Collectors Weekly

Girlie Pens, Again? Why Ordinary Things Go Pink

Score one for the Internet. Not long after Bic launched its new line of “Bic for Her” ballpoint pens—boasting an “elegant design” that “features a thin barrel to fit a women’s hand”—women and men alike hopped on Amazon.com to bombard the product page with hilarious and brilliantly snarky reviews.
One woman writes, “Someone has answered my gentle prayers and FINALLY designed a pen that I can use … (continue reading)

Cool for Sale, From Beatnik Bongos to Hipster Specs

Everyone hates hipsters. Yet we can’t stop buying iconic “hipster” accessories, like fixed-gear bikes, vinyl records, and Buddy Holly glasses. As these products are adopted by everyone from investment bankers to organic farmers, our hostility towards the elusive hipster grows. After all, he killed authenticity and watered down the counterculture, right?
The real reason hipsters are so easy to vilify, and impossible to identify with, is that they never existed … (continue reading)

How Your Grandpa Got His LOLs

It’s all about the toilets—thousands and thousands of tiny toilets. Ever since I first encountered Mardi and Stan Timm, the foremost collectors of novelties produced by H. Fishlove and Co., they’d tell me about gag boxes. But I just didn’t get it. I was more interested in other Fishlove innovations—chattering teeth, beer glasses with naked pinups inside, and, of course, fake rubber vomit. … (continue reading)

When the Wild Imagination of Dr. Seuss Fueled Big Oil

Ever had an encounter with a Zero-doccus, a Karbo-nockus, a Moto-raspus, or a Moto-munchus? These fantastical creatures are some of the first Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, introduced to the world in the 1930s. But the beasts didn’t romp through the pages of his well-loved children’s books. No, instead, they were badgering hapless drivers and boaters in motor oil ads.

Yes, decades before he published 1957′s “The … (continue reading)

The Cold, Hard Truth About Popsicles

During the past couple of years, artisan ice pops, what you and I know generically as popsicles, have outpaced those hipster favorites, cupcakes, in the race to be America’s most popular nostalgia dessert. Like cupcakes, popsicles are portioned controlled, which limits over-consumption by those watching their waistlines. Unlike cupcakes, today’s ice pops are a healthy sweet, usually made from organic fruit picked at the height of the … (continue reading)

Cowboys vs. Spacemen: How the Toy Chest Was Won

The lone frontiersman, the rebellious explorer: These archetypal characters appear as frequently in the far reaches of outer-space as in the American West, from “Star Wars” to “Stagecoach,” on Planet Vulcan or the Oregon Trail. Today, toys, comic books, and even movie posters representing these figures are equally familiar. But which holds more power for kids and adults alike? Are spacemen our true heroes, or would … (continue reading)

My Little Pony Smackdown: Girls vs. Bronies

My Little Pony galloped into the world in 1983 on a cloud of pink and purple sparkles, bent on winning the hearts of little girls. Set to a saccharine jingle, commercials showed pigtailed girls admiring these pastel-colored vinyl toy horses, unicorns, and pegasus, lovingly brushing their unnatural neon manes. And love them girls did.

Now, nearly 30 year later, My Little Pony mania has exploded again. But this … (continue reading)

Sea-Monkeys and X-Ray Spex: Collecting the Bizarre Stuff Sold in the Back of Comic Books

Amazing! Incredible! Unbelievable! Eyeglasses that let you see through clothes. The secrets to super-human strength. Scary seven-foot tall ghosts that do your bidding. All of this could be yours for a dollar or two. At least, that’s what vintage comic-book ads would have you believe. Six years ago, artist and historian Kirk Demarais, who runs the brilliant Gen X nostalgia site, Secret Fun Spot, became determined to uncover … (continue reading)

Make Me Mod! Top 10 ‘Mad Men’ Essentials

With the return of “Mad Men” to AMC this Sunday, Sterling Cooper’s attractive staff will raise the bar for contemporary cubicle-dwellers for the fifth season in a row. Along with the show’s cast, we’ll be thrown into the turbulence of 1966, when neon-colored plastic and the ubiquitous Twiggy kicked Mid-Century Modern to the curb. No doubt the characters will weather radically shifting social norms, … (continue reading)

Blueprint for the Occupy Movement? Read the Protest Manifestos of the 1960s

When I was invited into collector Rick Synchef’s home several months ago, I was drawn by the promise of signed rock posters from the San Francisco music scene, as well as first-edition copies of Beat poetry by such luminaries as Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. But it was Synchef’s collection of flyers, pamphlets, and other ephemera, distributed by groups such as … (continue reading)

Rockin’ at the Rollarena, Pre-Summer of Love

If you were in a rock band in late-1960s San Francisco, the world beat a path to your garage door. Record executives walked the length of Haight Street and saw dollar signs instead of peace symbols, signing bands to fat contracts as fast as they could.

But if you wanted to rock ’n’ roll in the East Bay, particularly in that no-man’s land between Oakland … (continue reading)

Do Not Bid Until Christmas: What People Are Watching on eBay

Usually when people watch items on eBay around this time of year, it’s because they have a special gift in mind for a certain someone. But we’ve noticed a surprising number of auctions with scores of watchers that don’t end until Christmas day. Will a lot of certain someones be getting slips of paper in their stockings with a URL written on them? If so, good luck with that. So for … (continue reading)

The High Price of a Funky Christmas

When it comes to Christmas albums, the top dogs on our Christmas records page are usually The Beatles, which mailed flexi-discs to its fans from 1963 to 1970, and Pearl Jam, which has been pressing 45s and 10-inch vinyl for members of its Ten Club since 1991 (skipping a year in 1994). … (continue reading)

Before Sesame Street and Electric Mayhem, a Crude Kermit Lip Synced Pop Standards

When “The Muppets” storms the world’s multiplexes this holiday season, there will no doubt be lots of little kids who, thanks to “Sesame Street,” will associate the wide-mouthed cloth puppets with learning to count to 10 and reciting their ABCs. But for many of their Gen-X parents and Baby Boomer grandparents, “The Muppets” will conjure school lunch boxes, flannel pajamas, and brightly colored … (continue reading)

If ‘Pan Am’ Takes a Nosedive, It Won’t Be For a Lack of Authentic, Vintage Props

When the 2011 fall television season made its noisy debut in September, two shows stood out for their potential to generate the same level of retro-cool buzz as “Mad Men.” One was NBC’s “The Playboy Club,” which explored the lives of Playboy bunnies in 1960s Chicago—it was quickly cancelled. The other was ABC’s “Pan Am,” which followed four stewardesses based in New York … (continue reading)