New Jewelry Affiliate Offers Handcrafted Nepalese Jewelry That Makes a Difference!

iTaggit is proud to announce its new affiliate partnership with Adambha Jewelry! Their entire selection of jewelry is handcrafted in Nepal without any modern equipment of any sort. Their artisans craft jewelry using the same methods that have been passed down through generations for centuries. Every piece in their collection has a unique flare not found in other mass-produced jewelry collections. And, Adambha Jewelry donates 3% of their sales to support the children in Nepal. Hats off to Adambha Jewelry for making a positive difference in our world!

New Affiliate Partnership With BCW Supplies Allows Users to Find High Quality Collecting Supplies!

iTaggit is now an affiliate of BCW Supplies! Since 1983, BCW Supplies has been providing high quality, cost-effective supplies designed to store, protect and display your valuable collectibles. BCW Supplies currently serves over 100,000 customers from around the world. Be sure to click on their ad when you see it on iTaggit, and you will be able to find the supplies you need to preserve the value of your collectibles.

The Magna Carta Is On Sale

That's a headline I never thought I'd read, but its true. Sotheby's Auctioneers, who specialize in antique appraisals and auctions in New York, is expected to announce that the historical document will be put up for auction some time in mid-December and they estimate that it will sell for $20 million - $30 million. The owner is none other than former presidential candidate, Ross Perot. His foundation purchased it for $1.5 million in 1984 from the relatives of James Thomas Brudenell, who was the Earl of Cardigan and led the Light Brigade in 1854 during the Crimean War. The auctioneer will be David N. Redden, a Sotheby's vice chairman who has sold several great pieces over his career including a copy of the Declaration of Independence for $7.4 million in 2000 and also items from Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's estate in 1996 including a $574,500 humidor from President John F. Kennedy and a $415,000 rocking chair.
Don't remember exactly what the Magna Carta is? In simple terms, the Magna Carta is a historical document which laid down the fundamentals of English law. The literal translation is “Great Paper,” and King John of England agreed to it in 1215 and continued to revise it through the 13^th century. To put it in perspective, some very unhappy colonists complained about King George III violating it before they decided to dump a lot of tea into their harbor. The event and the laws that they demanded equality for both contributed to the creation of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The Perot version of the Magna Carta dates to 1297 and was endorsed by King Edward I. It is considered by some experts to be the most important version because it is the one that was entered into the statute books in England. It is the only copy that is privately owned and the only one known to be in the United States, where it has been open to public viewing until last week at the National Archives. Sotheby's says that the 16 others are owned by the British or Australian governments or by ecclesiastical or educational institutions in England.
Looking for antiques or an antiques price guide? Put your stuff on iTaggit and add it into the “What's It Worth To You” collection!

What's In A Name?

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
-Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

A few of iTaggit's members have been writing lately about old books they have had or found. Some are first editions, some have valuable signatures, and some have no idea what they are looking at or how valuable it is. Well, if you stumble upon a book, or even a piece of paper, that happens to have William Shakespeare's signature on it, you have tremendous luck or a very interesting heirloom on your hands. Although in modern times, it seems two hours can't pass without someone needing you to sign your name, in the past it was much more rare, even if you worked with a quill and parchment on a daily basis. For all the writing Shakespeare did, his signature is one of the most scarce to find. Today, there are only six of the playwright's known authenticated signatures in existence, making his one of the most valuable in the world. The known ones can be found on a conveyance for a house in London, a legal deposition, a mortgage document, and three are in his will. Any one of those has been quoted at a value of $3 million. That amount makes any name sweet.

Treasure Tuesday - Avon Jewelry

Quite by accident, I have discovered a new love affair with Avon Jewelry. A couple of years ago, I found a fabulous necklace at an Antiques store, and noticed it was signed Avon.

A little research online has revealed that Avon's vintage jewelry is quite collectible - not worth a whole lot $$ wise, but very cool.

Last week, iTaggit released an awesome new feature that allows you to post an item for sale on ebay in a few clicks.

I posted this necklace, on a whim. I had never sold on ebay - can you believe it? I was amazed that someone purchased it! So while I was on ebay, I looked around for pieces I wanted to buy, and found another amazing Avon necklace.

In one week I sold and purchased my first items on ebay - it was very exciting! The new piece is super awesome - 1970s deco style (deco refers to 1920s to 30s style - geometric, urban and angular with a few fancy flourishes). This is all the rage right now in fashion.

Now I have added the new necklace to my Funky Vintage Necklaces collection, and plan on selling and buying a lot more on ebay soon! Check out our online Help section for step by step guides to all the things you can do on iTaggit!

The Most Expensive Dessert In The World

Sure your collectibles are worth a lot of money, but a dessert? Sri Lanka has great antiques to buy, and is certainly known for their Buddhist temples, but “The Fortress Stilt Fisherman Indulgence,” which debuted in March, has brought delicacy and wealth to new heights. Its creation was inspired by the success of the restaurant’s other gem-studded treat, the Bombay Sapphire Martini. Wine3, one of the resort's restaurants, offers the Indulgence for $14,500. Yes, I typed that correctly. $14,500. What makes it so special? “The Fortress Stilt Fisherman Indulgence was created to give visitors at The Fortress Resort in the coastal city of Galle a one-of-a-kind experience,” said Shalini Perera, public relations manager at The Fortress. The dessert is a gold leaf Italian cassata flavored with Irish cream. It is served with a mango and pomegranate compote and a champagne sabayon enlighten, and is complimented by a chocolate carving of a fisherman clinging to a stilt, an age old local fishing practice. But the crowning jewel, and I mean that quite literally, is the 80 carat aquamarine stone that rests on a sliver of chocolate shaped to resemble the traditional stilt fisherman that is part of The Fortress' logo. Patrons are welcomed to pocket the gem after they polish off the delectable dessert. Although, the hotel has had many inquiries about the item, one as far away as Japan, no one has yet forked over the money to try it.

The Hunt For October: Post Season AL Matchups

As the end of the regular season draws near, and the pennant race begins, the four teams to represent the American League in the post season are all but decided. This will hopefully be a good October for baseball fans and memorabilia collectors alike.

The Red Sox and Yankees have always been historic rivals, and this year is no exception in their heated fight to the finish. Although the Red Sox were dominating the AL East through the summer, the Yankee bats have been a blaze, as they've whittled away a Sox 14½ game lead in late May down to the 1½ game lead it is now. Red Sox fans have reasons to be tense. They've had a few injuries including Ortiz's right knee acting up, which has effected his batting. They also lost two of the last three to the yanks this past weekend and then continued on their spiral down, dropping three straight to the Blue Jays, who are 12½ games back in the AL East. The Yanks are leading quite an opposite life. They have won 12 of their past 14 games, racking up a whopping 103 runs in the 17 September games they've played, and show no sign of slowing down.

Cleveland has been this year's surprise success. They squeezed through the last three games against the Detroit Tigers, the second place team in the AL Central, winning by three runs or less each game, and will be well rested for next week.

The Angels have finished with the league's best record which bodes well for them in the post season, and their tendency to dominate their opposition at their home field will help them succeed in passing through the first round.

Enjoy the post season and don't forget to show off your sports memorabilia!

Refinished Antiques Make Great Conversation Pieces

I have recently noticed how popular antiques are becoming, even among the various generations. It is not uncommon for a college student to pick up some old furniture at a garage sale, but all sorts of retailers are throwing back their designs to older styles. Reupholstering older furniture can add value to the piece as well as character to the room. Every collector knows they have at least one major conversation piece in their collection, and the same should be applied to a room of furniture. Estate sales often have great focal point pieces that are reasonably priced, and they may even come with a good story behind them. The more you can find out about a piece from an antique appraisal or antique price guide the better. If the piece is a family heirloom, it would be beneficial to keep and digitally store the records that might have come with the piece. For instance, my family has a chest my grandfather brought over from Sweden when he was small, but there are very little markings on it and it did not come with papers, so it will be difficult to determine all of its history. Moral of the story? The next time a parent or grandparent starts getting rid of their old antiques that have been collecting dust for years, brush them off and give them a second look. They'll be of no value to you once they're gone.

Mystery Behind Holocaust Painter's Album Partially Solved

It has been 60 years since the end of World War II, and as the number of Holocaust survivors dwindles, the mysteries of that horrific era become more difficult to solve. Recently, the story behind an album of historically unique value has been partially solved.

Shari Klages' recalls wandering into her parents bedroom as a small child and thumbing through a leather-bound album that held around 30 pages of ink-and-watercolor images, depicting the horrors of Dachau. She knew her father had spent the last few weeks of World War II in Dachau, but did not know how he came to possess this album. He had immigrated to the states on a ship with more than 60 Holocaust orphans and had taken his life in 1972. The signature “Porulski”, found on the bottom of a few of the pages, was her sole clue as to who the artist was.

The album begins with an image of four prisoners in winter coats. They are carrying their suitcases and marching toward Dachau's watchtower, which was armed with SS guards. The next depicts two inmates being stripped for an exam by a kapo, a prisoner who worked for the Nazis. As the drawings continue, they become more debasing and humiliating from the inmate's perspective. In the final image, a man is lying on the ground next to the barbed wire fence that separated him from freedom, but he has been killed under the looming watchtower. The album also contained 258 photographs, including copies of well-known images of the dead, but also those that portrayed Dachau an an idyllic summer camp, which the Nazis used for propaganda.

Thanks to modern technology archiving and a little help from the Associated Press, Klages located records that documented Porulski's journey. He had enrolled in the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts in 1934, after completing two years in the Polish army service. After Germany invaded in 1939, he worked on painting postcards of Nazi-occupied Poland. Two of his postcards have survived and are currently located in the Warsaw Museum of Caricature. He was rounded up in 1940, arrested “without any reason,” and was moved from camp to camp before being recorded at Dachau as Michal Porulski, Profession: Artist in 1941. It has been assumed that Porulski created his works after his release, due to the fact that they are all done on the same paper and that no prisoner would have dared to draw such horrors under the Nazis' watchful eyes. Porulski was tragically unable to resume a normal life after the years he had spent in concentration camps, and he wandered from country to country before finally becoming homeless and painting in England, where he passed away at the age of 74.

Though Klages is unsure of where her father and Porulski crossed paths outside of Dachau, it is certain that he treasured Porulski's work as a documentation of what the two men had been through. If you have any treasures of historical value, document and catalog them for the generations to come.

Show Your Stuff And WIN!

Show Your Stuff and Win!!!

Win an iTaggit t-shirt by uploading 10 or more of your favorite things into a new public collection for iTaggit to admire! For every collection of 10 or more items you are also in the running to win a $250 Amazon Gift Card!! Just be the owner of the collection that receives the most views by October 15th to win the grand prize. Good Luck!

To Win a iTaggit t-shirt

1. Create a new iTaggit public collection between September 15th and October 15th.
2. Upload 10 or more items in the collection and we’ll send you an iTaggit t-shirt of your choice. Choose one of these shirts.
3. SarahB will contact you once you have successfully uploaded your 10 items to receive your prize. Contact SarahB for any questions or concerns.
   *Limit (1) t-shirt per registered user.

Win a $250 Amazon Gift Card

Between September 15th and October 15th, the owner of the public collection that receives the most number of views will receive a $250 Amazon Gift Card. Collections must have at least 10 items to qualify. The leaders will be announced daily on iTaggit’s homepage. The collection that has received the most number of views will be announced on October 15th.

Use iTaggit’s “Send This Collection To a Friend” tool to e-mail your collection to your friends and increase your collection views. To do this:

1. View your collection;
2. Click on the item actions menu AND choose “Send This Collection to a Friend”;
3. Enter as many email addresses as you would like and include a personal message to promote your collection!

Click here for more contest rules and regulations.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

The 2007 MTV Video Music Awards left a whirlwind of publicity in its wake including the botched Britney act and the clash between rock stars Tommy Lee and Kid Rock, but one clean highlight on the reel was Shia LaBeouf announcing the title to the latest Indiana Jones flick. Hype had increased in the past month when it was discovered that Lucasfilm had registered six names with the Motion Picture Association of America, and now we know Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has surpassed the others and become the official title.

The last Indiana Jones adventure, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, was released in 1989. Several veteran writers, including M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense) and Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption), had stepped forward since Last Crusade's release to write the sequel, but it wasn't until David Koepp (War of the Worlds) presented his polished script that Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Harrison Ford decided to pull the Indy hat out of the closet one more time.

The crew has been filming since June in several locations ranging from Connecticut to Hawaii, and several additions to the original cast have been sighted on set including LaBeouf, who has been rumored to be playing Jones' lost son, and who's mother would then be Marion Ravenwood from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Spielburg announced that Karen Allen would be reprising her role as Ravenwood during this year's Comic-Con in San Diego. Sadly, Sean Connery will not be making a cameo in the film as Indiana's father. "I thought long and hard about it, and if anything could have pulled me out of retirement it would have been an Indiana Jones film. I love working with Steven and George, and it goes without saying that it is an honor to have Harrison as my son," the 76-year-old Scottish actor declared. "But in the end, retirement is just too damned much fun."

So far, the storyline is being kept tightly under wraps but Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is set for release on May 22, 2008.

I Am Iron Man!

the new trailer for the Iron Man movie is up at apple trailers. and it's awesome! I hope the end product lives up to this.

What Happened To Michigan.... Again?

Well the Big Blue held on to high hopes that perhaps their second game of the season would be the redemption they needed to resurrect their National Championship contention dreams. Needless to say, their hopes were squashed by Oregon, who handed them their second of two straight home losses to begin the season; the last time this happened was in 1959. In a 39-7 defeat, this past weekend's game was historical for two reasons:

1) The Wolverines suffered their most lopsided loss in 39 years; which was the season before their famed former coach, Bo Schembechler, debuted in Ann Arbor. And,

2) The Wolverines have not won a game since Coach Schembechler passed away on the day before the Ohio State game last year.

Hopefully Michigan hasn't incurred a “curse” like their sports counterparts the Boston Red Sox (the curse of the Babe) or the Chicago Cubs (the curse of the goat) that will keep them out of the National Championship for years to come, but all the fans who are superstitious might want to double check their rituals before this weekend's game against Notre Dame. Chad Henne, senior quarterback for Michigan, will not be available for the Notre Dame game due to a lower leg injury that kept him out the second half of the Oregon game. Notre Dame is also 0-2 for the season, but they have not scored an offensive touchdown in eight quarters, and have been outscored by 51 points in their first two losses. If Head Coach Lloyd Carr doesn't pull out a W for his Wolverines this weekend, his job security is little at best.

Be sure to keep track of your sports memorabilia through iTaggit.com!

Platinum Studios Recently Released New Trailers

Platinum Studios has recently made links available to their upcoming comic releases. If you would like to check out the previews for Hero By Night (the 2006 Comic Book Challenge winner), Cowboys & Aliens (which will be released as a major motion picture in 2008), Kiss 4k, Blood Nation, Watchdogs, and/or The Weapon, click here and enjoy!

So What Happened To Michigan?

If you have been living under a rock for the past 72 hours, then you have not heard about Michigan losing to Appalachian State. Why is this a big deal you wonder? Well other than the sheer embarrassment of losing on your home field, 109,000+ fans strong, with the critical eyes of the NCAA football community watching, or the many punchlines ESPN announcers will pull from it in years to come, the reasons are two fold:

1) There has never been a tumble as far off the charts as Michigan's since the Associated Press (AP) Poll expanded to 25 teams in 1989. The Wolverines were removed from their #5 seed and booted completely out of the Top 25, AND

2) Until this weekend, no Division I-AA team had beaten a ranked team in the AP Poll from 1989-2006, and it's unlikely that it happened after Division-I subdivisions were created in 1978.

But, the boys from Boone N.C. are not exactly nobodies. They have won 15 straight games, the longest streak alive in the nation, and they are also the two-time defending champions from former Division I-AA, now the Football Championship Subdivision. The Mountaineers have been favored to three-peat for the title again this year, and the win over Michigan gives them more fuel for their fire.

Word from Michigan State, and even Ohio State, who are both arch rivals of Michigan, is that people were leaving their opening season games to check out the unprecedented events occuring in "The Big House."

If you are a Michigan fan, I would hold onto that memorabilia for the time being and catalog it in iTaggit. Maybe they'll rise from the ashes and return triumphant at the end of the season. It is only one loss when stored in the records, and I know I always appreciate a good underdog story.

Jami Deadly: Vintage Pinup Beauty And Horror T.V. Show Host

Jami Deadly is a busy girl. Her resume is highlighted with activities such as becoming a renowned Marilyn Monroe impersonator, hosting her own goofy horror t.v. show called “Deadly Cinema”, and being featured as a pinup beauty contest winner in several magazines. She has been a retro enthusiast for over a decade and has collected just about everything there is to own about Marilyn, as well as vintage pinup books, old Hollywood biographies, and a large dvd collection. I will be sure to feature Ms. Deadly's collection on iTaggit as soon as she has finished posting her things.

As a young brunette growing up on a farm, she loved watching Betty Grable, Jean Harlow, and Mae West, but could identify most with Miss Marilyn Monroe. Jami spoke of Monroe's inner light that matched her beauty as one of her most outstanding features to replicate. Being an impersonator is more work than one would begin to believe. It takes a lot of character study and mental preparation to get down every little detail and mannerism about the person. Jami's first priority is portraying Marilyn in a positive light, as her memory has been skewed by media coverage since her death in 1962. “When I am applying my makeup in the mirror, I have to start the psychological transformation as well, and by the time I've applied the beauty mark, I'm Miss Monroe.”

As a successful Marilyn impersonator, Jami has been able to travel around the world performing in conventions and publicity shoots during her career. She has met a wide array of persons, including those who lose touch with reality, become starry eyed, and begin to ask her personal questions as if she were really Marilyn. Jami also mentioned one instance where she “did a gig representing the Marilyn Monroe touring exhibit, and people were coming up to me and poking me to see if I was a wax figure or not. It can get a little strange!”

In my previous two blogs of this trilogy, I have introduced you to Drew and his comic Halloween Man, as well as Gayla and 666photography. Jami is Drew's wife and the cover model for Halloween Man, which Gayla shot. Gayla has also produced some of Jami's favorite career photos, which can be viewed on their MySpace pages. Jami also loves starring in her own t.v. show, “Deadly Cinema,” which mixes Elvira with Mystery Science Theater 3000. Jami was inspired to create a blonde bombshell horror host, bringing a twist to the usual raven haired beauties. She crossed paths with director/writer/cast member Matt Muhl, and as they say, the rest is history. Jami describes her show as “an odd mix of a glamorous blonde, bad "b" movies, a pink coffin, and monster cast members.” People have embraced it and now it has its own cult following separate of her pinup career. If you want to check it out: Jami has a 3-disc set of all her episodes, including special features, available here on her MySpace page.