The new 2019 – and improved – Kovels’ Antiques & Collectible Price Guide 2019 is almost here! You have asked for help dating collectibles, so we have added hundreds of marks on ceramics, silver, toys and more that are listed in each category along with the paragraph that gives a short history of the factory or collectible.

Kovels’ is the most complete antiques and collectibles price guide on the market. There are 700 categories, 16,000 prices and 2,500 color pictures. It has been curated and checked for content accuracy by experts in their fields. The illustrated list of record prices is another plus. Also new is a special report, “What’s Hot and What’s Not” discussing the changes of the market interests and prices during this past year. It includes the ups and downs to help you find the places to buy or sell favorite items. Did you know that a 1930’s Black Duck decoy sold for $96,000 in 2018?

In other news, there is a toy merry-go-round and carousel sale report on page 7. That’s because carousels and carousel collectibles are some of my special interests. We just helped save a full-size carousel built in 1910 in Cleveland’s Euclid Beach Park that operated until the park closed in 1969. The rides were sold to a park in Maine (I didn’t know you could buy and sell things as large as carousels or roller coasters) and resold in 1997 to a group of Clevelanders, put in storage, and forgotten. People didn’t realize how important a carousel was in earlier centuries and what fun they still are today. We raised the money to build a round glass building at the Western Reserve History Center for the 58 horses, carriages, band organ and elaborate trim. It took almost five years, but the carousel was put together in its new building and opened for riders a few years ago. In June it had its 200,000th rider. That means maybe 100,000 people (including children) visited the History Center for the first time. Many paid to join, had fun and returned to learn about the car collection, fashions, historic house and other items of the past that are also there.

Collectors know how to do research, have great interest in history and preservation, and know how to buy and sell at the best prices. Museums need your help; collectors can contribute their enthusiasm, knowledge and something from their collections to their community.

Order information: Kovels’ Antiques & Collectibles Price Guide 2019 – $29.99 plus $4.95 and shipping and handling – and as a newsletter subscriber, get two freebies: a Fakes, Fantasies & Reproductions booklet with clues to spot fakes at sales; and a bookplate personally signed by Terry Kovel, not printed like a baseball card. To order by phone, call 800-303-1996, or send us your book order by mail, (check payable to Kovels) to KOVELS, P.O. Box 22900, Beachwood, OH 44122-0900.