Antiques Roadshow

A few months ago nearly 6000 people, myself included, gathered our most valuable possessions, or so we hoped, and made our way to the Palm Springs Convention Center for a visit to the Antiques Road Show. Now the shows, filmed here in Palm Springs will finally be airing on Monday nights for three weeks in January Determined that I had at least one or two priceless treasures, my friend Mike and I, braved a never ending sea of fortune seekers for the chance to be immortalized forever on national television. Having attended the Road Show once before many years ago, like the antiques the appraisers look over to find their worth, the experience of the Road Show this time around had also appreciated in value..

I cannot think of an experience that even comes close to going to the Antiques Road Show, except maybe Christmas as a child. First you choose which two items that you are going to take for appraisal. Once that daunting task is done then there is the anticipation. It starts the night before the show, lying in bed convinced that you have a one of a kind multi million dollar artifact. Then just like a visit to St. Nick, you go over in your mind over and over again, the story that you are going to tell the appraisers, to ensure that your item is appraised at its maximum value.

Believe me; all sorts of things go through your mind as you await your moment with the appraisers. There is of course excitement that you have even got a ticket to attend, but then there is the overall feeling that perhaps you have been holding onto a priceless heirloom all these years that you could have sold it long ago, and at that very moment you could be using your vast wealth to travel around the world.

For me the best part of attending the Antiques Road Show is the 2 hour plus line that you must wait in just to get inside. Like the gold miners of the 1800’s people from all over the country literally come with their items for a chance to strike gold. Of course the tools for gold mining are a lot different than they were in the past, though I am sure there were a few people in line with actual gold mining gear to have appraised.

We literally saw a bit of everything as we walked back and forth up and down in a maze of antiques and collectibles. We were most impressed by a man in front of us who had a scale model from the DeLaurentis’ version of King Kong. There were countless paintings and furniture pieces. There was even a women dressed in crocks and a moo-moo walking the aisles with a musket and pistol. One man was even smart enough to bring a chair, the genius of this being, he could use the chair for its intended purpose while waiting to get it appraised.

What I had discovered from talking with the other people looking to get appraisals is that their items were more than just trinkets. The stories that they had to go with their items were generally worth far more than the items themselves. I realized that going to the Antiques Roadshow was by far more valuable than anything I could have had appraised. Memories and experience really do not have a monetary value, they are priceless.

I left the show with an even greater feeling for the items I have in my home. Sure most of them are not worth much in monetary value, but just by looking around I suddenly noticed that collectively they are priceless. Each item that adorns my walls, fills my shelves and is a source of constant dusting, represent so much more than the money I paid for them. They are all items that Rod and I have put together to make our home. These items have value to us, but only we know how much to us. And to think I waited in line for hours to discover something that I should have already known. Oh well, that in itself is worth something.