Antiques and Collectables – The Collectors Blog

Jose Antonio Vargas of The Washington Post reports that old computers are now considered as collectible:

From an early 1975 Altair 8800, named after a planet in a “Star Trek” episode, to a 1981 IBM Personal Computer that a young Bill Gates helped develop, what’s on the collectibles menu covers a broadening taste. Some of these computers are rare. Some are actually quite common and may be sitting in people’s basements right now.

Jim Brockman of the Herald Today writes about what sports memorabilia is really worth:

Five sheets of discolored legal paper fetched $996,000 on June 10 at an auction in New York. The information contained on those aging pages recorded and confirmed the $100,000 bill of sale that sent a baseball player named Babe Ruth from Boston to New York.

The North County Times posts this article by Justin M. Norton of the Associated Press about Master Replicas, Inc., a company that specializes in prop reproductions:

Trekkies wishing to own a piece of “Star Trek” memorabilia better than plastic Spock ears or a rusty 1960s lunchbox don’t need to use the Vulcan nerve pinch on a toy store clerk to wrest items for their collection.

For $349, they can own an authentic reproduction of an original series “Tricorder,” a device used to scan alien planets, provide medical diagnoses or even analyze aliens. They can also own a “Klingon disruptor” — a weapon used by an alien race — for $249.

Chris Otts of The Courier-Journal reports on how vinyl albums are making a comeback with young music listeners:

Lyndi Curtis loves music and owns about 1,300 albums. She must have an iPod or a big CD wallet to store her collection, right?

Think again. Curtis, 22, listens almost exclusively to vinyl records, a format some thought would die with the generation that played them in 1960s and ’70s.