Aren't you glad winter is almost over, with March here? I'm ready to plant a vegetable garden, how about you? But before I do, I better start out this week's column ...
A company out of Memphis, Tennessee, today is scanning a lot of our old historic Marietta postcards and reselling them on eBay, so be careful what you pay a lot of money for. What you think may be an original Fischer Studio Marietta postcard may just be a reprint.
The statue in Marietta marking the spot where General Arthur St. Clair was inaugurated governor of the Northwest Territory is also being scanned from the original postcard photo by Fischer Studios in Marietta and selling online. One just sold for a "buy it now" price on eBay for $19.88. Also selling online is a photo of Rufus Putnam, founder of Marietta.
A 1910 Marietta Masonic Temple postcard that was printed in Germany recently sold for a "buy it now" price of $9.95. The original photo postcard was taken by Fischer Studios in Marietta and was never printed in Germany.
Remember me telling you in one of my columns about the 1898 advertisement that sold on eBay showing Helen Weber of Marietta as a spokesperson for the Hall Chemical Company, showing she had lost 40 pounds of fat by using their product. Well after the magazine advertisement sold on eBay, another copy turns up a couple days later on eBay for sale, which shows you these items are being scanned over and over again and resold.
The guy in Marietta who recently paid $50 on eBay for a rare hard to find Marietta "Harley Davidson T-shirt" needs to know he's not the only one that owns one of these T-shirts that was supposedly made in the 1980s. There are hundreds of other people out there that also own one that was made in 2012. Not only that, some of these companies don't even have the rights to make and distribute these T-shirts from Harley Davidson Company.
Marietta College, today, owns a large collection of original historic photographs taken by Fischer Studios in Marietta. When Fischer passed away in Marietta, Mrs. Fischer and her son gave all these historic photographs to the college. The college today owns all rights to this material being scanned and sold online.
Also being sold online for high prices today are Marietta High School yearbooks. You would think the Marietta Board of Education would have a say in these books being reprinted and sold all over the country and that Marietta College would have a say in who is allowed to reprint material once belonging to Fischer Studio.
It would be nice if the Marietta College would donate the Fischer Studio photograph collection to the city of Marietta. The photographs could be made into postcards and sold at the Marietta Armory Travel Center to tourists. Many of these photographs show historical images of Marietta's past, and they would make a good revenue for the armory operating costs when it opens.
Auction prices
- March 29, 1913 postcard showing extensive damage to the Marietta Chair Factory, $34.99, sold for "buy it now price" on eBay.
- 1907 postcard showing horse drawn delivery wagon in front of Louis Schaffer Harness and Saddle shop, and Brauns Bakery and Restaurant on Front Street, $20.
- 1988 Junior League Parkersburg cookbook with local advertising, $50.
- Rare aqua beer bottle of the Parkersburg Brewing Company, $22.99.
Larry Koon is the author of several price guide books on antiques and collectibles. His column appears every Monday on Life. Send letters to Treasure in the Attic, c/o The Marietta Times, 700 Channel Lane, Marietta 45750; or e-mail him at koonantiques@yahoo.com. When writing, send a complete description of the item, along with size, color, any markings on the item along with condition the item is in, and how the item was obtained, and any other information. If possible, send a photograph. Letters will be answered through this column.
