A collection of rare ancient Greek coins which has been hidden away for two decades is expected to sell for millions of dollars when it goes up for auction in New York on Wednesday.
My husband and I are 48. A couple of years ago he started buying collectible guns for our retirement and has spent over $250,000 on them so far. I totally disagree with his strategy, but would like to know what you think. Is this a good idea? -- D.K., Laramie, Wyoming
When the U.S. Postal Service printed 3 billion stamps last year, it thought the image was of the Statue of Liberty, the iconic symbol of freedom keeping watch over huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
Every so often life assigns you a family: First at birth (when you meet the bozos who share your surname), again in college (when you're forcibly bunked with a stranger from Cincinnati) and again at marriage (when annexed by in-laws who suddenly call you "son"). In each case, you didn't choose these people, they certainly didn't choose you, but chance -- that sadistic matchmaker -- has thrown you together for life.
Move over, baseball. The coolest new trading cards feature a "Geek a Week."
When most people think of "Weird Al" Yankovic, the phrase "devourer of worlds" usually doesn't leap to mind.
Years after his death, baseball legend Honus Wagner hit a home run for a group of nuns, who will use proceeds from the sale of his extremely rare baseball card to do charitable work.
At seven o'clock on the opening day of London's premier contemporary art fair, Frieze, there was a scrum for champagne. People were celebrating.
Johnny Bench, Tony LaRussa and Steve Carlton, their 1980s-style hair shoved under their caps, look forever young in a substantial baseball card collection that's missing an owner.
A demure redhead in a modest black dress is making a brief appearance in New York, before finally returning home to Austria.
updated: Tue Dec 22 2009 22:04:00
A hospital complaint draws a fine and spawns a social movement in Indonesia. CNN's Atika Shubert reports.
Prita Mulyasari has become an "accidental hero" in Indonesia, spawning a social movement among many Indonesians in support of her battle with the country's legal system.
Peter Nash struts around a Hollywood soundstage, brandishing a silver-knobbed cane and spitting acid rhymes. "Getting paid to peddle sneakers and soda pop," he raps. "The thin ice you skate upon will break and set ya straight." In his boxy suit and slicked-back hair, Nash, 24, has a vaguely thuggish demeanor at odds with his Ivy League bachelor's degree in English. To his fans he is Prime Minister Pete Nice, of the interracial rap trio 3rd Bass. It is 1991, and the group is on The Arsenio Hall Show performing its biggest hit, the No. 1 rap single Pop Goes the Weasel. It's an extended verbal beat down of white rapper Vanilla Ice, whom it reviles as a culture thief, and it has helped pay for Nash's tinted-window Mercedes and his penthouse apartment in New York City. "Ya boosted the record, then ya looped it, ya looped it," Nash raps, "but now you're getting sued kinda stoopid."
updated: Wed Apr 22 2009 17:11:00
A man receives a postcard in the mail that was sent 47 years ago. CNN.com's Jim Kavanagh has the story.
Insurance agent David Conn received a postcard recently in his Hudson, Ohio, post office box: "Greetings from Montana."
Homer Simpson and his cartoon family soon will help you get letters, bills and packages to their destinations.
"I'll trade you two Bernie Madoffs for a Derek Jeter and David Wright."
The United States Mint launched a new coin Tuesday featuring jazz legend Duke Ellington, making him the first African-American to appear by himself on a circulating U.S. coin.
Most adults still think you have to go to Target for a deck of trading cards if you want to play a hit game like "Magic: The Gathering." Their kids know better.
Baseball-style cards offer celeb stats – and their favorites and even fears – to benefit charities
J.K. Rowling's U.S. publisher is trying to match her success with a new series of children's books that adds multimedia -- but seems a little more engineered
Peter Pap Oriental Rugs was one of the biggest names in antique Oriental rugs when we last visited the company ("Rugs to Riches," May 2007).
Anyone who appreciates antiques or collectibles understands the bliss that comes from scoring some one-in-a-million piece at one-hundredth of its price -and then telling everybody about your amazing catch. Perhaps the best place to discover that perfect find, and a best-kept secret of antiques dealers, is the estate sale.
She was never really skinny or terribly overweight.
updated: Mon Apr 14 2008 12:00:00
Tired of being overweight, Lynn Bering joined Weight Watchers, started a blog and lost 168 pounds.
She was never really skinny or terribly overweight for most of her life.
Check out these seven truly amazing destinations and plan the best place for your great escape.
It's 6 a.m. and still dark out, but to beat traffic I climb aboard a shuttle bus with a crowd of other car enthusiasts and head for the Pebble Beach Golf Links. Today is the last day of Monterey Speed Week, and the marquee event - the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, the largest, most glamorous classic-car exhibition and competition in America - is set to begin.
An apparent audiotape of O. J. Simpson's standoff with men he accused of stealing his memorabilia begins with the ex-NFL star demanding, "Don't let nobody out of here"
L.A. may be known for starlets and freeways, but lately art collectors are flocking to the city's galleries.
Coin collectors may be happy to hear a possible extension of 50-state quarter program scheduled to wrap up by the end of 2008, according to a published report.
Nearly half a billion dollars worth of fine art was exchanged during Christie's sale of modern and impressionist art in New York City last week. Fancy being a player in the art world? Here's our paint-by-numbers guide.
At about midnight last July 5, the New York Police Department closed Manhattan's East 86th Street. Billionaire Ronald S. Lauder walked back and forth in the street, waiting. Employees of his boutiq...
There is gold you can hold and gold you can fold. Which one an investor chooses will likely come down to individual preference as well as the price outlook.
When Jim Sands, a Michigan machinist, took his kids out for a neighborhood bike ride a few summers ago, he wasn't planning to go treasure hunting. That was his wife's department. In fact, while he ...
For four months, Liev Schreiber did eight intense shows a week in a Broadway production of "Glengarry Glen Ross." At the same time, he was editing his film-directing debut, "Everything Is Illuminated."
In his quest to find well-heeled clients for his rare-coin business, Ken Smaltz Jr., 42, shows up in the most unlikely places, from baseball's spring training camps to New York City's Friar's Club,...
We're 50 miles off Florida's Atlantic coast, and things aren't going well. A deep-sea recovery device the size of a Hummer is floating in the water alongside its 250-foot-long mother ship, the Odys...
A mistake in the minting process for some quarters issued last year is putting coin collectors in a frenzy. Speculators are bidding up prices for the recently discovered pieces from their 25-cent face value to nearly $1,500.
Jack White of the White Stripes nearly traded his signature red-and-white outfits for a priest's robe and collar.
The term art collector can be intimidating. To most of us it implies a wealth of cultural and historical knowledge, a high-class sophistication bordering on stuffiness, and huge piles of money—in s...
When people start paying more than $100,000 for 30- to 40-year-old Plymouths, Pontiacs and Chevrolets, some classic car collectors start to worry.
PHOENIX (Komando.com) - Organizing collectibles is a snap using your computer. You can maintain records on what you own, its value, the location and even include a picture. While specialized database software helps get the job done, you may already have exactly what you need.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -The Depression-era bank robber Willie Sutton famously targeted banks because "that's where the money is."
Randy Adams had a common American affliction: an outbreak of junk overpopulating his garage. There were so many unloved gadgets residing there that his wife couldn't get the car in anymore. Why not...
Want to get into the collector car hobby but you don't have, oh, $650,000 to spend on a nicely restored '32 Duesenberg?
It's 6 A.M., and an older man is running through the aisles of the Brimfield Antique Show, 90 minutes southwest of Boston. "Any poker chips?" he pleads at each booth he passes. "Anything gambling-r...
If you hear that Tom Ridge was just traded for two F-16 fighter jets, don't be alarmed. Collectibles maker Topps has launched an Enduring Freedom picture card set that includes world leaders like V...
It happens to almost everyone sooner or later. Your parents die or move into a nursing home or take off for the South Seas, and you are left to deal with the houseful of stuff they left behind. If ...
There's a widely held view that our stock market woes were all but inevitable given the inexperience of those in charge. Twenty-six-year-old fund managers and dorm-room CEOs, goes the conventional ...
And you think your taxes are tough? The IRS doesn't mind if you collect clocks--or do anything else it considers unusual. It just wants you to fill out a few little forms.
If you've ever sold anything at an online auction, you were probably amazed at how easy it was to unload your stuff. But you probably didn't give much thought to the tax consequences of your sale. ...
Years ago, to support my computer habit I started hawking software by mail. When people actually began ordering, I naively bought sheets of stamps in various denominations, but they never quite mat...
My dad collected things. Our house was filled with 19th-century furniture and glassware. He also had stamp plate blocks, coins and even Chinese snuff bottles, which he displayed in a little mirror-...
Somebody please stop me. It's nearly midnight on a Monday evening, and I'm sitting in front of my computer, hoping to pay many times the actual value of a normally inexpensive, everyday item. No, I...
The dangerous thing about auctions is that bidders can end up paying more than they ever meant to, because they don't want to risk missing a great opportunity. Kind of like the way investors are tr...
Frequently asked question No. 5 on Hasbro's official Starting Lineup Website asks why the toymaker allows the miniature sports collectibles to be sold "out the back door." It might as well have sai...
NEVER MIND THE FLAT TAX, THE FEDERAL DEFICIT OR even family values. To thousands of Americans, the '96 presidential election is about one thing: grabbing up all the pins, pens and posters they can ...
Unloading valuable assets is common at IBM these days. Nearly half the work force has been dismissed, close to $2 billion in real estate was sold off in 1994, and now the cream of its vast art coll...
As millions of compact-disk owners toss their old 45s and LP vinyl records, other consumers are snapping up those platters for a song. "Right now is the best time investors will ever have to search...
Give credit where it's due: Collectors can create value in almost anything. And these days a growing number have set their sights on old credit cards, shelling out $500 to $700 for pieces of expire...
Don't call the junkyard yet! You wouldn't believe what some people will pay for used, everyday items that you may be tempted to throw away. If you've recently traded up to a better computer, TV, st...
If you prefer combing flea markets and galleries to scanning stock tables, you may want to put a small portion -- no more than 10% tops -- of your investable wealth in collectibles. But don't shop ...
Q Last June, my wife gave birth to a beautiful little girl. The obstetrician called the birth precipitous because we arrived at the delivery room only four minutes before Karen was born. It was a w...
Forecasting the value of collectibles is tricky, since their worth depends on intangibles like society's evolving sense of beauty, nostalgic appeal and the cultural zeitgeist. Still, we scanned doz...
Don't sell your Elmer Fudd tiara yet. Prices for collectibles are rising. Auctioneer Ted Hake, owner of Hake's Americana & Collectibles in York, Pennsylvania, says bidders paid record prices in Apr...
BEN EDWARDS, the head of St. Louis brokerage A.G. Edwards & Sons, rises early Saturday mornings, before his wife gets up, to water his 18th-century English furniture. Judi Hofer, chief executive of...
By now you've probably heard the incredible shocker: Superman is dead, bumped off by Doomsday, an underground creature in November's Superman No. 75 comic book. There's even worse news, though. If ...
Here's a rundown on the rise -- and sometimes ruinous fall -- of some of the hottest collectibles of the past 20 years:
NOW THAT the speculative bubbles have burst and dropped the collectibles market closer to earth, you may be wondering whether it's time to buy. The answer is yes -- if you know what you're doing. I...
Since the rare-coin market is risky and largely unregulated, many investors have begun to put their faith in services claiming to provide standardized appraisals by encasing coins in plastic slabs ...
-- Following MONEY's March story ''The Pros Flub Our Third Annual Tax-Return Test,'' many readers have requested a copy of the tax preparers' quiz. It is available by sending a $5 check or money or...
''It's the greatest investment in the world . . . There's not much supply out there and demand is sky-high . . . Don't miss the huge price run-ups . . . Some of our clients doubled their money last...
The decision to permit the destruction of the Berlin Wall instantly swelled the ranks of capitalism: it turned every Berliner with a hammer and a satchel into an entrepreneur. Pieces of the wall we...
Encasing rare coins in plastic slabs -- a practice pioneered just four years ago by fraud-conscious dealers -- was supposed to allow collectors to buy and sell with confidence. It hasn't worked out...
By now, you've probably seen former Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin on TV hawking those new $5 coins commemorating the 20th anniversary of the first moon walk. The lunar coins, along with their $50 si...
TAXES Q. My job as a truck driver requires that I wear a uniform and clean my own shirts. Other employees deduct $400 to $500 in laundry bills annually. This alone wouldn't exceed 2% of my adjusted...
When shopping for a financial planner or a stockbroker, ask about the types of investments that would be suitable for you. If the adviser suggests ones that you think are too risky, overly sophisti...
Though philately lacks the cachet of collecting art or cars, about 19 million Americans collect stamps, including Marc Haas, president of American Diversified Enterprises, and publisher Malcolm For...
Whether or not oat bran really clears the fat out of arteries, it can sure bulk up your bank account. Or it would have if you'd invested in oats a little over a year ago, when a futures contract we...
LEERY of collectibles? Caution makes sense when considering them, but a couple of factors have lately made them more alluring. When the bottom dropped out of the bull market last year, shell-shocke...
It used to be that when there was a gold rush, you had to git where the gold was. Timing was important. A good horse helped. Nowadays it's simpler. Gold bullion coins, minted by countries as legal ...
As investments go, rare stamps have hardly been on a roll. Their crash occurred back in 1983, and they are only now emerging from the doldrums. Moreover, stamp prices may not repeat the run-up of t...
Like to own a copy of the exuberant porcelain sculpture that Reagan gave Gorbachev at the summit last December? You can. Boehm Studio in Trenton, N.J., maker of the silver-and-gold-bedizened globe ...
Rare gold coins, always a hot item in the $1-billion-a-year coin collecting market, are looking even more lustrous as investors scramble to give their portfolios a few troy ounces of inflation prot...
LIVING TRUSTS Q. To avoid probate, I have set up living trusts for many of my assets. Can I also set up a living trust for the CDs in my Individual Retirement Account? Abraham Goldberg Stamford, Co...
If the stock market's ups and downs are making you seasick, why not put a buck or two into assets that you can at least have fun with -- like a Shirley Temple doll or Pillow Speaker radio? While th...
Not even a goldbug could have conjured up a likelier time than now to diversify your investments with a little gold, silver or platinum. The Wall Street crash has shown in Technicolor the dangers o...
! It wasn't cool to care about money in the '60s, but that shouldn't stop enterprising ex-hippies from making some bread off the relics of their peace- and-love past. You already know how lucrative...
If all the gold that has been taken from the earth in all of recorded history could be molded into one cube, it would measure only 18 yards to a side -- small enough to fit in a modest suburban bac...
Although Elvis Presley died 10 years ago this Aug. 16 as an overweight, drug- abusing, near has-been at age 42, the King today is ''taking care of business in a flash,'' to use his own life's philo...
Okay. You are sure there won't be a nuclear war before Easter. You are certain inflation will lay low, and Uncle Sam will not default on his bonds. So why invest even a dime of your money in gold, ...
When I was a kid growing up in Dallas after World War II, pennies, nickels and dimes really meant something. They helped you toward specific and attainable goals. Three cents each bought my cousin ...
Here's the plan: Start buying Canadian gold-mining stocks as a hedge against the coming hyperinflation. Then set up an Austrian bank account to guard your privacy after the ensuing crash. To prepar...
Contemporary crafts, once disdained by art collectors, are now coming into their own -- and U.S. corporations are helping. With a $250,000 grant from Philip Morris Cos., the American Craft Museum i...
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