More January 2006 Hotlines

Happy New Year! Too bad we can’t celebrate with a bottle of the world’s most expensive Champagne sold at auction. A Methuselah (the equivalent of eight standard bottles) of Louis Roederer Cristal 1990 sold for $14,730 at Bonhams in London.

Jewelry shaped like beetles, spiders, bees, flies, and other insects is no longer rejected as too creepy-crawly. Collectors are buying it along with pieces shaped like birds, butterflies, and even snakes. Realistic pins based on nature were very popular in Victorian times.

Sales of new Barbie dolls and accessories have been dropping for several years as Bratz dolls gained in favor. The under-5 crowd still likes Barbie best, but older girls have switched to the more “hip” dolls. Will there be fewer collectors of Barbie dolls when today’s preteens are older?

Cookie jar prices are down from the highs of the early 1990s.

Save your cereal-box premiums. A Sacagawea dollar coin was packed inside 5,500 Cheerios boxes sold in January 2000-that’s about one in every 2,000 boxes. It turns out the dollars Cheerios used were experimental coins, with eagle feathers more defined than on standard-issue coins. One of these test coins sold recently for $4,724, so it pays to check if you saved a Cheerios coin six years ago.

Clutter is a growing problem, maybe because today’s superstores carry upwards of 130,000 products. The corner store used to stock about 1,000. Another reason may be genetic. Scientists can now do brain scans that show different activity in the brains of those who save and those who discard. But does this explain those of us who clutter the house with collections?

Many antique malls don’t sell fine jewelry. They carry only costume jewelry because of concerns about theft.