"Antiques Roadshow," the hit traveling appraisal program broadcast on public television, is coming to the Valley next month, but don't dig grandpa's baseball cards out of the crawl space or pull that weird old painting off the wall just yet.

Shop for everything from glassware, pottery, toys, coins, jewelry to furniture and military memorabilia during the Phoenix Antique Market.

October 30, 2004

After her father passed away, Tamara Becerra took an interest in preserving family heirlooms that had been passed down over many generations. Though the collectibles have always been a memory of her father and a trip down memory lane, Becerra concedes she’s never really understood the complete back story of where a Colonial Era-style blanket and several Dutch chargers in her possession originated.

Relationships make a man do funny things. Like find himself wandering the streets of downtown Miami, Ariz., on an idle Saturday, junk-hunting with his sweetie in the state’s sleepy mecca of used stuff.

Glasses are lined neatly one after the other, grouped together by pattern. Wine glasses, champagne flutes, goblets, tumblers — some colored, cut or etched — fill the cabinets that line all of the walls of The Glass Urn in Mesa.

The Ohio Valley Refinery & Roadshow will be in the West Valley for five days next week with experts ready to take a look at and buy gold, silver, antiques and rare collectibles.

Valley fans of “Antiques Roadshow” can start looking around their house for those unusual and rare treasures, because the popular PBS antiques appraisal show is coming to Phoenix Aug. 1.

Those Were the Days!, a 35-year-old antique store and fixture in downtown Tempe, closed its doors today.

People collect everything — busts of Elvis Presley, frog salt and pepper shakers, Mickey Mouse phones — and somehow all of it seems to end up in Miami, Ariz.

I don’t have much of a green thumb; as a matter of fact it’s kind of scary what happens to even the hardiest perennials once put under my care. The digging and planting at the beginning of the growing season go quite well. But my enthusiasm wanes as the first heady weeks pass and I forget about the weeding and watering.