1 comments about Collectible Glass Shoes: Identification & Value Guide (Collectible Glass Shoes).

1. This is an extremely comprehensive guide to glass shoes. I love that the pictures are so clear, and the descriptions make it easy to identify important distinctions among the various shoes presented.
   
   I'm boycotting Amazon because I just learned (after purchasing this book) that they're the only online bookseller left that is selling dog fighting and cockfighting magazines and videos. These magazines advertise the sale of fighting animals and cockfighting weapons -- sales made illegal by federal law.
   
   I understand freedom of speech, but although I find those products "objectionable" (Amazon's word) and disgusting (my word), the issue is that the First Amendment doesn't protect companies advertising illegal contraband, and that's exactly what the magazines sold by Amazon are doing. I urge you to contact Amazon and ask them to stop selling these products. Thank you.

5 comments about The 3rd Edition Blue Book of Guitar Amplifiers.

1. Though this book looks nice, and has lots of pictures, seems to be dud in my case. It does not list the one amp that I was hoping to find...a Pignose Crossmix 150R. This is a vintage amp designed by Paul Rivera in 1980 or so. It's not even mentioned.
   
   Other than that, the book is okay I guess. The layout is a little confusing to work through, but eventually you can find most things you are looking for. It might be helpful to me one day. But for now, it's probably going to be a coffee table book.



2. This a rehash of the first edition with little change. If you have the 1st edition don't waste your money. 2003? How about a new one?!



3. This book is a companion to the Fjestad's Blue Books of electric and acoutic guitars. Hundreds of different amplifier models, their wattages, tube complement, features and prices are discussed. The entrys are simple to understand and also contain a short history of each amplifier brand. While Marshall and Fender are the two most famous brands of amplifiers that come to mind, this book also covers lesser known brands and rare brands such as Carr and Dumble.
   
   This book is a must for the Guitarist and amp collector. This book has given me amny insights into my amp collection which consists of a 1965 Fender Bandmaster, a 1969 Fender Twin Reverb, a 1980's Fender Vibro Champ, a Marshall Mercury, a Marshall JCM 900 combo and a tweed Fender Pro Junior. This book includes interviews with Paul Reed Smith and Mike Soldano.



4. I would have to say that I will definatley be looking foward to the 2nd edition of this book. It was well written, easy to read, and to understand for those out there who do not possess a great deal of knowladge about amps. Zach Fjestad, a new and upcoming author, definatly shows that he has what it takes to put out a sucessfull book. Watch for other things by him in the future.



5. Oddly enough, before this new 1st Edition, no such manual ever existed for the vintage amp market. Over the years, buyers and sellers alike have had to possess either a gurulike knowledge of the market, or, as is more frequently the case, rely on conjecture and guesswork to determine what different amplifiers are worth.
   So it's with a great sigh of relief that we welcome the Blue Book of Guitar Amplifiers - this guide boasts more than 300 pages and features interviews with experts, a glossary of amp-related terms, a full color photo gallery, concise manufacturer histories, and most importantly, current real market values of innumerable amps, from Acoustic (remember them?) to Zapp (no, I've never heard of them either). Of course, this 1st Edition provides the going price for virtually every mode of Fender, Hiwatt, Marshall, Supro, and Vox, and boasts a section devoted to speaker cabinets. Pretending you know what you're talking about has never been easier!

5 comments about B.J. Summer's Guide To Coca-Cola (B J Summer's Guide to Coca Cola Identification).

1. I recently had the opportunity to review another company's Coca Cola collectibles book, they too a well respected publisher of antique and collectibles books and there's no doubt about it, the B.J.Summers Sixth Edition guide has got that one beat hands down. This is a thoroughly beautiful book. Hardcover, thick, glossy stock pages, and fantastic photography highlight this book.
   
   The introduction provides legend keys to the condition as well as the source of the item's value which I think is very important. Summers lets the reader know if the value came from a collector, a completed auction, a dealer, or the author himself. The book then presents 46 different item categories, everything from signs, bottles, calendars and trays, to more eclectic items like Jewelry, no-drip protectors, and ashtrays. There's also a miscellaneous chapter for items that don't fit into one of the other 45 categories.
   
   I was absolutely fascinated by the number of items pictured in the book. With nearly 300 pages and as many as 10 items pictured per page, there are literally thousands of different Coke items pictured. The signage is simply fantastic, particularly those featuring celebrities such as Eddie Fisher and jazz musician Lionel Hampton. In all there are 82 pages of signs alone. Does it picture EVERY Coca Cola sign ever made? Of course not, but what book does? Still even if you have one that isn't pictured, you should be able to find one similar that you can use as a basis for value.
   
   I really enjoyed the section on coolers and those bright, red coolers of days gone by. I remembered the old Coke cooler we used to have back in the early 70's. Like a lot of people, I love the Coke Santa items, especially those great ads by Haddon Sundblom which look great framed and are still very affordable today.
   
   The problems are few and minor. The categories could have been laid out in alphabetical order but instead there seems to be little rhyme or reason to the order. That said, it's still a truly wonderful book that will delight collectors or just plain fans of nostalgia.
   
   Reviewed by Tim Janson



2. This was a very helpful and informative guide to Coca-Cola collectibles. I would highly recommend it to any serious collector. Full of valuable information.



3. We have quite a few old Coke signs and none were in this guide. We were disappointed to say the least.



4. Pros: Extensive selection of signs and cardboard items with lots of nice colour photos throughout. Many items in this book aren't in Petrettis, so it makes a good companion. All up I am happy with this book and use it regularly to price and check items.
   
   Cons: The book is hoplessely laid out and it can be very hard to find items as it seems there is no logic to the order items are listed or displayed. It seems the entire book is largely made up from the collection of one or two private collections and as such prices can be inflated compared to market values, plus many items are missing simply because these collectors didn't feel they are important enough. As with most other Coca-cola collectors books this one is entirely US centric with very little information on foreign items.



5. *****April 2005 UPDATE: "Could be great" but after seeing the 5th edition, the publisher has taken a book with great potential and flushed that potential down the toilet. What they did was gloss up the paper and make it look old-fashioned (it doesn't work for me, but maybe it will for others), but the huge mistake is that they actually dropped a significant number of items from the book and went overboard hiking up the price values! If you are a serious collector, browse through the 5th edition at a bookstore, before buying it. END UPDATE*****
   
   This guide has great potential, but somebody should do some usability studies on it to make it better. It's a chore finding a specific item. For example, collector trays: I still can't figure out what logic was used to arrange/order them in the book. By title? By name? The index at the back of the book is incomplete and often worthless. For example, there's a whole section on blotters in the front index, but try finding "blotter" in the back index.
   
   Prices are conservative. Unrealistically low in many cases.
   
   There are items that aren't found in other guides, and the color pix are exceptional. I really like this guide, but it has design flaws that need to be fixed.

2 comments about Early American Pattern Glass: Collector's Identification & Price Guide.

1. Ditto to the above review of this book! "Index, Index, Index!!!" I am a relative newbie to antique glass and started a few months ago trying to identify family pieces. Because of the volume, extensive research, pictures, etc... of this source, I bought it a couple of months ago. What a waste of time and money. This book ***only*** has an alphabetical listing of patterns in the Table of Contents - no index. As I am trying to ***indentify*** a glass pattern - do not know the pattern name, the Table of Contents is useless. I have to laborously search page by page (500+) in hopes of stumbling on a black and white pic or sketch of the pattern. Granted several other glass books only have alpha listings of patterns but they are smaller in volume making it a bit easier to thumb through them. Now Warman's Glass by Schroy does have an index which lists not only pattern names but catagories with sub-levels. Why couldn't this book have taken a little more effort and added an invaluable index?



2. I'm sorry to say this book makes me want to stick a fork in my eye every time I use it.
   
   That's because mostly I need to identify an unfamiliar piece of glass, so I don't have a pattern name yet, and for some reason the authors chose to assume that anyone using this book would already know the pattern name of what they were looking up! Even the table of contents lacks any organization other than alphabetical pattern names.
   
   But most of all, identification is made hair-pullingly difficult by the lack of even a rudimentary INDEX.
   
   The authors have provided no way to look up patterns by characteristics such as 'star and circle,' or 'ribbed with lattice,' etc. The authors of books on marks have managed to come up with organization systems like this - so why is it so lacking in pattern identification books? This is not the only book without an index, even Mauzy's excellent book on Depression glass forces you to look at every pattern on every page when you're researching an unfamiliar piece.
   
   But, what makes this book's lack of index particularly egregious is its enormous size and complexity. Having to look at mostly black and white line drawings of patterns on EVERY SINGLE page of this book's 498 (!) pages of patterns is so discouraging I have yet to actually id a piece. I keep just giving up, which makes this book a waste of money.
   
   In fact, if you have a pattern name, you've already GOT identification, haven't you? All you really need to know is the price and what else is available in the pattern line, which YOU HAVE ALREADY IDENTIFIED YOURSELF!! The use of the word "Identification" in this book's title is an outrageous lie.
   
   The only way to make this book valuable to the majority of collectors, who have not managed to memorize thousands of EAPG patterns, is to buy another better organized book of patterns and use this one for the exhaustive listing of all pieces produced or reproduced under each pattern name.
   
   Obviously, the authors put a lot of hard work into this huge volume (which is the only reason this torture device still got two stars) but expecting anyone to access all that info without an index is ridiculous. This is a reference book after all, and reference books are meant to be WELL organized.
   
   If the authors had done more than just part of the job, and included at least an index and/or at least one other organization method than alphabetical pattern names, this could have been THE definitive guide to EAPG. What a disappointment.
   
   This was my first book on EAPG so I don't have any alternative suggestions, but perhaps someone else out there does?

5 comments about Encyclopedia of Bisque Nancy Ann Storybook Dolls: 1936-1947, Identification & Values.

1. Anybody interested in collecting Nancy Ann dolls must have this book which chronicles the history of these beautiful dolls and is chock full of photos and helpful information.



2. This is a wonderful book, especially for the beginning collector. It is mainly a catalog of color photographs of dolls by style number, sometimes showing as many as ten variations of one doll in different costumes. There also is historical information on the evolution of the dolls and ways to identify the various body molds.
   
   This is a true ''encyclopedia'' of every Nancy Ann doll know to exist. I found it an excellent source for identifying dolls from the 1940s which I had found in the attic.
   
   I purchased another Nancy Ann book which is far inferior and which I never use. If you want to buy just one Nancy Ann book, this is it. If you have others, this would be a fine addition to your library and probably the only one you'll ever need for reference.



3. It is easy to tell that a lot went into this beautifully illustrated book. I didn't realize until I went through this book how many dolls of this type there were. I was disappointed that I was only able to identify one of my storybook dolls. Still recommend this book for the avid Nancy Ann Storybook doll collector.



4. Excellent book to inform you and to identify what you are looking at.



5. Ever since the early fifties I have had Nancy Ann Storybook dolls and this book is a must own for anyone interested in these dolls, if for no other reason than it boggles the mind to see how many of these dolls were made, and for all ethnic groups which is interesting when one considers black and Asian dolls were almost unheard of in the pre-60's days. Today I must have about twenty five of the dolls including a Nun doll but haven't been able to find the black doll that had the blue and white plaid dress which I had as a child. My dolls are heirlooms that will be passed down to family members who appreciate the workmanship. The book has so much information on the start of the company and how even during WW2 they were big sellers. And the photos are awesome.

2 comments about Warman's Beatles Field Guide: Values And Identification (Warman's Field Guides).

1. Bought this for a stocking stuffer for Christmas. My husband, a huge Beatles fan, loves it. My teenage son, another Beatles fan, covets it. If I had known how much they would like it, I would've bought two of them. They are particularly interested in old vinyl records. This doesn't list them all, but it is still a handy reference guide for the items it does list. Note that it only lists US record releases, not the UK records. Though it has its limits, it was a great little stocking stuffer for the price (68 cents plus shipping). Beware that, though this item was advertised by a marketplace seller as "used, like new", it did have a marker stripe across the bottom of the book. Didn't bother us, but it isn't quite "like new" for those giving it as a gift to discriminating recipients!



2. This pocket guide to Beatles collectibles is a handy reference for those wishing to value their own collections or add to them. I learned that my copy of Vee Jay's "Introducing the Beatles" album will not be funding my retirement, since it is in fact a counterfeit. The section on U.S. Beatles releases is useful; clear instructions are given for discriminating among the many variations that exist.
   
   The most annoying feature of the guide is a doltish essay by one Chris Nickson. This uninformed commentator goes on about the importance of "George's" "Baby, You're a Rich Man." You don't have to be steeped in Fab Four lore to know that this is a Lennon-McCartney song. How did this error make it through Editorial? It undermines the Guide's credibility. Nickson goes on to archly dismiss most of the Beatles' music. "Get Back" is "not worth the vinyl." Get this guy out of the 2nd edition, if there is one.
   
   The book's other essays are also superfluous. Why include an article about the Moptops' solo careers when the Guide does not cover albums and merchandise from that period? I wish the section on British LPs, allegedly brief due to space constraints, had been expanded; omitting those essays would have freed up a lot of space.
   
   This book, while not masterful, is nevertheless useful for the many of us who don't know whether we own treasures or trash. Buy it, consult its tables of price information, but don't read it.

No comments about Antique Trader Teapots Price Guide.

5 comments about The Ultimate Guide to Hot Wheels Variations: Identification and Price Guide to More Than 2,000 Collector Number Packs!.

1. I started collecting Hotwheels cars about 3 years ago. What makes me different than most of the other collectors, is that I live in Santiago, CHILE (here, Hotwheels cars market is very small compared with other countries). Many of the variations and models that exist in US, aren't available here. Mike's guide has been an invaluable tool for me to get those variations I never know that exist or I will never find hanging in pegs in Santiago.

   I also have had the chance to email Mike many times and he's very compromised with this hobby (or better said, passion!).

   If you love Hotwheels cars, you MUST buy this guide (or the new one that's coming by the end of March 2004).

   U2, from RTC.




2. I found the 'Ultimate Guide to Hot Wheels Variations' one of the most valuable resources to date for the valuation of Hot Wheels variations; both for collectors and dealers alike. As owner of [a web site,] I refer to this guide on a daily basis for determining the minute differences between Hot Wheels variants. The guide is concise, well laid out, easy to follow, and extremely accurate (in my opinion).



3. This book stinks the pictures are horrible I donated it to te libary. It stinks



4. Hi Michael I had the pleasure of getting a copy of your book. It is excellent very informative and a great tool for us collectors. The descriptions were complete and detailed. I have been telling my fellow collectors about it. Finally a book that answers the question "Is there anyone more obsessed with Hot Wheels than me?" Well Michael my deepest sympathy it might be you. LOL . But I do want to give you your deserved recognition for a job well done on the book. Looking foward to future updates of your book. Thanks again for all your hard work on The Complete Guide to Hot Wheels Variations. Yours in the brotherhood of obsessive compulsive Hot Wheelers.



5. This is a great book and being a variation collector for many years I can tell you that if there is a variation not listed in Mikes book, it probably does not exist. I have trusted this guy for many years and he has always been a straight shooter. I have never hunted for cars that were just rumors. I was so glad when I heard this book was coming out, I couldn't wait to buy it. It would be great if I had something he didn't have in there, but I'm still looking for all the things that are! And by the way. The Suzuki Quad is listed on Page 79 number 311 c variation, listed as "Tiger Paw Wheel" which some would call the POW wheel. Mike has always used his own abbriviations. That's why I like him and his book. (His web site was great, sure do miss it) He doesn't follow anybody elses lead. He goes his own way. I have met him and he is real easy to talk to. He is also the first one to admit when he is wrong, which you don't see too much these days when people write books. Thanks for the great book, I can't wait for the next one!

2 comments about The 1912 and 1915 Gustav Stickley Craftsman Furniture Catalogs.

1. The best candidates for this book are those who have purchased or are planning to purchase a Craftsman-style home; however, that should not exclude those who just want to replicate the style in their decor. Although there are many style characteristics of the Arts & Crafts era that are easily identified, this book sheds light on a wide spectrum of pieces with literal authenticity.

   While not a complete collection (items such as light switch coverplates and heating register covers are not included) these reproductions of Stickley's catalogs are the perfect foundation for those looking to purchase Craftsman-style interior accents.

   If you desire to maintain as much as possible the look of the Arts & Crafts movement in your interior design, this book should definitely be a staple in your library.




2. The photography is the old original work, and while it's not up to today's standards it is nice. There are prices for each piece, which is amusing, seeing a $12 price for a table.

   There are measurements for most of the pieces, which is not surprising as the furniture was sold via catalog. There are no plans, this is from a catalog to sell furniture, not plans. But, between the pictures and the measurements you can develop your own plans.

   There is also some history and text pages from Stickley's catalog/magazine.

2 comments about Lighting Fixtures of the Depression Era.

1. The previous reviewer says "this book also didn't give the dates of when the lights were originally made so you can't use it to date a light of your own if you want to." This is not accurate. While Volume I did not include dates for the various catalogs reprinted and priced, it did state that the fixtures are from the 1920's. Volume II, however, covers the 1930's and includes the date of publication for each catalog.
   
   My problem with the series is that the books are only a collection of old catalogs with guesses as to the prices of the items. No real life values are shown, auction or flea market. It is an interesting collection, but almost useless as a price guide.



2. this book was pretty good lot of good picture but would of liked them all to be in color,this book also didnt give the dates of when the lights were orignally made so you can't use it to date a light of your own if you want to.