For all of you close to 50...or hmmhmmm…a tad older like myself…did I get your attention? I have been feeling a bit of nostalgia this week. It has been 40 years since man first stepped foot on the moon! To me, that seems impossible!!! 40 years??? I can remember exactly where I was at that moment…as I am sure most of you can. Sitting around a huge television set…and no…it was not a fancy plasma…HD…blah…blah…blah. We got three channels that all went off the air around midnight!

Steve Dennis in Orlando and Ian Atken in Toronto are two of my favorite garage sale aficionados. Steve and Ian ask about their latest finds by participating in WHATCHA GOT?, my nationally syndicated antiques and collectibles call-in radio show that airs Sunday mornings 8:00AM to 10:00 AM Eastern. If your local station does not carry the show, you can listen on gcnlive.com—click first on “Listen to Talk” and then on Channel 1.

Aside from the burbling stomach, the ten times up-and-down night of “sleep” (ha-ha), the parched throat, bulging eyes and the desire to curl up into a little ball, suck my thumb and groan for Mommy, jet-lagged life in France isn't "too" bad. After all, the nice folks at Europcar bumped me up to a very slick Passat Wagon, I somehow survived two days of a nasty gas crisis, and I extracted francs from my French bank account (this might sound like nothing to you, but French bankers make you beg and whine for your money like a servile lap dog).

First, I would like to invite Ruby Lane dealers to submit true antiques stories and anecdotes to my new blog “Tall Tales from the Antiques Trail” Any stories I post on the blog will include a link to your Ruby Lane shop. Google the name and check it out - instructions are included on the blog. Here is one of my true stories I plan to post. This is the story of my mother’s greatest success in the antiques business. I call it: When Thirty-five is not Thirty-five

We asked Harry Rinker: Have you ever made a conscious decision to stop collecting in a collecting category? If so, what were the reasons?

Here is his response:

I own multiple collections. Depending on how you organize and count them, the number exceeds over two hundred. While I never consciously decided that I would stop collecting a specific collecting category, there are collecting categories within this number that I no longer pursue with the same vigor that I once did.

My daughter will be graduating grade 8 in a few weeks.

The hunt for that "perfect dress" began months ago with numerous trips to malls and boutiques in the hopes of finding that "must have", mouth watering, way too expensive dress that will likely only be ever worn once.

After being dragged from mall to mall (6 of them to be exact) and approximately 15 boutiques, some that were an hour drive away, we finally found THE dress. WHEW!

All of us have had some funny, unusual, or memorial moments in our hunt for antiques. It would be fun for the Ruby Lane dealers and/or shoppers to post some of these stories. We are all fascinated by the Antiques Road Show and the 25-cent yard sale item be worth thousands of dollars. It’s that kind of story that keeps us interested. Maybe it is the gambler in us.

QUESTION: I have five lead figures that my mother acquired from her grandfather when living in Macedonia around 1950. Her grandfather was born before 1890s so the figures have to be quite old. Four figures appear to be English soldiers and one a Princess dressed in a dress. Some are three-dimensional and others are flat. All are marked “Scholtz” on one side of the base with a number and letters on the other side, e.g., one is marked “sm643.”. They are all in nearly perfect condition. What information can you provide about the figures and their value?

When you are at the beach, you do a lot of introspective thinking.......My mother will be 91 in August, and although of very sound mind, she's had a rather shaky few months of health issues of late....so when hearing that she had to be admitted to the hospital in my sister's hometown...some 16 hours from here, I guess I just started reflecting more and more on this story.