Antiques and Collectables – The Collectors Blog

Maria Narciso of The Baytown Sun writes this article about a couple in Baytown, TX who has a very large collection of phones:

First-time guests are usually shocked by the large floor-to-ceiling display of novelty phones in the second story of Carol and Monte Layman’s Mont Belvieu home.

The Laymans have accumulated more than 400 novelty phones since they began their collection about 11 years ago.They have several authentic football helmets made into phones, not one, but three Superman phones, a Pac-Man, two Ronald McDonald phones and the Pink Panther, just to name a few.

Henry Miller of the Statesman Journal writes this article about an artist who makes and paints hand-carved wooden fishing lures:

Even the artist doesn’t quite have a handle on describing what he creates.

Call them what you will, the one word that describes his hand-carved, hand-painted wooden pieces is “hot.”

ABC News Online reports the two most valuable stamps in the world were swapped in an unprecedented deal:

Wall Street’s “Bond King” Bill Gross and another stamp collector swapped the two most valuable items in the philatelic world in a trade experts called the biggest deal in 100 years.

The trade was remarkable in that it was a cashless exchange involving one $US3 million item for another and because it completed Mr Gross’ collection of every US stamp from the 19th century – a feat no museum has accomplished.

Dateline Alabama posts this report from the Associated Press about a California collector who recently bought a set of rare coins for a whopping $8.5 million dollars:

An Orange County collector Tuesday paid $8.5 million for a set of 10 rare coins that was a gift from Andrew Jackson to the King of Siam, the buyer’s publicist said.

Steven L. Contursi, president of Rare Coin Wholesalers, bought the set of 19th century gold, silver and copper coins from an anonymous owner described only as “a West Coast business executive,” said publicist Donn Pearlman.