Rinker on Collectibles

RINKER ON COLLECTIBLES — Column #1702

What Is Something Worth When Potential Buyers Do Not Know What It Is?

The antiques and collectibles’ field is filled with whatsits. A whatsit is any object whose use has been temporarily forgotten or not known at all. Normally, whatsits relate to specialized tools that no longer have the use for which they were made. Artisan, craft shop, garage, home shop and farm tools are the primary inspiration for a whatsit question.

The household kitchen also needs to be included. When visiting an antiques and collectibles mall, I watched a young mother and daughter looking at a mid-20th century hand held sifter. “What was this used for?” the daughter asked. “I don’t know,” responded the mother. “I never saw one.”

My mother always sifter the flour she used for baking. So did I during my younger days. They were not that long ago, at least not in my mind.

During a recent appraisal clinic in Beaumont, Texas, a woman came in with a Bonnie Braids doll complete in its period box. The audience numbered over 125 individuals, most of whom were well above 55. Deciding to add a little fun to the appraisal clinic, I asked the audience: “Who can tell me who Bonnie Braids is?” I expected several dozen hands to be raised. With the exception of the woman who brought the doll in for appraisal, only one audience member knew.

I view every appraisal clinic as an opportunity to educate the audience about the joys of collecting, the excitement and passion inherent in an object, and the factors that determine an object’s antique or collectible value. Before identifying Bonnie Braids, I told the audience that the doll is a perfect example of the dilemma of, “how can an object have value if no one knows what it is?”

[Author's Aside #1: Bonnie “Bonny Braids” Tracy was the first-born biological child of Dick Tracy and Tress Trueheart Tracy. She was born in the back seat of a car on May 4, 1951. Upon birth, her hair was longer on the sides. One of the attending nurses put ribbons in her hair and dubbed her “Bonny Braids.” Shortly after her birth, Ideal issued a Bonny Braids doll. PS: I assume my readers know who Dick Tracy and Tress Trueheart are.]

My favorite question to illustrate the above point is to ask the audience: “What is a Shmoo?” Usually, there are one or two hands raised. When I call on one (ideally a woman) to answer the question, I remind the person that he/she would have been better off not answering since knowing often reveals the person’s age.

[Author’s Aside #2: The Shmoo is a fictional character created by Al Capp. The creature first appeared in the L’il Abner comic strip on August 31, 1948. The Shmoo has a plump bowling pin body with stubby legs, smooth skin, eyebrows, and whiskers. It has no arms, ears, or nose. Capp let his imagination run wild. He made Shmoos delicious to eat and eager to be eaten. If cooked in a pan, they tasted like chicken. If cooked in boiling water, their taste changed to steak. Since they had no bones, there was no waste. There is plenty more Shmoo lore.]

Americans fell in love with the Shmoo. The Shmoo image appeared on charms, clocks, coffee mugs, ear muffs, glasses, fishing lures, magnets, pinback buttons, trading cards, and t-shirts. Three-dimensional Shmoo figures became cereal bowls, plastic toys, plush toys, and salt and pepper shakers. There was a Sealtest Shmoo ice cream bar. Numerous paperbacks and children’s books were published featuring Shmoos and their exploits. WorthPoint.com, the online price guide, has more than 2,000 listings for Shmoos. Given all this, how could anyone not know what a Shmoo is!

The above two stories illustrate a simple truth. Value is heavily memory driven. Individuals, including collectors, are far more comfortable buying something they know than something they do not. An object’s back story enhances its perceived value.

The message to sellers is clear. The more background provided about an object, the greater the chances for a sale. In respect to antiques and collectibles, information is one of the key ingredients that provides the sizzle portion of the business acumen that urges sellers to sell the sizzle and not the steak.

The time when objects sold themselves in the antiques and collectibles secondary market is passed. The vast majority of shoppers at antiques malls, flea markets, online, shops, and shows have minimal to no knowledge of what they are seeing. Today’s seller must be an educator.

There are several ways to do this. First, put the information on a large tag. A tag with just a price and purchase code is no longer an effective selling tool. More information is needed. An index card with more detailed information about the object is a plus. Some sellers copy pages out of reference books, neatly fold them, and place them beneath the object. If buyers want to know what they are buying, sellers need to present them with the opportunity to learn.

Unless an object is something buyers are seeking or triggers a memory, their eyes and minds usually ignore it. Even skilled collectors have trouble teaching their eyes to see everything as opposed to only seeing things they are used to seeing.

Everyone loves a mystery. A small sign in front of an object that reads “Do you know what (or who) this is?” is enough to encourage a person to look closer. A simple answer in small print beneath the larger hook text is all that is needed.

Whatsits make great conversation pieces, especially if you have a sense of humor. I have a small collection of rectal examiners. Who does not? I used to keep one on the coffee table when I lived in my solar house in Zionsville, Pennsylvania. It was a highlight of my day when a visitor asked: “what is this?” I still vividly remember some of the facial reactions when I explained what it was and how it was used.

The above is a bit extreme. Even if the owner does not know what a whatsit is, it still makes a great conversation piece. Encourage guests to guess. Award a prize for the most creative suggestion.

“Rinker on Collectibles” appears weekly in the “Antique Collector” section of “Farm and Dairy,” a weekly paper serving the northern Ohio farming community. Almost every issued has a “Hazard A Guess?” picture or pictures. I am stumped more than half the time.

A big issue in the antiques and collectibles field is when sellers have an unidentified object, they guess rather than (1) do the research necessary to find out or (2) admit they do not know what it is. I still am waiting to visit an antiques mall, flea market, shop, or show and see a sign that reads: “I have no idea what this is but it looks like $30.00 (or whatever number is chosen) to me.” Such honesty would end the eternity of Diogenes’ search.

As an appraiser, I often am confronted with objects that I cannot specifically identify. When this happens, I try to locate comparable objects that are similar in form shape, size, material, and pattern. In the appraisal business, close but no cigar is sometimes a valid approach to value.

Sellers and others in the trade must accept the fact that no matter how much you educate people about an object, over 99.9 percent of the individuals still will not buy it. Knowing about an object is not equivalent to a desire to buy it. While conducting an appraisal clinic at a D.S. Clark New Orleans show early in my career, I watched a cut glass dealer spend almost 45 minutes talking and educating a young couple about the pieces in his booth. He kept offering them examples at lower and lower prices in hopes of gaining some financial remuneration for the time he spent with them. At the end of 45 minutes, they thanked the dealer for his time and walked out of the booth. I went over and asked the dealer if he would be my guest for dinner. It was one of the greatest tests of a dealer’s patience that I witnessed during my career.

Finally, the longer one is involved in the antiques and collectibles trade and the older one gets, there comes a realization that the number of whatsits is increasing exponentially. Most everything from the 19th and 20th century seems to becoming a whatsit to those born after 2000.

In addition to whatsits, there are whosits, objects associated with personalities and others time has forgotten. Will this happen to me? I know the answer, but I do not think I like it.

Harry L. Rinker welcomes questions from readers about collectibles, those mass-produced items from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Selected letters will be answered in this column. Harry cannot provide personal answers. Photos and other material submitted cannot be returned. Send your questions to: Rinker on Collectibles, 5955 Mill Point Court SE, Kentwood, MI 49512. You also can e-mail your questions to harrylrinker@aol.com. Only e-mails containing a full name and mailing address will be considered.

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