Trash or Treasure?
If you have a copy of The New York Herald with the headline, "Lincoln Assassinated," here's the bad news: it's almost certainly a fake.
But there was good news, too, when CBS News Saturday Morning collectibles expert Tony Hyman responded to viewers' questions about their own attic treasures.
CBS News Saturday Morning got an overwhelming response when it asked viewers to send in their questions for the "Trash or Treasure?" series. Here are a few of the subjects covered in the March 27 broadcast.
A number of questions were about copies of the The New York Herald with the headline, "Lincoln Assassinated."
This issue of the now-defunct newspaper, Hyman says, is worth a lot of money if it is real. But, Hyman warns, "The head of the Newspaper Collector's Club told me that, out of the last 10,000 he investigated, not one was real."
Here are the signs that it is a reproduction of that tragic day's newspaper:
- A portrait of Lincoln appears on the page;
- The page has advertisements on it, particularly if they have pictures of products;
- The paper it's printed on is parchment or newsprint. (Hyman says newspapers in the 1860s were printed on soft, white, supple papaer.)
A reproduction in good condition is worth $10 or less. If you really have an original, it could bring you thousands of dollars.
Other viewers asked about so-called "flat 50s." These are the metal tins in which cigarettes were packaged in the '20s, '30s and '40s. Some tins with special designs are worth $25 to $75. But Hyman warns that hundreds of millions of them were made, so most have no value.
Two viewers had especially interesting items for inspection.
Denise Landgraf, of Fountain Inn, South Carolina, brought her dad's 9th grade yearbook. Among the classmates who signed it was Elvis Presley. Landgraf had Elvis sign it again in 1977.
Hyman checked with yearbook experts, pop culture experts and Elvis experts. He concludes that Landgraf's yearbook is worth from $1,500 to $3,500.
So, what was Elvis like in high school? Landgraf said, "He wasn't very popular. My dad said he was not a joiner." You may be surprised to learn that he did join the library club.
Another viewer, Olive Corbett, of Merdian, Mississippi, has a large collection of baseball memorabilia. Both her father and her husband played in the majors.
Her father, Steve O'Neil, played from 1911 to 1929 with the Cleveland Indians and the Detroit Tigers, and went on to be a baseball manager. Her husband, Skeeter Webb, played from 1936 to 1948 for the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tiger.
Understandably, Olive has a special feeling for the game. "I grew up with it," she says. "It is important to me."
She brought just some items from her baseball memorabilia collection, including All-Star and World Series baseballs, World Series photos and a World Series bat.
Hyman pointed out that the bat is a significant collectible because "they only issued a very limited number of these after each of the World Series." Hyman says her items were worth $300 to $2,500 each, making just the few items she brought worth about $10,000.
Corbett, who still loves the game, is not planning to part with any of her baseball memorabilia.
Go to Tony Hyman's Web site for more information on collectibles.
Previous CBS News Saturday Morning segments with collectibles expert Tony Hyman are available in the collectibles archive.
If you think you have a collectible worth a lot of cash, send an email to: "sat@cbsnews.com." Put "What's it Worth?" in the subject line, or write to: "What's it Worth?" CBS News Saturday Morning, 514 West 57th Street, 6th floor, New York, New York 10019.
Please note that because of the volume of mail received, Saturday Morning can't respond to all requests, but some will be selected and featured on the show in the near future.
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