Dig This Treasure!

So, I’ve written in the past about how the most rewarding part of finding things at estate sales and reselling them on eBay (besides sometimes hitting big) is how much new stuff I learn about old things, and how cool it feels to connect someone to something they end up cherishing. I never used to consider myself a person who got excited about really old stuff–I’ve never liked historical fiction and I’ve never gotten excited about seeing old historical documents in person. History just seems boring when you grow up learning about it through textbooks.

But obviously that’s changed over the years, and one thing I’ve always loved are photographs, I guess because they capture a REAL moment in time in a way that no other medium can. So I’ve written about a few different types of photographs I’ve found and discovered are valuable by accident. My favorite photos to find are ones of people with their pets, just because I’m an animal lover. I’m thinking of starting a recurring type of entry that features those pictures.

Anyway, I’ve periodically come across photographs that seem really old and are mounted on hard, round edged, smooth cardstock. They’re always priced a little higher than other cards, which is why I’ve never bought very many. Well, last week Erin and I hit a sale where there was tons of old paper, including a huge box of dirty (as in not clean) antique photographs. I grabbed the whole thing. There were lots of different kinds of pictures but many of them were like these:

After doing some research, I discovered that these are called cabinet cards. There’s actually a really helpful Wikipedia entry about cabinet cards and provides some info that can help you date them. In general, they were the popular style of portrait photographs between 1870 and the 1890s. There were 22 of these in the lot I found, but unfortunately, because they were stored in bad conditions, they aren’t in super great shape. Here’s a picture of most of them: 

I have them up on eBay now, if you’re interested.

The other cool thing is that along with these photographs, I found lots of other ephemera (letters, cards, etc.), including the wedding invite for that baby in the lower right corner! The back of that picture said “Beulah” and in an envelope in a stack of papers, I found this:

Sort of sad, but also sort of cool!

So the other thing I learned about cabinet cards is that the most valuable ones are either post-mortem pictures of children, or pictures of Civil War era soldiers. Speaking of post-mortem photos, here’s an update on mine from a week or so ago:

So yes, there are lots of individuals out there who like to collect antique pictures of dead people, and they’ll pay you a lot of money for them.

One last thing–even more valuable are carte de visite (CDV) photographs, which are from the era before cabinet cards became popular. So keep your eyes peeled for those!

-Sarah

Immediate disclaimer: Erin thinks some of our posts are getting too sexy, but I’m fine with that. 

So, once again, I’ve found myself learning about something sexy that I didn’t intend to learn about. Today I started researching how much a vintage boy’s suit might go for on eBay, since this cute outfit has been laying around my house for a few weeks: 

When you look for completed listings on eBay for “vintage boys suit,” you find a lot of different kinds of items. You find vintage sailor suits, vintage ceramic figurines of children in bunny suits, and then I started noticing something weird. REALLY weird. I was seeing a lot of vintage photographs of boys and young men in bathing suits. And these photographs were selling for a lot of money. This one was the first I noticed that sold for a crapload of money. It seems totally benign. A dad, holding the shoulders of his son. 

But still, I felt creeped out, so I immediately called Erin and told her to take a look. We both thought the same thing–creepy pervs all over the land were scooping up these vintage photographs of boys in bathing suits. But then Erin asked a good question… why? Why do they need to own the photograph if that’s the purpose? Anyway, it gets better. Or worse, depending on how you’re viewing this. 

We started noticing that some of these pictures had the word “bulge” in the title, and then others also had “gay interest” in the titles. So I told Erin that maybe gay men like to use these cool, period pieces to decorate their homes. She seemed skeptical, but I still think that could be it. Maybe that’s wishful thinking. Anyway, if you happen to stumble across a vintage photograph of young men in bathing suits, or any outfit really, where you can see a “bulge,” you might want to consider selling it on eBay, because you could make hundreds of dollars. 

Erin and I talked about how ethical it is or isn’t to sell these items. I’m really not sure how I feel about this. I guess because I don’t really know for sure what the reason is behind the popularity of these items, I’m making a lot of assumptions that are leading me to feel creeped out. But there’s definitely a fine line–there are plenty of pictures up there of little boys in bathing suits that sell for $30-$50, and I honestly can’t think of a GOOD reason for someone to want these pictures, unless they just happen to be collectors of vintage photographs, or have an interest in vintage swimwear. I’m sort of doubtful that that’s the reason, but anything’s possible. 

But in terms of the “bulge” photos of sailors or other seemingly LEGAL young men in swimwear, I’m cool with people buying those, and I’d be cool with selling them. I love vintage photographs. Why wouldn’t someone who likes well-endowed hot old timey dudes want these pics?

Anyway, yes, I know it seems like I am obsessed with all things pervy, but really, I just fall into these situations.

Also, if someone would like a vintage boy’s suit, size 4, created out of zodiac-themed fabric, look no further.

-Sarah

Update from Erin: When Sarah first called me about this, I wasn’t really following what she was saying.  I heard her mention “Zodiac” so I got really excited that she or someone had figured out who the Zodiac killer was.  That was pretty wishful thinking on my part, as she was really just rambling on about that Zodiac patterned children’s suit she had bought.

Anyway, this whole “bulge” photo thing is quite the mystery.  The insanely high prices being paid for these photographs makes me think we are missing the full story here.  Would a perv really spend so much money on these pics when they can probably get free images from their evil co-conspirators in the internet underworld?  

I guess gay collectors–we’ll call them gaylectors–might be a reasonable hypothesis for this phenomenon. So for the record, let me say that the bathing suit pics of well-endowed GROWN men are pretty cool.  Like Sarah, I would totally buy them and sell them (especially because it could make us rich).  

That leaves the pics of little boys (like seriously young boys) in bathing suits being sold and advertised as “bulge” or “topless”  VERY SUSPECT.  I really cannot think of any good explanation for this.  But maybe I can email Nancy Grace and she will bust it wide open.