3 comments about American Silversmiths and Their Marks: The Definitive (1948) Edition (1948 Edition).

1. Not until you open the book to the first chapter do you find out that the marks are limited to the period 1650--1850. No marks after 1850.



2. For the time period covered (1650-1850) this is a very useful, almost exhaustive reference. I turn to it when I need to identify a hallmark, and find the illustrations to be very helpful. I thought it was a good buy.



3. Although limited in periods covered (stops at 1850), this is a handy, easy to carry reference. Kovel's may be more extensive, but the additional info is often not what you need in the middle of the antique mall checking out a possible purchase. I find I use both, write notes in both, and have many pieces I know are American and I can't find the marks in either. So, what the heck, for ten bucks it's worth having with you BEFORE you buy.

No comments about Josef Originals: Charming Figurines (Schiffer Book for Collectors).

5 comments about American Premium Record Guide 1900-1965 (American Premium Record Guide).

1. If you have discovered a pile of old 78 rpm records of your grandparents and would like to know their value this book is probably NOT the right book for you. As the author indicates, most of the 78 rpm records are without any value for serious collectors. In this book you'll find names of artists that you have never known... Yes believe me: Your Bing Crosby "White Christmas" is not a rare item. It's quite common. Enjoy such a record as a vintage item but not as a collectible record. This is what the author says at the beginning. So once again: Don't buy this book in order to learn the value of your Dinah Shore, John McCormack, Frank Sinatra records..
   
   I cannot judge the values in the blues / rockabilly / country part of the book because I don't listen to such music. The values in the jazz part are in my opinion too low. Example: A rare Gennett in E condition (the book indicates the value of records in E) is very very hard to find and therefore the value is much higher than in the book. I have always paid more for a rare record than the value indicated in the book.
   
   However, the guide gives you an idea of the value of a rare record and this makes the book a must for any serious collector.



2. This book has a lot of holes and should be considered a supplemental guide to the more thorough price guides out there like Rockin' Records. What I really enjoy about this book is how it indirectly communicates to the masses how small the percentage of 78's out there have any value in the marketplace.
   
   Typical flea-market hunters will come across large assortments of 78's over years of hunting but will find very little of any value. They will open up this guide and look up their records and not find them or find that they have little to no value. It's refreshing to have a guide that will humble the amateur collector and not give them false hopes about the values of their records. Selling 78's in most markets is next to impossible. Most dealers are relegated to selling them online, which is not a profitable venture unless the records are established collectables. This book helps delineate such records.
   
   It's hardly worth looking through the 45/EP/LP section with the other guides out there. The separation by genre is kind of unnecessary in my opinion. Also, it's true this book has little to say about international records. Russian and Chinese records are collectible but they are beyond the scope of this book. I can't really evaluate the high-end prices in this guide because I'm undereducated on the subject. Use auction results to help.
   
   I would only recommend buying this guide to those who have access to either a real large quality 78 collection (hot jazz, pre-war blues, rockabilly perhaps) or a desire to understand the patterns of 78 values. You will NOT turn your grandma's collection or your garage sale find into cash using this guide (99 times out of 100). Consider this a supplemental guide for 78's only.



3. les docks has been the sole responsible book writer for pre war blues and jazz for a long long time.
   his books are facinating.
   his prices have always been absurdly LOW which he addresses in all honesty in the prelude pages.
   his scans are fantastic! truly one of the best books you can own to start looking for rare records.
   what it lacks and there probably good reason,is information about unknown records.but you can still see them pictured and hes finally admitting robert johnsons records are worth more than 50 dollars each! keep rockin les and id love to see the shellack shack someday!



4. I have been collecting 78 rpm records for about 38 years.
   I became aware of this book when I was given a copy (the 2nd edition) as a gift many years ago.Since then I have bought each new edition as they have come out.
   I have not come across another guide for the collector of 78 rpm records which compares with this one.
   It doesn't cover every 78 ever issued.It would have to be huge (and expensive).Left out mostly are the common 'pop' discs of the 40's and 50's.
   Great label pictorial sections.
   Another very nice feature is that all names used by one artist or group are listed at the beginning of that entry.
   My only complaint is a lack of an index.(Earlier editions had one.)This is helpful since many artists appear in more than one section.Also,sometimes you might not be sure which section an artist might be in.(Such as Blues vs Jazz)
   I highly recommend this book.
   Thank you!



5. Terribly organized, horribly incomplete and wrong about values. This is just an awful book. Checking on Ebay is a million times better. Thank heavens I sold mine.

5 comments about Painted Ponies.

1. This an excellent book giving a good insight into the history of carousels from their early beginnings. Crammed with beautiful photographs of the various animals and some rare photographs of the carvers and their workshops. A must reference book if you are into carousels.



2. OK I gotta give the book a great review as one of the authors is a very dear friend. (Marianne Stevens) I love the photos of the carousel that she purchased from my cousins!
   
   Seriously though this book is an absolute must have for anybody not only interested in Carousels but also in amusement park history. It's a wonderful coffe table book with to die for color photographs and fascinating information.
   
   Even children will love this book! It's beautifully done with glossy photos. Absolutely super.
   
   Warren Crandall



3. Awesome book! An absolute must for anyone interested in American Carousel Art! Loaded with close up photos of all the love of labor that went into these beautiful animals! Brings back many memories of the Great Danbury Fair in Danbury, CT which now unfortunately is a shopping mall.



4. This book is a must have for any carousel enthusiast or anyone interested in the art of wood carving. All major carvers/manufacturers of the golden age of carousel building are covered. The photography is wonderful and there is a census of operating carousels in the back of the book. Since the book is written in 1986, many of the carousels that are listed have dissappeared. Check National Carousel Association for an updated list.



5. This is an excellent A-Z book on everything you would want to know about carousels. It's very well presented and very informative and makes a great coffee table book. Highly recommended if you're interested in the subject.

No comments about A Guide Book of Morgan Silver Dollars (Official Red Book).

5 comments about Echoes.

1. I have not read a book in forever and planned on reading this in my spare time. However, once opened, I could not put it down. I sat and read the entire thing yesterday afternoon. Such a wonderful story and well written. I would recommend this time and time again!



2. Can't put this book down I just want to keep reading this one. Love the story line and the characters set during World War II. A great read as usual of Steel's novels.



3. There are only few books can grab my interest.This is one of them. Love the heavy and dark history based background. Found peace from this book. Good influence.



4. Wow, just wow. That's all there is to say! This book was somewhat eventful, but it was very predictable! All the "twists" were seen straight away. It was predictable, sappy, and not for anyone looking for a good, deep read.



5. This could've been a great story! First let me say I came in with good hopes for this book, willing to give it a chance. I'd never read Steel before, so I thought I'd give her a shot. "Echoes" sounded like something I could really get into - I'm a sucker for war dramas, lovable female protagonists, and the romances that so often go with them. But it started out very slowly. I could tell that Steel was setting up her romance story, but good grief, did it need to take so long? Finally the character is thrown into the war, and that's when things pick up a bit. The plot became good and fast, especially toward the end. The entire book was a short, very quick read, and I was torn because I couldn't help but thinking this is something I could've loved if only Steel hadn't written it.
   
   See, the plot itself means nothing when it is obscured by Steel's writing. Oh my goodness. Commas everywhere... so many commas in the most random places that I was re-reading to make sure I wasn't halucinating. Then laughing out loud. And I literally started counting how many times she repeated useless plot points and phrases, such as "sit shiva." I'm never this harsh, but from now on, I'm honestly only going to real Danielle Steel to remind myself how NOT to write.

5 comments about Garage Sale America.

1. I have a chronic case of disposophobia, or at least that's how Bruce Littlefield would diagnose it. I can't bear to part with old photographs, worn-out running shoes, and a frog collection I've had since college. My favorite store is Finders Keepers, or was, that is, until the local antique shop closed and I bought out half the inventory.
   
   So when my copy of Littlefield's Garage Sale America arrived in the mail, you can imagine where I put it--on top of a great big stack of books I have yet to read, some old, some new.
   
   It wasn't long before its cover cried out to me with its retro colors, Bakelite radio, and funky leopard hat.
   
   I scoured the photo-filled paperback for advice on everything from enamel-top tables to fishing lures and reeled in a lot more information than I bargained for, like tips on decorating, where to find some really hot wheels, and how to run a successful sale. I'm even learning to deal with my affliction, described in the book's glossary as "Disposophobia: the fear of getting rid of stuff, no matter how worthless or how valuable."
   
   Some books may come and go, but Garage Sale America is definitely a keeper.



2. In Hawaii, HANA HOU is an expression you will hear often....it means, once more, do it again, encore, repeat, one more time...... and so it is with items found in garage sales, yard sales, church bazaars, tag sales, estate sales.....any kind of hana hou sale..... Just because someone is finished with that rocker, it doesn't mean that its life has to end right then.... There can still be one more round left to that old rocking chair!
   
   What your neighbor down the street considers trash can definitely be your treasure....and that is the message that Bruce Littlefield conveys in his newly published book, "Garage Sale America".
   
   From tips scattered throughout the book on how to plan your strategies for your hunt to how to use the treasures after you get them home, and ending with a useful (and amusing) Garage Sale Glossary, this little book can serve as a handy and entertaining manual on how to unashamedly romp through the detritus of other people's lives and score while you're at it!
   
   The perfect gift for those who love to hunt for treasures, whether they are the type who grab the newspaper every single weekend and mark all the sales down, planning their trips by neighborhood....or the occasional shopper who stops on a whim every time they see a "Yard Sale" sign along the road....or the ones such as myself who mark the annual church bazaars down on my calendar....for all of us to whom the thrill is as much in the hunt as in finding that special deal!
   
   There is no stigma attached to finding a bargain in someone else's discards....in fact, the feeling of satisfaction, the ... elation, if you will, when you find just the right item or that last piece of china that will complete the set you started years ago, is hard to describe.
   
   After spending one evening reading this fun and enjoyable book, I started looking around my own home to see what around me could be considered 'found treasures'....and have to admit that a bit less than half was either bought at yard, garage, church bazaar sales or, the best yet, items found through our local Freecycle network or even at the "transfer station" - the PC name for our local dump, ......completely free!
   
   If you love to go yard saling,....if you love to find a bargain,.... if you're looking for the thrill of the deal... you will definitely enjoy reading Bruce's book.
   
   A couple of personal notes: I loved the idea of the seller who invites his best customers (read: bigger spenders), to breakfast before his sales every year for, as Bruce puts it "cranking up the adrenalin while you wait for the unveiling".....and don't miss meeting Wini. I won't tell you where to find her. You will have to hunt through the book yourself!



3. If you feel you've exhausted every garage sale in your area and you realize you've visited the same sales four years in a row, then you might want to expand your usual boundaries and consider branching out to other states. If so, you can't do much better than this book, which includes a calendar of some of the more noteworthy sales across the country, as well as other major garage sales. You might consider bringing a U-haul along with you if you have a tendency to go overboard and buy everything in sight.
   If you like this one, you might also consider:
   
   Garage Sale & Flea Market Annual (Garage Sale and Flea Market Annual)



4. Littlefield hit the nail on the head for me. He gets the same joy, excitement and invigoration out of saling that I do. It's about the people, the atmosphere, the search for treasure, the negotiating, the win (or loss). These adventures are all wrapped up in wonderful little 5 to 20 minute nibbles of life. Almost 100% of my experiences are positive and I can recall many of them years later when I look at a vase, a painting or some other treasure I have acquired..
   
   Bottom line, for Christmas I made a list of those who share my passion, those who wonder about my passion and those few who think I am off my rocker. I went on line and bought a bunch. Christmas shopping over.
   
   Buying retail in this case was done with joy.
   
   All who have received the book from me have given it a great review too.



5. For all of us that enjoy the "hunt", this is a fun and interesting book. The pictures are enjoyable and the information is helpful. There is good information on yearly sales, along with how to locate, etc.

5 comments about The Star Wars Action Figure Archive.

1. The best part is that this is a REFERENCE BOOK, not a price guide. Thus, it contains tons of TIMELESS information, but no bogus or outdated prices. I recently ordered and read seven price guides and reference books dealing with vintage Star Wars figures (and numerous other collectible figures), and this is by far the best of the bunch. It shows a picture of every vintage figure from numerous angles, it shows numerous figure variations, it shows EVERY card variations for EVERY figure, and it identifies the weapons and accessories that originally came with each figure. It also shows all vintage play sets and mail in promotions (though unfortunately it does not provide quite as much information about these). It also does a nice job covering early POTF figures, and more recent figures from the mid to late 90s. And, EVERYTHING IS IN FULL COLOR ON HIGH QUALITY PAPER! If you're looking for a price guide, this is not the book for you. But, if you are looking for an outstanding reference book dealing with vintage Star Wars action figures, you will not be disappointed with this book. In fact, I actually ordered a second copy for myself in case my first one gets damaged with use!



2. John Ling and Steve Sansweet have outdone themselves. Being a fan and collector of the films and memorabilia of Star Wars for over 26 years, I was impressed by the attention to detail that was paid in this book. Or, as Darth Vader would say, "Impressive...most impressive." My area of collecting lies mainly with carded figures and this book has it all. I was also wowed by the many never before seen deleted scene images from the films that are showcased throughout this book. Too bad this book isn't in print anymore, but good for me I was able to get a copy!



3. I first purchased this book on another site in California. The book is on one island in Hawaii and I am on another island in Hawaii. So, I bought another one through Amazon. It is a wonderful source of information. I did however notice that there are some items of significant value and/or rarity that are not included. One such item is the Special Action Display that recently sold online for close to one thousand dollars. Perhaps the author of the book did not have the informamtion available at the time of publication.
   
   The first Star Wars Vintage Mailaway Display 1979
   
   The Star Wars Action Display Stand was first offered through a coupon redemption included with the first four (4) Early Bird Kit Action Figures:
   
   Luke Skywalker with Yellow Telescoping Lightsaber (very rare)
   
   Princess Leia Organa with White Vinyl Cape & Laser Pistol
   
   Chewbacca with Green Crossbow
   
   R2-D2
   
   The second time that it was offered on the back of Star Wars Action Figure Cardbacks. The offer stated:
   
   Star Wars Action Collectors Stand
   
   Display all 12 figures on this colorful galaxy stand. Sturdy plastic with action levers to move figures back and forth. Figures easily removeable for individual play. Send your name, address, zip code and proof-of-purchase seal (shown at right) from 2 Star Wars Action Figure packages alone with $2.00 to: Star Wars Action Collector Stand, P.O. Box 1313, One Industrial Drive, Maple Plain, MINN, 55348. Collectors Action Stand FREE with proof-or purchase from 12 STAR WARS Action Figures. Allow 8 - 10 weeks for delivery. Offer expires May, 1, 1979. Void where prohibited, taxed or otherwise regulated The third time it was offered boxed in toy departments and stores. The Stand came in a attractive box which showed all of the twelve (12) Action Figures that could be placed on it. The box that was shipped to individuals was just a plain white mailer.
   
   The Grey Display Stand came with a slot in the back of it for the cardboard backdrop which depicted the Death Star and a Space Battle between X-Wing Fighters & Tie Fighters. A thin adhesive strip was included for the front of the stand which instructed kids where to place their first twelve (12) figures:
   
   Stormtrooper
   
   Jawa
   
   Death Squad Commander
   
   See Threepio
   
   Darth Vader
   
   Ben Kenobi
   
   Sandpeople
   
   Luke Skywalker
   
   Chewbacca
   
   Han Solo
   
   Princess Leia
   
   Artoo Deetoo
   
   As for the promised action, each of the three (3) black levers in front turned the bases of the four (4) figures giving them at least limited movement. Each base had two (2) foot pegs to hold the Action Figures in place. I had a lot of fun putting my Stand together along with my older brother. The parts included in the box reminded us of Legos. Be sure to check out my other Reviews in regards to rare Vintage Star Wars action figures. One can still find this item either loose or still in the original box.
   
   The Special Action Display is the one rare item which is not covered in the book much to my amazement. The Star Wars Empire Strikes Back Special Action Display had the same thin black strip that one could place on the front with the exception that there were only the names of six characters on it which were:
   
   Luke Skywalker
   
   Princess Leia Organa
   
   Lando Calrissian
   
   Boosk the Bounty Hunter
   
   Stormtrooper
   
   FX-7 Medical Droid
   
   This item is very rare indeed and ranges in the $1,000.00 + range.
   
   
   I have studied the book intensively and find it useful. I am a collector of Star Wars items and find the Action Figures a wonderful way of reliving my youthful days and memories of Star Wars when they first appeared in the late 1970's. I cannot post my web address here but if you do a search on darthoz, one can find me on the internet. I do believe in sharing information. Amazon is a excellent resource to find items.
   
   darthoz november 2005



4. This book is a super resource for it has a lot of glossy pics which are highly detailed of the Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Returo of the Jedi and Power of the Force Action Figures as well as Star Wars Action Playsets and Spaceships. It is well worth the money and is easily divided into many sections.
   
   I use it all the time to find Vintage Star Wars items for gifts for Star Wars collectors. I strongly recommend it if you collect Star Wars or are going to in the future. I bought my book from Amazon and also, it is a great gift for any one who loves Star Wars.



5. This is the best Star Wars action figure guide ever published, period. I have been collecting STar Wars figures since 1977 and like this book so much that I have bought multiple copies so that I could take one apart and use with my binder in which I track my collection. Beautiful graphics and well organized. Do not buy this if you expecting a price guide though. My only wish is that Stephen Sansweet would create a second volume, continuing where he left off.

1 comments about 50 More Ways To Use Your Noodle: Loads of land and water games with foam noodle toys.

1. 50 More Ways to Use Your Noodle offered more GREAT ways to work with people, build teams, and have a great time. I've used the activities with junior high, high school, college, and adult age groups and they all enjoyed the activities and the follow-up discussions really helped open their eyes to new situations or ways of approaching challenges. Easy to follow instructions and fun reading. The biggest challenges I've faced with using these materials are deciding which of the fun activities to use and finding space to keep all of the noodle supplies between trainings! :-)

1 comments about Alligators, Old Mink & New Money: One Woman's Adventures in Vintage Clothing.

1. A completely captivating and charming book! Ms. Houtte's writing style is as refined as her vintage style!
   
   As a dabbler in the fabric arts, a student of clothing construction, and someone born with the "thrifting gene," I found her story so engaging I devoured the book in a weekend. Her total lack of snobbery and self-importance was appealing. Here's someone who made their avocation their vocation and still gets excited about working every day. I absolutely loved the stories about her modeling life, how she got into the vintage clothing and accessories business, and most of all her accounts of the people she's met and experiences she's had.
   
   It's not a how-to book (thank goodness!), but the reader can see Ms. Houtte's confidence grow in proportion to her success as a model and later as a business owner. She relates stories of her failures - both personal and professional - with as much élan as she does the stories of her successes. An interesting and refreshing book about things that in and of themselves aren't of any importance, but taken together really add up to a life well-lived.