers who offered opinions on everything from art to furniture to jewelry.

Toys, art and jewelry were the big items at the show.

One man brought an old iron steamboat (value, about $1,500), a woman brought an oversized cameo (value, $450) and another brought an old doll, slightly cracked, but still with a monetary value.

Still others brought books, autographs, art, glass items, quilts and other items.

Phillips-Selkirks conducts sales throughout the world, including St. Louis, but the company also appraises estates.

"We'll do appraisals for both small and large estates," said Guzman.

Although there are numerous personal estate appraisers and auctioneer companies in the nation, ranging from small to large, appraising personal items has become a business for many people.

One Southern Illinois appraiser charges a fee of $50 an hour and will appraise merchandise for garage-sale planners. If everything is laid out for the yard sale, she can walk through in 10 to 15 minutes, and she figures her bill by the time she actually spends on the job.

The bill may be only $20. But even it takes the entire hour, yard salers, especially first-time salers, can save a bundle.

Sally Hatcher has seen some really good items in garage sales. They may have a $500 item priced at a dollar. "There are so many things people are collecting, you can't throw anything away."

Hatcher has been a professional personal property appraiser for the past six years, accredited by the Seattle-based International Society of Appraisers. She collects buttons, beads, beer steins and African art, so those were the natural choices of categories for her appraisal business.

Hatcher's two biggest customers are insurance companies and people who are settling estates, but she still finds time to look at yard sale materials.

A couple of appraisal groups offer certifications -- the 6,000-member American Society of Appraisers, which has 88 chapters in the United States -- including Missouri and Illinois -- and abroad, and the International Society of Appraisers.

Certification is offered in personal property, real estate, jewelry and other collectible interests. Certification includes a 60-hour course that covers everything from research methods to report writing.

The signs of spring are in the air.

People are cleaning attics, basements, closets and the kids' toy chests, and the surest sign of spring is the yard-sale list that appears in the Southeast Missourian.

It's yard sale time.

Last week's Friday Missourian had a quarter-page of yard sales, and as spring gets into full swing, that quarter-page will stretch into more than a full-page of yard-sale ads, announcing everything from a single yard sale, garage sale, estate sale to multi-family block sales to a "100-Mile Yard Sale," which is being planned from Jackson to Kennett along Route 25 during the Memorial Day holiday.

Call them what you might, but many of the sales are prompted by homeowners' resolve to rid themselves of some unwanted "junk," and once summer months come, hundreds of these sales can be found each week.

But some yard sales may be some other person's treasure.

And, sometimes, what is unearthed at yard sales is a pure treasure.

Take for example, the Little Golden Book of "Little Black Sambo," which sold for a buck. The purchaser had a buyer who quickly handed over $50 for the book.

Another yard-sale buyer purchased an iron doorstopper for $5. Turns out the doorstop was a rare one, and brought the purchaser a $250 profit.

Hundreds of nickel-and-dime articles sold each weekend turn into $25-to-$100 articles.

But, these mistakes could happen to anyone.

Admittedly, "great finds" are not frequent in these days. But, look at the possibilities, old toys, oil paintings, military memorabilia and some 2,000 other categories of collectibles.

It's amazing what people are collecting and buying, "more than one billion items in all," say followers of the collectibles.