I was flipping channels and ran across Antiques Roadshow which caught my attention because the woman they were talking to had a collection of ink wells. When asked why she collected them she said she was getting even with her husband, who collects fountain pens!!!

So which FPNer will fess up that their wife was on TV last night?

David Moak (Pentrace member -- not sure if he is a FPN member)

david moak wrote THE dvd on mabie-todd new york.

it was his wife's birthday and he got tickets for the antique roadshow. she brought the inkwells and she said she collected inkwells because he collects fountain pens.

I confess - it was ME she was referring to. We had a great time at the show - lots of fun to see all the stuff everyone brought and to meet the appraisers, etc. If you hae an interest, they film in the summers. You can check their website and apply for tickets if they are visiting a town near you or one you'd like to see. There is no guarantee you will get tickets (they're free after all). You get notified if you get tickets and each person must bring something to be appraised.

Yes, everyone gets their item appraised. Yu get tickects for two people. You can bring 2 items each and a small collection (like the inkwells) counts as one item. But everyone must have something to be appraised. As far as time goes, there is no way to predict. If you are in a hurry, when you request your tickets, request the earliest time possible. The line will be shorter and the appraisers fresher. You basically show up at the appointed hour. We were at 8:00 AM so the line was pretty short and moved pretty quickly. When we left, the line filled up a large room at the convention center. You arrive at a "triage are" where they will look at your item and then give you a ticket for the appropriate appraiser group (photgraphs, tools, china & pottery, etc.). When we were there, the china and furniture lines were by far the longest. You get in line and get up to the appraiser seated there who may tell you that the triage area sent you to the wrong appraiser and suggest you get in a different line. The appraisers will take as much time as needed to see your items. They will not rush you through. If they think you should be on camera, they first ask if you are willing. Then they get a producer over who decides yea or nay. If chosen you then go to the "green room" for make-up. Your interview takes place in an area in the middle of everything (the various categories are arranged in a large circle like a circus with filmed appraisals going on in the middle. If you are filmed, they pretty much keep you in the dark about your items until the filming starts, so that your responses, etc., are not rehearsed. Once filmed you may or may not be televised. You only know that, if you are filmed and if you are televised, it will be on one of the shows from that city (they usually do three shows per city and film about 80 people on average from each city). THOUSANDS show up. You can stick around for as long as you want, watching what goes on, but once you leave, that's it. I think from beginning to end we were there about 3 hours.

dl - fascinating stuff, thanks for sharing!!! And a neat collection of inkwells - I particularly liked the two tiffany ones...

I get hooked into that show every so often - you never really know what you'll see - there was a wooden spindle style chair that looked pretty average to my obviously untrained eye that was estimated between $20k and $30k. Really something.