By Dave Margulius and Ben Marks (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2009)

Marsha Bemko has been with PBS’s “Antiques Roadshow” for more than 10 years, the last six or so as its executive producer (see our separate Roadshow coverage). Though not a collector herself, her close work with some of the most knowledgeable appraisers in the country has given her a discerning eye for important pieces and a keen ear for …

By Maribeth Keane and Ben Marks (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2009)

Dwight Blocker Bowers has one of the best jobs in the country. As curator of the Entertainment History Collections at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, he gets to oversee the institution’s fabled collections of entertainment artifacts, from the ruby slippers Judy Garland wore in “The Wizard of Oz” to a Kermit the Frog puppet from “Sesame Street.” Recently we …

Recently I read an interesting obit in the New York Times about a guy who spent his whole life tracking the Loch Ness Monster. I think we all have a little of this guy in us – the idea that there’s something out there you’d just like to see once in your lifetime, but doubt you ever will.

Well, I saw a monster last weekend. And it took my breath away….

By Maribeth Keane and Anne Galloway (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2009)

Mike Gutierrez is a Consignment Director at Heritage Auction Galleries and an appraiser on Antiques Roadshow. As a sports autograph authenticator, Gutierrez is probably best known for his initial appraisal of Mark McGwire’s 70th-home-run ball, which sold at auction for $3 million. In this interview, Gutierrez talks about how he got into the sports-memorabilia field, how the field has …

Collectors Weekly’s been around for a couple of years now; we’re proud of what we’ve done so far, but there’s lots more to do.

One of the biggest questions in our field has been how to get younger people involved in collecting. I’m happy to say that when we started The Collectors Weekly in 2007, the median age of our team was 19. The youngest, our CTO (Chief Technology Officer) Andrew …

By Maribeth Keane and Joyce Millman (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2009)

In part one of our interview with her, Merikay Waldvogel talks about the history of American quiltmaking (see also part two on Collecting American Quilts). Waldvogel is an internationally known quilt historian, lecturer, and author. Among her books are “Quilts of Tennessee: Images of Domestic Life Prior to 1930” and “Soft Covers for Hard Times: Quiltmaking and the Great Depression,” …

By Maribeth Keane and Joyce Millman (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2009)

In part two of our interview with her, Merikay Waldvogel discusses how she got into quilts and offers advice for collectors (see also part one, on The History of American Quiltmaking). Waldvogel is an internationally known quilt historian, lecturer, and author. Among her books are “Quilts of Tennessee: Images of Domestic Life Prior to 1930” and “Soft Covers for …

By Maribeth Keane and Anne Galloway (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2009)

John Hotchner is a writer, editor, researcher, and lecturer on stamps. He has served on numerous boards, including the American Philatelic Society, the United States Stamp Society, and the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors, and is currently a member of the Postmaster General’s Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee and the Smithsonian National Postal Museum’s Council of Philatelists. Hotchner collects stamps from 20 …

Lately I’ve been on kind of a David Singer binge. In case you don’t know, David Singer was one the most prolific San Francisco poster artists of the late 1960s and early 1970s, creating 66 concert posters for rock promoter Bill Graham between 1969 and 1971.

My Singer collection started in 1970 when I was on the Fillmore West mailing list. Being young and dumb, I did not save …

By Maribeth Keane and Joyce Millman (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2009)

Vintage banjo collector Lowell Levinger is perhaps best known to 1960s music fans as “Banana,” the bushy-haired guitarist and keyboards player for The Youngbloods. Today, Levinger is the proprietor of Players Vintage Instruments, where he buys and sells vintage guitars, mandolins, banjos, and other musical instruments. He also performs bluegrass and folk music for families under the name Grandpa …

By Maribeth Keane and Anne Galloway (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2009)

Ken Sanders has been buying and selling books almost his entire life. A fan of illustrated books and books about the American West, Sanders is an appraiser for Antiques Roadshow, a publisher (dreamgarden.com), and a seller of rare and used books from his store in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is also well known for the role he played in …

By Ben Marks (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2009)

A.C. Dwyer, an avid coin collector, talked with us recently about the history of U.S. $20 double eagle gold coins, especially those struck during the California Gold Rush. Dwyer discusses the types of double eagles that were minted, the most interesting and rarest varieties, and why he’s so enthralled with coins that have been found at shipwreck sites. Dwyer can be contacted via his …