You're watching WFWA, PBS Fort Wayne.

You run across your old matchbox cars up in the attic and you get them out to take a look.

There's the Baha Buggy, the Mustang Piston Popper, the Big Banger, the Mod Rod and the Dodge Dragster.

You think to yourself, Wow, these things are still in great shape.

Maybe I should take them downstairs for my son to play with.

Then you have second thoughts and put them carefully back in their original boxes.

They are now no longer toys.

They are collectibles, some of which may be worth a great deal of money.

A box comes in the mail from your great aunt.

Inside are dozens of some of the tackiest salt and pepper shakers you've ever seen.

You say to yourself, Why in the world did Aunt Mabel will me her salt and pepper shaker collection?

At the bottom of the box is a book.

Inside it lists the value of many of the same shakers they are now no longer Aunt Mabel's tacky salt and pepper shakers.

They are collectibles.

Visiting your parents house.

Your mother requests you deal with the garbage bag full of cans you collected when you were ten.

You open up the bag and there are the beer cans you eagerly collected.

The Billy beer, the Drewry's, the Falstaff.

You tell your mother you'll declined the offer of her recycle bin and take the cans home.

They are collectibles.

As you unpack from your vacation.

You take out the new addition to your collection.

That makes 322 snow globes altogether.

Each one you carefully dust each week, making sure there are no leaks.

They are a history of all the places you've been starting.

When you were 12.

They are also collectibles and someday may fetch a pretty penny for one of your grandchildren.

You're in an antique store and noticed the same 1945 Zollner Pistons basketball program you have at home.

You know the price.

You see an old GE fan you salvaged from your next door neighbor's garbage.

You know the price.

You see an old token from Patterson-Fletcher like the one your dad used to carry for good luck.

You still have your dad's token.

You know the price.

You see a Farnsworth radio similar to the one you keep on your workbench.

Yours still works.

You note the price.

You go home and looking around.

You realize you are a collector on shelves, stored away in boxes and pressed inside scrapbooks are pieces of Fort Waynes past these things you cherish, not because of their current value, but because of the history they tell about you, your family, about the place you grew up.

And that makes them priceless.

There are a lot of people who collect Fort Wayne memorabilia.

There are a few who are in it for the money, but most do because they have a great appreciation for this area, because they like the history of Fort Wayne.

I collect a little bit of everything in a way of transportation, I should say.

I started out with Major League Baseball scorecards, programs, even some tickets, ticket stubs for tickets, whatever.

Back from about the mid-sixties on back to the early 1900s.

And then kind of that kind of grew into taking an interest in Fort Wayne memorabilia sports.

And so how I got involved in that several years ago and so on are Pistons and Daisies.

And we used to have a semi-pro baseball team here, and I've got several of those scorecards and just one thing led to another so.

My father started collecting trains in 1926.

It's one of those things that I guess I didn't want to let get away.

I don't know how else to say that.

Just to keep it going in the family.

And hopefully I've got somebody on my side of the family wants to keep it going, too.

I collect primarily Farnsworth radios and television sets that were manufactured here in Fort Wayne or possibly Marion, Indiana.

But they're very home brew type.

They're here in Fort Wayne.

They're good radios.

The TV sets are good quality.

And I just became attracted to them because I'm a hometown boy from here in Fort Wayne.

I like to read.

I like history now, too.

Well, if I get the money, I got the time.

I'll collect Fort Wayne history.

So that's what I've done over the years.

You get hooked.

You find the first two or three, and then it becomes almost addictive, and it's then you're out looking for it all the time.

And I go to auctions all the time and I'm in and out of sports stories all the time.

And that's how it works.

Randy Elliott of the Allen County Fort Wayne Historical Society serves as a reference historian of sorts for the hundreds of calls they receive each year from people who collect Fort Wayne memorabilia.

Well, we have a number of things that people collect everything from bottles relating to Fort Wayne, which could be soda bottles or beer bottles.

We've had individuals that come in that have items from the transportation and early transportation eras of Fort Wayne, such as the Canal era and railroad memorabilia.

We have even individuals.

There's one in particular I'm thinking of that this individual has done an enormous amount of research on a tobacco pipe, and he founded the Fort Wayne Manufacturer and has become an expert on this particular kind, which is very popular in the United States.

And it's very, not very well known that Fort Wayne produced this tobacco pipe.

So it's interesting that this one individual has collected this and has written a book on it and has a number of these in his collection.

Some other items that I would probably mention are more general sports related items from the Zollner Pistons.

The Daisy's baseball team, other baseball teams that existed in Fort Wayne since Fort Wayne has an early baseball history to it.

One interesting item that people collect too, which is probably a unique one, is manhole cover rubbings.

Um, there's a woman in town that goes out and tries to find unusual ones and does the rubbings of them, and you'd be surprised at the type and variety of of manhole cover designs that there are out in Fort Wayne.

So there's a huge variety of different things that people collect then look for anything unusual in Fort Wayne memorabilia, whether it's advertising business, places, streets, churches, anything, and advertising and memorabilia.

And I look for working memorabilia from years ago.

When I call working, I mean pieces from industries that still working condition they're hard to find like this Bowser countertop pump at 100 years old it's still in good working order and truly an antique.

It was made to dispense oil or kerosene by the S.F.

Bowser Company, which manufactured pumps from 1888 through the 1950s.

The current owner says this rare pump would now sell for over $1,000.

This three speed brass fan was manufactured in 1907 by Fort Wayne Electric Works, the precursor to General Electric, still in excellent condition.

Its owner claims it would sell today for between four and $600.

These Farnsworth tabletop radios were produced in the 1940, both in Fort Wayne and Marion.

Of course, the original price varied depending on the cabinetry, but generally they sold for between 20 and $30.

You can pick one up today if you can find one for between $50 and $100, depending on the condition.

They're hard to find because Farnsworth was a small company and so did not produce as many as, say, RCA or Westinghouse.

That, of course, makes them worth a little more to collectors.

This Farnsworth banner is worth upwards of $200.

If you have a Farnsworth radio, you have an important piece of Fort Wayne history, a beautiful piece of art from the 1940s, and quite possibly a darned good AM radio, too.

This is a lantern.

It's off the Fort Wayne and Northern Indiana Traction Company.

This was on a inner urban car when they still had the inner urban running out of Fort Wayne.

This were used as a marker light because of this fixture on here.

It hung on the outside of the car.

And it was used more or less for a marker light on the back end of the train.

I'm not I don't remember where I come across that at, but the price was right and I latched on to it.

So that one was worth it.

It's a Fort Wayne product.

I wouldn't say product.

It's a it's a part of Fort Wayne because it was had Fort Wayne and Northern Indiana attraction.

There's not many of these left, especially with this type of bracket to it.

As you can see, there's all kinds of lanterns and I've got a small collection compared to a lot of fellows in the in the collecting end of of railroad memorabilia.

Calvert says his Fort Wayne and Northern Indiana Attraction Company Lantern is not for sale.

If an item is rare, you can expect to pay top dollar.

Knowing whether it is hard to come by is the key.

Experience tells you a lot.

Experience and knowing what other people collect and what other people have or don't have.

And after you've done it as long as is as I have, for instance, you pretty well know what's kind of rare and what isn't.

Some things you see fairly frequently.

But some things you see maybe once or twice.

And you just, you know, and you just and it's been few and far between.

You just know.

And yeah, that that's obviously going to hike the value it at least to me personally and I suppose anybody else it doing what I'm doing they know.

I mean it's just they just don't come up that often.

So I'm willing to go a little higher because I, you know, I know I may not see another one.

I always say they're one of a kind.

Somebody shows me the second piece.

The more difficult they are to come by, the higher the price.

You've just got to be patient.

Time and perseverance and wait your spot, your time to buy it.

Or you can buy at an estate sale You buy it privately.

Ads in the paper, wherever you find it, get it because you may never find another and you may buy one.

And six months later you find another piece just like it.

But when the opportunity is there, you do it.

How much you want to pay for it is up to you.

If you think the price is too high, you turn around and walk away.

But if how bad you want it, or if it's something you think that's going to bring something later on in life, the investment may not be that high initially.

That's hard to put a price on some things.

I don't value prices that much because what I'm buying, I'm not buying to make money.

I buy collect the history of Fort Wayne, so I don't care.

It's a five or $10 or 100 or $200.

If I want it, I'll get it.

A person can pay more than maybe they should at the time, but later on it may pay off because in retirement, if you don't have enough, go on.

It's an investment.

It may mean a meal ticket.

I'm not doing it for profit.

I do it because I like.

And that's my advantage.

If you feel like you want it, I don't care.

Some people that you paid $40 for that thing worth $4, it makes me no different.

People spend their money in different ways, but I want to spend it on buying memorabilia.

I do it.

You hope you see something that somebody doesn't know what they've got and you can pick it off for a decent price.

I'm not.

And I'm going to say a fair price.

I'm not going to say underhanded.

Give them a dollar for something that's worth maybe ten times that or whatever.

But you run across a good deal once in a while.

Many times, a collector will call the Allen County Fort Wayne Historical Society for information about a particular piece.

Some things they can help with, some things they can't.

Well, a lot of them have to do with they want us to put a value on the item they found and we're really not in the appraisal business.

We're more interested in how an item relates to local history and how it fits into that context.

So a number of those calls we have to refer to an antique dealer or the antique association, something of that nature.

Some of the things that we get calls about range from photographs.

That's a large one.

We get trying to identify a particular building or residence.

A lot of times we get something from the children that came through from their estate and they want to know where this picture was shot out of Great Grandmother's home near downtown maybe, And we'd like to identify that.

And that sort of question comes in frequently.

One particular company that we get probably more than any others, is a Packard Piano Company.

Unfortunately, the Packard Piano Company was turned down in the early 1930s and we think that the records were destroyed at that point too.

So that's unfortunate because we get calls from practically all over the country, from the Packard Piano Company, and we even had some calls from overseas about it, too.

The Packard Piano Company was in business for nearly 60 years off of Fairfield Avenue.

They went out of business due to the Great Depression, a mint condition player piano from the Packard Piano Company.

Now to a collector would be considered priceless.

This is a dinner bell from the T.R.

Picard and Sons Company, a foundry located in Fort Wayne from 1876 to 1882.

The current owner says it's worth about $200.

TR Picard and Sons items are rare by virtue of the fact that the company was only in existence for six years and over 100 years ago.

This Pullman car made by the American Model Toy Company out of Auburn, Indiana in the late 1940s, is made of heavy cast aluminum.

Originally, they sold in stores for about $10 a car.

Now you can expect to pay close to 150.

Namely, because there are very few out there.

Conversely, the Oak Age Berghoff beer boxcar, which originally sold for about $3, now sells for about ten for Waynesburg Golf Brewing Corporation, had their own refrigerated boxcars for shipping their beer.

Each car had an ice bunker with openings on the top of the car to slide £100 cakes of ice into that.

Kept the beer cold until it got to its destination.

Apparently, there were quite a few of these particular model boxcars made because if you're looking, they're not that hard to find.

Speaking of beer and trains, the Saint Lever Brewing Corporation had a contract with the Nickel Plate Railroad to serve their beer exclusively.

Little Nick was the nickname of this nickel plate beer made by Saint Lever.

This empty beer bottle now goes for as high as $25.

This is an etched window pane that at one time could have been used in a beverage car, the nickel plate railroad going price these days and the competition is stiff, $300.

The reason the price is so high is that very few plate glass signs survived.

On the other hand, quite a few Old Crown beer bottles still exist.

This one, still full, is worth only about 10 to $15.

If you can find an Old Crown beer bottle made by the Simply Beer Brewing Corporation, it's going to be worth more than one made by the old Crown Brewing Corporation.

Simply because the ladder was in existence from the mid 1960s to the mid 1970s.

It's just not that old yet.

Now, if you found a tall, pale blue bottle, that may be another story Fort Waynes AA Hay Bottling Company imported beer from Ohio and bottled it here in the 1890s.

Generally, beer was bottled in brown models.

However, there is speculation that at one time there was a mix up on their order from the bottle makers and instead of sending the brown beer bottles with the lightning stopper, they were sent cornflower blue bottles and so they were forced to bottle their beer for a time in blue, a very rare find, and the value price was a brown beer bottle from that time might fetch $50.

This one is from Frank Hake Bottling Company in Fort Wayne from 1876 to 1889.

They bottled beer, mineral water, seltzer soda water, ginger ale, grape juice and cider.

This is one of their mineral water bottles.

The style of the bottle is called Hutchison.

Bottle collectors may pay anywhere from 5 to $15.

The oldest Fort Wayne bottle we ran across was a mineral water bottle from Jay Laurent and Son in business from 1865 to 1873.

They were importers of fine liquors and wine and manufacturers of mineral water.

This bottle worth 10 to $15 that just before the turn of the century.

Robison Park, was a popular attraction in Fort Wayne, a special open air trolley to the northeast of town just along the Saint Joseph River.

There, you could enjoy dancing in the large pavilion roller coasters, merry go rounds, boat rides and lots of games of chance.

Flash Ruby Glass was a favorite souvenir.

Some of those pieces are still around and at times the bidding can get heated over a unique Robinson vase.

Robison Park glassware can go anywhere from 35 to $120.

And those collectors are quite serious.

I think property drops in parks, things that is my son, my older stuff.

But I collected, I started.

That's how I really got started at Fort Wayne, because our child lived close to Robison Park and we used to go over there as kids and play.

Although when the park wasn't operating, we knew the ground.

It was only about two miles from where we live.

We followed the creek to the park, to the river, and of course in later years I started saving Robison Park memorabilia to collect 45 or 50 pieces of glass where you don't do that in a year.

It's about 25, 30 years.

But it's just it's just fun doing it.

And now this just this spring, I got two pieces of Robison Park glassware.

Neither piece did I had before I knew different pieces of what I already had.

I got one.

I bought one privately from a private party.

I bought one in an estate auction 25 miles from here.

The other I bought within two miles.

That's that clue now, the one I bought private.

I knew about it ten years ago, but just recently I was able to purchase it.

So being on the lookout for unique Robison Park souvenirs can get you this small pin worth about $50.

This well-worn pennant is well appreciated by the collector who spent $50 to call it his own, and he's not parting with it.

You see, he's a collector of Fort Wayne memorabilia, and to him, each item is priceless.

I always say, if you're going to buy a good piece of old memorabilia buy the best you can, you may buy a smaller grade and an update if you find something better.

But look for look for the unusual something that somebody else doesn't have or something.

It's very few pieces out there.

Mint condition is a term often used to describe a piece that shows little to no sign of wear or use.

But to the serious collector, there are degrees of mint and it's difficult to discern in some cases unless you are an expert.

It depends on whether items that were meant to be used or whether they were more decorative items which weren't used as much.

Everyday household items were collected with their goal of being used, whereas maybe decorative items such as vases and so on were used to simply be collected and put on a shelf somewhere.

So it's really a different judge on condition of something.

If a common item has not been used at all and if the condition is excellent, it may be more valuable than a say, a candle holder that was on the mantel for a long time.

But was that really meant to be used?

So it's a different type of study for each item like that.

This mint condition 1909 timetable of Fort Wayne area interurban routes would bring $25.

One in poor condition might bring a dollar.

By the same token, these Fort Wayne Street car transfers are worth about a buck each.

Each of these Fort Wayne Transit and Indiana Service Corps maps are collectibles and can run from a buck to 15.

Some collectors like bus passes.

The challenge is to collect a year's worth of weekly passes like this set from 1946.

A full set could be worth anywhere from 25 to $50.

And what about street car tokens?

Originally you bought seven tokens for $0.25 to ride the streetcar.

Today you can buy one token for about a dollar and it won't even get you across town.

Now, that's inflation.

Oh, tickets can also get expensive.

These tickets to the rides at Triers Park sold for $2 apiec The Majestic Theater, Bledsoe's Dance Pavilion, the Lincolndale Dance Pavilion and the Robison Park Dance Pavilion all sold for between a dollar and $15 each.

Two unused tickets to the 1946 exhibition game between Fort Wayne Semiprofessional baseball team, then known as the Fort Wayne Electricians and the Cincinnati Reds recently went for $20 apiece.

A 1924 raffle ticket from Regal Cigar Store sold for about 15.

They were raffling off a Ford Roadster.

Undoubtedly, the car would be worth even more today than the ticket.

The trick to collecting is knowing where to look.

We take the antique week, which is which is a weekly antique newspaper, and they run a lot of ads in there for auctions.

And not only Fort Wayne, they're all over this part of the country.

And I've been in Elkhart and Goshen and I've been in Indianapolis and I've been in Columbus, Ohio, and I've been all over at different auctions.

I found anywhere from Fort Wayne.

I went as high as Toledo area over in Ohio, 50, 60 mile radius.

Van Wert, Pawling, Portland.

Marion, Indiana.

Warsaw, Rensselaer, Indianapolis Basel, Lansing, Michigan.

Sometimes you make trips just on the spur of the moment when you're buying something to go.

If it's what you want, get it like you're going to go drive 80 miles to get that.

I said I drove farther for less or here I go.

But yes, you find a lot of it outside Fort Wayne.

It's surprising how much good Fort Wayne memorabilia you may find 300 miles from Fort Wayne, but you got to be you've got to watch your estate sale, You have to watch ads.

You have to be there.

And I realize people within Fort Wayne moved away.

Grandpa and grandma carried their memorabilia there.

Collector items with you or some favorite piece and your 100 years later, it shows up at an estate sale.

That's what you look for.

You look for the piece that you don't have.

You just have to look at garage sales or flea markets.

Another good way to find these is to join a national or a state organization.

I belong to the Illinois Antique Radio Club, and every year in August, they have a three day, three and a half day meet in Elgin, Illinois, and dealers and collectors from the world come there.

And I'm not exaggerating because they're they're from Australia, New Zealand and England and France.

Russia.

They're always looking for maybe a tube or a radio or a knob or who knows what, and you can start to network.

The search is probably the most fun of all of it.

When you finally find it.

Obviously it's kind of, you know, you get it's kind of You're kind of on a high, but then all of a sudden the high goes down to a low because now you found it.

Now you got to start all over again.

So the search is is a lot of the fun.

One collector's search paid off when he found a 1948 program Scorecard of the Fort Wayne Daisies in mint condition.

The going price now $70.

He told of a daisy baseball autographed by the team in poor condition that went at auction for $90.

This 1948 playoff scorecard between Grand Rapids and the Daisies would bring 40.

A playoff scorecard is rare and consequently worth more than a regular season card.

This one is even scored.

The Fort Wayne Daisies played Major League Girls Baseball from 1945 to 1954.

Booming Betty Foss was their star third baseman and the leading hitter Most Mint Condition program.

Score cards from those games go for about 40 bucks if you can find any programs from Fort Wayne Semiprofessional baseball team from 1942 to 1957, grab them.

This one from 1952 featuring the North American Vans, goes for about 30 bucks, and this one featuring the Allen Dairymen and autographed by their star pitcher Parnell Hisner goes for about 45 this 1946 Amateur Fastpitch Softball Guide and Rules book features the previous year's men's and women's world champions Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons on the cover makes this worth nearly $100.

Locally, the Zollner Corporation published a magazine for its employees called The Rocket in about the September issue from 1945 through 1953.

You will find a picture of the world champion Fastpitch softball team on the cover, none other than the Zollner Pistons.

Each of those rockets are worth about $10 today.

You'll also find the world champion basketball team on several covers.

Also the Zollner Pistons.

The Pistons played their games at Northside High School until the Coliseum was built in 1953.

A mint 1950 Zollner Pistons basketball program might go for between 40 and $50.

A 1947 program might go for about 70 because it's older.

Curley Armstrong is a familiar name in Fort Wayne and wasn't outstanding player.

If you have one of his trading cards you have about 25 bucks.

This child's basketball card game called home court with Charlie Eckman, former NBA referee and then coach of the Zollner Pistons goes for an amazing $300 if you have one of these Zollner Pistons buttons, 25 to $50 is a good asking price.

Some old high school programs are even worth 5 to $10 like this one for a doubleheader in 1955.

Concordia versus Decatur and Central Catholic versus Central High School, or this 1967 Fort Wayne Football Jamboree preview booklet.

Hockey fans can count on paying anywhere from 10 to $50 for a Komets program, at least in this area.

I've got Komets, scorecards and programs.

Of course, they started in what I think 52 and are still going strong today.

So I've got some early programs, the earliest one 55 56 but several from there.

And I used you know, the irony of that thing is I used to go some friends and I used to go to those things, especially weeknights during the week when there wasn't big crowds.

Back in the sixties, we used to go to just about every one of those during the week and even some on weekends.

And I don't have any scorecards or programs or tickets or anything.

I didn't save any of that stuff.

But see that interest, even though I was interested in all that, I wasn't, I never thought about collecting or any of that until later on.

Of course, I kick myself now, But you know, I if I kicked myself as often as I ought to because of that, I'd be black and blue all over.

But, you know, that's so I you know, that's just something I didn't do.

But now I'm doing now I'm looking for the same programs.

And we didn't normally buy a program, but we always had the ticket stubs and we just the ticket stubs and I'd give anything to have I those tickets.

And not only for the collecting purposes, which is primarily about it, but they're worth they're worth something now.

But it's like everything people throw stuff away that, you know, I'm sure we've all done that.

We throw stuff away all our life.

We wish we had it now.

With the state auctions, antique shops and private individuals are not the only ways to get a hold of some of the pieces of Fort Wayne history.

Sometimes it takes thinking like an archeologist using a metal detector primarily and ground searching.

You find a group of three things coins, tokens, jewelry and rings and advertising pieces.

Under advertising is tokens from all kinds of business places.

You find little advertising pieces, pins and little clips of advertising from different places.

And when you find them, they're neat piece to go through your collection.

Finding a token won't necessarily make you rich.

They can go as low as a dollar and as high as $25 a piece.

Most of what you find is Fort Wayne business tokens from old cigar store, drugstore barbershops, pool halls, restaurants, hotels and well, as you can see, I have several all the tokens of Fort Wayne, some I purchased at state sales or at shows or in malls, others I found with a metal detector.

And I've had other people use metal detectors, have given sold or traded tokens they found for something I got if I get something different.

And that's how you enlarged your field.

This bronze 1894 medallion commemorating the Allen County Blue Rifles of the Indiana Legion, the precursor to the Indiana National Guard, was found with a metal detector.

The owner says he's had offers over $500, but it's not for sale.

Coin shooting is like mushroom hunting.

You don't always tell where you go.

Sure, if you got a place to go now or sometime in a club stuff we share, we'll take one or two or three guys go together and go.

But I have places I go.

I don't anybody and I'm sure a couple of other guys got places they go and I'd like to know where they went.

And I've seen the results of what they find.

You may tell the general location, but not the exact location.

I coin shoot Robison Park for probably 15 years or better.

And you still find stuff, although it's harder and harder because over the years, everybody in his brother's got a metal detector who's been there, and you still can find a few things, although it's you don't get skunked.

What I call going skunked you go there and you dont find anythin If you come out of one corner, five coins instead of 15 or 25.

I didn't get skunked and my time was well-spent.

I'd rather find one or two or three old coins or token than ten new clad coins, and that's the fun of metal detecting.

Many of the old bottles and crocs in circulation were literally dug up.

But it isn't as simple as picking up a shovel.

You have to know where to look.

The most the bottles in charge of glass I get bottle digs are from construction sites following construction sites, different places.

When the crane or the blow up bulldozer operator are digging holes, digging trenches for foundations, or tearing out all foundations.

They may be digging for light post, cement foundations.

They may be putting in walls.

Underground base bases foundation bases for buildings.

Be there when they dig because it's only one time when they dig it, when they get done, it goes back in the hole.

If you're not there, you don't see it.

These old bottles from Girding pharmacy on South Fairfield both went for 20.

The Tonne Dairy cream top milk bottle would go for about $45 today.

The fancy creamer that was probably given out during the holidays, 50 and the cottage cheese crock anywhere from 60 to 125, depending on the condition.

Furnas Ice Cream was a Fort Wayne business and this sidewalk sign vintage 1910 in medium to poor condition can still bring close to $100 this mint condition 1915 Furnas Ice Cream tray would fetch between 200 and 300.

The same goes for this Schlosser ice cream tray.

In 1925, Schlosser was located at 600 West Main.

It's interesting to think that the things we throw away every day could actually be considered a collectible and worth something.

Even 20 years from now when you're going through old belongings trying to decide what should go into the garage sale, there are some things to consider.

Well, the history of the item is important.

What do they know about the item?

Condition of the item is also very important.

If it's in well preserved condition.

And sometimes people put something in the attic and then they don't touch it again.

And even though that may have been a common item that was used at the time, simply because it wasn't used makes it a rare find.

So besides history and the condition also is the item itself of interest to the general public, the rarity of it?

Is it a unique item?

It would be something to look at.

So it doesn't necessarily always have to be something that's very common, like coins or stamp collecting that sort of thing, but something that people would collect, say, boxes from department stores of the 1930.

So they came across a good collection of those that would be interested in saving just because of the history of it and what it meant to people at that time.

Something as simple as a book of matches from Wolfe and Dessauer can be worth $3.

A 1940s advertising notebook from Kauffman's People Clothing Store, $2, A 1946 booklet about World War Two passed out at the Palace, Paramount and Amboy theaters.

$10 a 1950s Anthony Wayne Bank Christmas Club shopping list $5 a sewing kit from Fort Myers from the 1950s, $5?

Yes.

These are just everyday, ordinary things most people would have thrown away.

And yes, they really are only worth a few bucks, but to collectors they are treasures.

And the thrill of the hunt is worth more than money can buy.

So that makes these everyday items priceless.

Like the brewery memorabilia Fort Wayne, which a lot of other people go for.

Since we have an early beer brewing history here in Fort Wayne with a large German immigration to Fort Wayne in the early years Centlivre Brewery, there's a lot of people that collect those items and even breweries that are later like Old Crown Brewery.

I'm aware of a couple of individuals that have begun collecting those, and those will become very popular too.

Beer brewing in Fort Wayne generated a lot of advertising, collectibles, still wildly popular there was Centlivre Berghoff Hoff Brau, Old Crown and Falstaff.

Bidding can get quite heated when several beer collectors are after the same piece, and that just fuels their desire.

This is a Hoff Brau brewery chalkware a statue from around 1940 or 50.

This one is considered in mint condition.

There are few if any, nicks or scratches.

The owner found it at an auction preview and it was nearly black with dirt, but he did some simple detective work licking a finger.

He wiped off some of the dirt and saw that underneath the color was bright.

So he quietly put it back down and when bidding time came, he knew the secret and easily won the bid.

That chalkware statue was worth about $150.

Today, he says he didn't pay that.

He's also not saying what he did.

This beautiful Centlivre frostedglass is actually etched.

If you're lucky, you can find a set of four or six, but generally you'll pay about $50 a piece.

This Berghoff glass goes for anywhere between 15 and 40, and the same goes for this Hoff Pilsner glass coasters go from 5 to 20.

This is one collector's prize.

This little Berghoff sign still in good working order.

Looks like the end of a beer keg.

The owner claims there are very few of these around and proudly displays it in his living room.

When asked what he'd sell it for, he says it's not for sale.

When asked what he paid for it, he says no comment.

Apparently, he got a good deal.

Here's another prize.

This Berghoff beer sign, a lithograph on wood, features a monk sampling beer.

The owner says it is a vintage 1900 and priceless.

This plastic round sign that says famous Berghoff would go for about $50 at an auction.

And this board Berghoff sign that can be hung on the wall or stood up on a counter would go for about 45.

Some of the most sought after beer signs are ones that are glass.

The reason is because there are so few left.

They usually broke or chipped and were thrown away.

But this half brown mirror sign featuring a donkey and a man in a sombrero survived and sells for about $200.

Here is another mirrored Hoff Brau sign, 150 bucks.

Competition can be good.

My competition that at least the ones I run into that I find bidding for these same score card programs or whatever typically are interested, for instance, in Fort Wayne memorabilia in general.

And since sports is part of that, they'll wind up bidding on that stuff.

I usually prevail because my primary concern is the sports.

So I'm a little more willing to go a little higher in the bidding process than some of these other people.

But there is competition out there.

And of course, I'm like everybody else, I, I like the auctions that are away from town that have this stuff because nobody there is interested in what's going on and what happened, what was going on in Fort Wayne 40, 50 years ago, if you like, if you like history, if you like, Fort Wayne memorabilia, there's oodles of it out there.

But it's just patience and time waiting for it to show up on the market or making contacts where you can buy it personally.

You buy it in person from somebody.

My purpose at this point is not to sell anything.

My purpose at this point is to collect as much of this as I can and not because of the value or not because I'm interested in what it's going to bring later on.

I just enjoy collecting this stuff, but obviously it's going to be worth a considerable amount of money and time, and that's what happens with these brackets or score card programs from local here.

People are dying off or they're getting old and going into a home someplace.

Nobody in the family is interested.

Basically, they'd prefer to have the money than they would the memorabilia.

It's hard for me to imagine that, but that's what happens.

And winds up an auction.

The kids and grandkids, dad or grandpa, what are you going to do with all this 25 years from now?

It probably won't make me much difference.

That's my answer.

I said, when I get old, I might sell it all.

They said, When that going to be, I will.

I don't know.

I'll leave, you know, so.

But no, not too much interest them.

They like to see it that, but they don't collect it and that.

But it's just something I do.

It fills a lot of time and it's interesting.

And when you like history, you like to read, do it, and you can do a lot worse things with your time.

Nobody else in my family is interested primarily, I guess when we were talking earlier about what got me interested, my dad had a scrapbook and when he passed away I was going through it again.

And and I had gone through that thing.

I don't know how many times over the years.

Anyway, all stuff always interest interested me and I found an old Toledo Mud Hens 1937 scorecard.

And that was another thing that piqued my interest.

If I donate some of this to Fort Wayne or some other area or some other collector of memorabilia, gets it down the road, is still going to be here.

It's not leaving.

There are some very unusual items out there and all it takes is someone with a good eye to claim them.

These silver plate utensils from the Indiana Keenan and the Van Orman hotels can go for as much as $20 a piece is crumb coffee pot from the Van Orman Hotel is from the 1940s and is worth about 50 bucks.

This very old leather money bag from the FC Parham Company is from the late 1800s.

The company sold buggies, carriages and farm implements.

It's worth between 150 and $200 today.

Many people collect watch chain fobs and they'll run the price up quite high if it's the one they want.

This one advertises Al John's Harness company and is from the 1880s.

They'll have to bid close to $150 to compete.

This very old button advertises Old Fort Wood Rims is specialized in wood pulleys from 1880 to the early 1900s.

If you specialize in buttons, you'll pay about $50 for this one, finding out about a particular item.

And the company associated with it can be half the fun.

The two best places to start are the library and the historical museum directories of Fort Wayne.

Sometimes we have material in the archives.

The library is a good source for material, and sometimes our just our general knowledge of Fort Wayne history can help them out with what they've found or are interested in.

I have historical book lists of Fort Wayne from 1888, 1889, 1898, 1880, 1906, 1113 and up through the twenties and thirties.

Then I have a few of the old Fort Wayne City directories.

I even have a Fort Wayne Gazetteer of 1867.

I have a directory of 1890 here and I have other city directory from 1890s up to the 1940s and what I don't find in my directories or pinpoint something, go to the library, make use of the directories to the library, do you know what you're looking for?

You do as much as I have.

You can go there and ten or 15 minutes.

But I'm looking for a particular item by know where I'm looking or what I'm looking for.

You can find in real quick if you know how to index that your city directory or business directory, you can even find out by backing up the directory.

You can find out when they went and business, when they went out of business, or when it changed hands to another same business name.

But new owners.

And it all takes time when it comes to city directories.

If anyone comes across any of those, they should be preserved because they become rarer and rarer as time goes on and they are reference material.

And besides us in the library, no one actively collects those items that were used for reference in those books quite a bit.

And as they get used, they wear out and because of their size, photocopying is an expensive endeavor.

So if you do come across city directories in good condition, they should be preserved, collected.

I make notes for about.

If you look a lot of the things I got, I got notes with, although I make them handwritten notes, I throw them away sometimes but getting them organized in time, I ought to make typewritten cards for everything.

But most of them.

I just used little notepads and make notes when it was this business was established.

What year and where it was located.

If I knew how long in business I put that on the notes and it all ties together.

The more you do it, the more you find how many of these companies are either own represented by not just one ownership, but several people in partnership.

And one outfit may be having a name and a half a dozen business places above Fort Wayne is the old story.

People had money, invested money in different companies and made money that way.

And the more you do it, the more you find it.

What I do with my old scorecards that I collect, the programs I collect, they're not always dated.

Most of them are, but I've come across them.

They don't, you know, they just don't have a date on it.

You don't know when that was so.

But in either case, I got out the library, They got all the old Journal Gazette and News-Sentinel newspapers on on microfilm down there.

And so I go down there and that's how I search them out.

And I'll find in most cases with the ballgames that those programs came from.

I'll find that particular, especially if it scored some of those or scored some arent.

Supposedly the ones that aren't they claim were worth a little more than the ones that are scored.

I prefer the ones that because they're clean, I prefer the ones that are scored because they tell the history of the game.

So those are the ones I look for even more so.

But I would on and go through them microfilms and find the date and the whole works and I'll find on that film the actual line score of that game that's on that program and then I will make a copy of it and then I include that with the program.

So and some of them even come with, with that.

So those are the ones I like best with a ticket along with the same game and, and wine scorecard out of that next day's paper.

And of course it's all yellow and the whole thing.

But if you don't like history, a lot of people would care less.

But when you like the history of Fort Wayne, you learn a lot and you got to be a reader.

If you don't read, you don't learn.

This Foxes Bakery cracker display box is in perfect condition, especially considering it's from around 1889.

If it were for sale and it's not, it would sell for about $150.

The Fox Glass candy scoop could run around $60 depending on the amount of chips in the glass.

Would you believe one of these tobacco pipe cigar tools from Fort Wayne's Lady Wayne Buie, Trenton or Cooney Bear could get $50.

This Charles Honig straight razor from the 1890s is a work of art.

At that time, barbers had their own razors and the name of the company was engraved on the blade itself.

This one would sell for about $25.

At first glance, this looks like a large brass padlock and key but with closer inspection you'll see that this solid brass lock is from the Pittsburgh Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad, the forerunner to the Pennsylvania Railroad.

It's actually a switch lock.

And although the owner paid $100, it's worth much more, especially to him.

And that is really the key to collecting Fort Wayne memorabilia, whether you display it proudly in your living room or store it safely away in boxes, whether you will it to your kids or donate it all to a museum after you're gone.

These things you cherish not because of their current value, but because of the history they tell about you, your family, the place you grew up.

And you can't put a price on that.