Collectibles You Can't Beat
Even old eggbeaters can be great collectibles. The Saturday Early Show's Collectibles Expert Tony Hyman, author of Trash or Treasure: Guide to Buyers, explains that the material used to construct the eggbeater makes all the difference.
Eggbeaters are simple mechanical devices, but they do lots of kitchen tasks in addition to beating eggs, like whipping cream and making mayonnaise.
The earliest and most popular form of the eggbeater is the handheld rotary beater.
It's got a handle on top, and two beaters called dashers at the bottom. In the middle, an upright gear wheel is turned with a wooden handle.
This type has been around for a century and a half and is still made today.
For the last 75 years, the central wheel has been made of tin. Those are junk unless there are more than two dashers, then it's $100.
What you want is beaters made of cast iron with names spelled out on the spokes.
Beaters with names like Easy, Dover, The Hill or P-D & Company start at $300 and can bring up to $2,000 or more.
One step down on the value scale are cast iron beaters with the brand name spelled out on the rim of the wheel.
The only ones of these cast iron handhelds that aren't worth your time are Taplin and Dover. Almost all the others are worth at least $100. But the rarest can be worth up to $2,000.
A Vortex or a Giles and Nelson will put $1,000 in your pocket, and hey, you can't beat that.
For more information on eggbeaters, contact Don Thornton, author of Beat This: The Eggbeater Chronicles. His email address is don@thorntonhouse.com.
Find out about other collectibles described by The Saturday Early Show's Tony Hyman in the Collectibles Archive or visit Tony Hyman's Web site.
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