Preview of our 3-12 Trader, which just went to press yesterday.

Disgraced former Antiques Roadshow appraiser Russ Pritchard entered a guilty plea in a Bucks County, PA court yesterday, and is now on the hook for $6,800 to a woman he bilked when he sold her heirlooms and never paid up.

The sad thing - besides Pritchard's agonizing fall from grace - is that the amount he owes Sandra Udinson of Plumstead, is just a drop in the bucket of the hundreds of thousands of dollars he owes in civil damages already and which will probably be leveled at him when he faces similar charges to those in Bucks County in Montgomery County next month.

The article linked to above tells the story of his sentencing, the juiciest bit being the judge telling pritchard, "The most important thing is that the victim be made whole,” Heckler told Pritchard. “You will pay her, or you will end up in jail.”

I don't know Russ Pritchard, and he brought this on himself - for sure - but I can't help but find this whole thing a bit sad as it drags on and on...

Pictured below is Pritchard from his Roadshow days. The pic is from WGBH, so I'm not sure if it's one of his fake Civil War appraisals.

This was widely covered, and hailed in the MSM the last few days. I don't know... Philosophically speaking, I find it a little daunting and frightening. A tangible reminder of the damage that humans are wreaking on the planet at alarming places.

It's the Svalbard Seed Vault in Longyearbyen, Norway (nice name). You can see the below pics here.



Architecturally, though, I think - in fine Scandanavian Moderne fashion, I might add - the building is pretty awesome, a real tribute to the modern aesthetic, not that visitors to the planet eons from now will appreciate the differences in Lloyd Wright and, say, Gropius...

It's as if, in a million years or so - hopefully longer - if the planet is rid of humans and retakes everything, then we're visited by our future progeny returned to the homeworld to see exactly where they sprang from - stick with me - thart they would find not only the seed as proof that we wanted to preserve our existences, but a really cool building refelctive of the best of modern design of the time. Man... Won't those bionetic cyborgs be impressed.

Most importantly, the American eggplant will survive.

From the Web site:

    Svalbard Global Seed Vault: Arctic Seed Vault Opens Doors for 100 Million Seeds

    Ceremony Marking Unprecedented Effort to Protect Global Agriculture Draws World Leaders and     Seeds from Over 100 Countries

    LONGYEARBYEN, NORWAY (26 FEBRUARY 2008) - The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened today     on a remote island in the Arctic Circle, receiving inaugural shipments of 100 million seeds that         originated in over 100 countries. With the deposits ranging from unique varieties of major African     and Asian food staples such as maize, rice, wheat, cowpea, and sorghum to European and South     American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley, and potato, the first deposits into the seed vault     represent the most comprehensive and diverse collection of food crop seeds being held anywhere     in the world.  

Just wondering, as I negotiate the explosion of sales and sites that have sprung up in response to eBay's "changes," what sites, exactly, are you going to either to supplement your eBay sales or to use as a whole other alternative?

I'd like to check them out, possibly start offering some reviews and interviews.

Anyone? Anyone?

Let me know in the comments section here, preferrably, or at noah.fleisher@fwpubs.com (as long as email's working by today...)

I know there are a lot of bargain hunters out there, and this sale looks like it could have some hidden gems. It's a big one, sent my way by a colleague here in the building, about a massive estate sale from AAA Estate Specialists out of Shreveport, LA.

It came our way too late to get into print.

Surprise, surprise: They have no Web site and no pictures, but this is going to be a wide and varied sale. If you're an interpid antiquer, and don't mind a bit of a chase, you could give them a call and see exactly what't on the block.

My thanks to Susan Sliwicki.

MASSIVE ESTATE SALE IN LOUISIANNA

A massive estate sale in Robeline, La., promises to offer something for nearly every collector’s tastes.

Everything from movie theater equipment and cotton gins to  glassware, toys, books and furniture are among the items up for sale from the historic W.W. Page Jr. estate, said Cindy Wilkinson of AAA Estate Specialists, the Shreveport, La.,-based firm handling the sale.

The sale is set for 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on March 7 and 8. To learn more about the lots and details of the sale, call AAA Estate Specialists at 318-393-0239 between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. CST, Wilkinson said.

It will feature a variety of lots from the family’s businesses, which included the Sabine Theater, Vernon Theater and the Page Store.

A variety of scales, including ones used for cotton, meat and candy, are part of the sale. A water fountain and the general store’s oak counter/seed bin also are part of the sale.

“From the candy store there’s the concrete top, it’s a big rectangle, and they would pour the fudge on that and cut it. That’s pretty neat,” Wilkinson said. “I think it’d be a great island top in a kitchen.”

Movie lovers will appreciate the lots from the theater, which range from the Art Deco era up through the late 1950s to early 1960s, Wilkinson said.

“There’s lots of parts still in the box that were never used,” Wilkinson said.

Collectors of general store and movie theater type memorabilia will definitely want to see what they can see about this one.

For more info, call 318-393-0239.

Hello everyone-

After a day off, spent in glorious chase of my two-year old daughter, and a week with e-mail problems here at AT World HQ, there will be posts coming today and so on and hopefully the end of email crisis as well.

A lot of what becomes blog posts comes from reader tips and rss feeds - dozens and dozens and dozens of rss feeds - from various places. Those, and any correspondence I've had from any of you over the last week are, sotensibly, lost in the ether in perpetuity throughout the universe.

Things will be coming! Put down those torches!

That record collection - easily the best record collection in one single place - was being sold by Paul Mahwinney out of Record Rama in Pittsburgh, PA (is there ay other?), which sold for $3M to an a buyer in Ireland on eBay last week?

Fraud.

I can't imagine that eBay, who has suffered so much bad press lately, can be terribly happy about this.



The "buyer" said that he was the victim of identity theft and that he got the invoice and couldn't believe it. I reckon that's possible, and a terrible email to get from PayPal, which is already such an unpleasant system.

Furthermore, it's reported that a rare Stones album, that Mahwinney has valued at $10,000, can be bought elsewhere on eBay for $599. Ouch.

Every major media outlet has, by this point, covered the recent changes to eBay’s system as announced by CEO-elect James Donahoe, and the resultant reactions of outrage that sellers expressed when they were made public.

Those reactions have also been covered here in the online and print versions of Antique Trader.

A lot of sellers have participated in alternate auctions in direct protest of the changes, while some have boycotted eBay altogether, while many – just being practical – have simply moved to diversify their business by moving a good portion of it to other sites while still keeping a percentage of it with eBay.

I’m not much of an online seller or buyer, but I have been curious to know if there is any extended movement away from eBay – at least a month’s worth – or if, as eBay, its board and its stockholders have bargained on, sellers have simply shrugged it off and accepted the changes as fact.

Here’s what Trader wants to know this week: How have you reacted, speaking from a business perspective as a buyer or a seller, to the eBay changes? Have you switched to a different auction outlet? Participated in any boycotts? Left the online giant altogether?

Let me know at noah.fleisher@fwpubs.com, or post it in the comments here.