tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-149164682012-01-10T16:43:39.368-08:00Discovering Unexpected TreasuresOnline Storage Gurunoreply@blogger.comBlogger251100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-75413728475956112592007-10-22T01:10:00.000-07:002007-10-22T01:22:32.683-07:00

After a long long posting hiatus we're back to bring you the best and most surprising auction results together with some decent information about the items and their history.Auctionfunk-wise we've been offline for a little over two years due to turbulent - but good - changes in our personal lives (kids, jobs, etc.). After reviewing our old AuctionFunk blog we felt the excitement of treasure

Sergejnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-1124424599801476112005-08-18T19:17:00.000-07:002007-10-21T23:17:35.281-07:00

It's that time of the year again, back to school! New books, a new bag, and of course a new lunchbox set decorated with your childs favorite characters... Did you know lunchboxes are collectibles as well? A nice example of a collectible lunchbox is the 1970 Brady Bunch lunchbox set pictured here, which recently sold for $938.This item is another example of how two collecting niches come together

Sergejnoreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-1124409377547384532005-08-18T16:00:00.000-07:002007-10-21T21:38:33.976-07:00

Once again we found you an absolutely amazing treasure. This one took us by surprise more than ever! What we have here is a vintage 1970s PEZ dispenser set depicting the characters Asterix, Obelix and the Druid from the well-known comic. This set of seemingly ordinary PEZ dispensers recently sold for the unbelievable amount of $4,500! We've said it before, but we had no clue that PEZ dispensers,

Sergejnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-36600638454449802462005-08-15T21:57:00.000-07:002007-10-21T22:02:40.379-07:00

This rather ordinary looking phone was recently sold for the handsome amount of $378. Not a fortune, but no pocket change either. To the untrained eye (including ourselves), this looks like a simple telephone made of plastic, which by all means, it is. So what makes it special?This vintage telephone is a Western Electric model 302 phone. These phones were produced by Western Electric from 1937 to

Sergejnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-90137673500918855902005-08-13T22:06:00.000-07:002007-10-21T22:09:53.781-07:00

Once again we were surprised at what we found. The bottle pictured here sold for $6,251 the other day. Before you think 'who would pay such an insane amount of money for a bottle, let's dive a little deeper into the history of it.This bottle is an antique soda bottle from about mid-nineteenth century; it is over 150 years old! It was made by the company Gardner and Brown, as in Philip Gardner and

Sergejnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-6492314862113240722005-08-11T22:21:00.000-07:002007-10-21T22:25:54.558-07:00

This item would fit in any retro-design furnished area of your house. We think it looks awesome, and would love to have one (if only it were not such an expensive collectible...). This wonderful piece of retro-electronica is a coin-operated (coin-op for short) computer game from 1971 called Computer Space. In fact, it was the first ever commercial coin-op arcade video game!This sample sold for

Sergejnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-1123803988511074632005-08-11T16:40:00.000-07:002005-08-13T01:07:56.216-07:00

We recently received some nice reviews. 'Fruey' posted this review on the 'Let's have it' blog yesterday, and we got an 83 out of 100 on Blogexplosion last week. We were also listed as the blog of the day on the Christian Activism News blog on August 6th, and as blog of the day [ well, that's what we make of it ;) ] on Land-o-Links on August 10th. Thank you all for your kind words and nice

Sergejnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-4752830198133480342005-08-10T22:44:00.000-07:002007-10-21T22:50:29.542-07:00

We keep discovering new treasures. Casino chip collecting is a collecting niche that is totally unfamiliar territory for us, but let's see what we can find out.Nevada was the first state to legalize casino gambling, in 1931, and for a long time remained the only state where casinos were legal (the next state following suit was New Jersey in 1978). Before and after the final legalization of

Sergejnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-18364795908295494452005-08-09T22:53:00.000-07:002007-10-21T22:57:28.776-07:00

Postcard collecting - also called Deltiology - is very popular. It is easy to start, and allows you to grow a significant collection fairly quickly, simply because there are zillions of postcards out there, most of which are very affordable. One of the most attractive aspects of postcard collecting is that it allows you to collect specific themes, selecting only those cards for your collection

Sergejnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-945671424784886292005-08-07T22:14:00.000-07:002007-10-21T22:18:15.402-07:00

When we saw this, we went "what the hell?!". First, we thought these were a couple of fake auctions. We're still not sure...These are two packs of vintage cigarette rolling paper from the 1930's. The People's Tobacco Co. pack on the left sold for $1,300, and the Kentucky Leader pack on the right sold for $1,704. Several other apparently rare packs vintage rolling paper changed hands in the last

Sergejnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-1123207839963116192005-08-04T17:14:00.000-07:002007-10-21T23:06:19.997-07:00

What a cute little Teddy Bear! And my gosh, what a cute amount of money it sold for! First of all, let's establish the fact that there is a lot of Teddy Bear collectors out there. There even are several musea around the world, like this one in Naples (USA) or this one in Stratford-upon-Avon (UK), or the famous Izu Teddy Bear musuem in Japan, which among others is home to the famous Teddy Girl, a

Sergejnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-1123119651033994932005-08-03T16:56:00.000-07:002007-10-21T23:11:21.965-07:00

At first sight, this is just another old newspaper, consisting of only a couple of pages, all yellowed with the edges of the pages being very fragile, but in relatively good condition. Looking closely, we find that this is quite an old paper, published in 1859. Still, a price of $1,292 seems a little steep, even for such an old newspaper.The title of the paper reveals why this is a valuable item,

Sergejnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-1123009539490763422005-08-02T11:25:00.000-07:002007-10-21T23:28:04.900-07:00

Last weekend we were at a cousin's birthday party, and of all the gifts that were unwrapped, one in particular made all the other children go "WOOOAAHHH", after which they scrambled around the big pink box to get a better view. It was a Barbie set.Barbie has been around since 1959. She was the brainchild of a lady named Ruth Handler (a Mattel co-founder), who invented the doll after seeing her

Sergejnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-1122932472050328912005-08-01T13:19:00.000-07:002007-10-21T23:57:44.980-07:00

An old, yellowed photograph, an image captured in the 19th century depicting a bunch of soldiers in front of a building, with wagon and tree in the foreground. The composition of this photograph truly bad, and it the condition is not perfect. So why did someone pay $1,275 for this picture?Upon closer inspection, we can see that the soldiers in the picture are Union soldiers. American Civil war

Sergejnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-1122802200234676602005-07-31T01:27:00.000-07:002007-10-22T00:21:25.414-07:00

We've all played with yo-yo's when we were young. The skill, the frustration of the string getting tangled, the first successful 'walking the dog' trick... A yo-yo is every child's favorite toy for a (usually short) while, and then it gets thrown into a box with the rest of the unwanted toys, or is simply thrown away...Amazingly, the yo-yo has been around since 500 B.C (!), samples from ancient

Online Storage Gurunoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-1122715532927263222005-07-30T02:03:00.000-07:002007-10-22T00:24:22.432-07:00

This beer can has a nice vintage look to it, but we would not have paid more than $5 for it if we saw it in a yardsale. But ... this beer can sold for $5,600?!Breweriana is another collectible category many people may be unfamiliar with. It involves anything to do with breweries and beer, like advertising, signs, mugs, bottles, glasses, and cans.The beer can was invented in 1933 by Krueger's.

Sergejnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-1122712573932935032005-07-30T00:55:00.000-07:002007-10-22T00:30:18.558-07:00

Instantly, you recognize the brand. That is the power of branding, and that is the classic power of the Nike logo. We had no idea that old Nike Basketball shoes were collectible (who collects ... well never mind), but that shows the idea behind this blog; exposing hidden treasures stacked away in boxes, the garage, the attic...This is a pair of Nike Air Jordan I basketball shoes. They were the

Sergejnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-1122688192702284992005-07-29T18:00:00.000-07:002007-10-22T00:35:15.123-07:00

At first sight, this looks like a flimsy old magazine. Sure, it has Mickey Mouse on the cover, but there are so many magazines & books with Mickey on the cover.What we have here is the first ever Mickey Mouse book, published by Bibo & Lang in 1930. As with any collectible, 'firsts' always sell for a premium. In this $568 case, the issue was not even complete (two pages are reportedly missing).The

Sergejnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-1122681471082923122005-07-29T16:32:00.000-07:002007-10-22T00:40:41.579-07:00

Remember the Atari 2600? If you don't because you were not born yet, too young, or were just not interested in it at the time, the Atari 2600 was on of the most succesful game consoles in the late 70s and early 80s. It's the vintage game console equivalent of todays Xbox and the Playstation consoles. The 2600 worked with cartridges that contained the games in a ROM (Read Only Memory) chip on the

Sergejnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-1122627387882975922005-07-29T01:41:00.000-07:002007-10-22T00:45:28.359-07:00

If I saw this at an estate sale for $30-40, I'd consider buying it (knowing it was an antique radio from the 30s/40s). Just because I think it is a very attractive piece.To collectors, this is an attractive piece too. It is a FADA Bullet catalin radio, and usually radios in this category command quite the price. Many of them are just very design, and colorful too! As with every collectible,

Sergejnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-1122625449020008102005-07-29T00:40:00.000-07:002007-10-22T00:51:20.476-07:00

The december 1953 issue of Playboy magazine was the premier issue, and is highly sought after by collectors. Marilyn Monroe is featured on the cover, as well as on the centerfold color spread in the magazine. This specific issue is complete and in good condition - commending quite a high price. Similar issues were recently sold in the range of $1,700-$3,000. Other early issues from the first year

Sergejnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-1122622318968436172005-07-29T00:04:00.000-07:002007-10-22T00:57:03.597-07:00

Behold a pair of old Levis Jeans. No wait, a pair of vintage 501XX BIG E Jeans from the late 40's, early 50's. Big E: In 1936, when the red 'LEVIS' tab was added, the E was a big E. In 1971, the writing was changed to 'Levis'. Apparently this one has all the right markings of a genuine vintage pair of 501's, and apparently, it is worth $1,575 to someone! We did some searching and there is plenty

Sergejnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-1122620086031250712005-07-28T23:33:00.000-07:002007-10-22T01:04:42.022-07:00

This is a type of collectible that many people have a hard time understanding. 'It's TRASH!', many say. Well, there are people out there who collect it, so some of it automatically gets a value, see? There are quite a bit of vintage computer collectors out there, and Ebay has a seperate category for Vintage Computing. The history of computers is a rapidly expanding field, and plenty of good books

Sergejnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-1122617860306009872005-07-28T23:02:00.000-07:002007-10-22T01:07:57.879-07:00

This batch of cards sold for $399. To the unknowing eye, they're just a batch of colorful cards with prints from various episodes in the history of computers.This set is the 'Eames Computer House of Cards' from 1970. Specifically, the Eameses designed it for the Osaka World fair, and it was a souvenir for visitors to the IBM Pavillion. This house of cards - Charles and Ray Eames designed several

Sergejnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14916468.post-1122615583044573642005-07-28T22:32:00.000-07:002007-10-22T01:10:27.662-07:00

The Auction Funk blog is planning to bring you the best, most unexpected, and informative auction results from online auction sites like Ebay and ... well mostly Ebay :) . Oftentimes when perusing through Ebay, we find high or very high priced items, and think ... "Whadda?! Did not have a clue that that would be worth that much!"Our aim is to blog a few items on a daily basis, to give you an idea

Sergejnoreply@blogger.com0